Why LED UV inks are ideal for high-speed inkjet printing

In a competitive environment, printers need to offer customers more than just high-quality outputs and reliable service. To stand out from the crowd, you first need to help your customers grab the attention of the intended audience and differentiate what you can offer.

A great way to achieve this is to give your customers the choice of print on different or innovative and specialised substrates. However, this can cause issues for you as the printer because some non-porous substrates don’t take some types of ink well, take too long to dry, and can therefore deliver a finished result that’s less than optimal. Streaked, smudged, or blurry prints are unlikely to impress customers who will simply take their business elsewhere.

This means it’s essential to choose ink that can print on a wide variety of substrates without compromising quality or speed. You don’t want to have to invest in special digital stocks or expensive coatings; you just need a reliable inkjet printer that can deliver excellent quality on different substrates.

LED UV inkjet technology like that on the AccurioJet KM-1 provides the answer.

Nine benefits of LED UV inkjet technology

Using ultraviolet (UV) light via light-emitting diodes (LED) replaces traditional mercury lamp curing. It delivers nine key benefits:

1. It prints on non-porous substances: you can print on anything from PVC, Teslin, or Tyvek to synthetic and foil, without needing to pre-coat the substrate. The result is a natural offset appearance. Heat-sensitive substrates can also be printed safely and with quality results.
2. It dries instantly: short-run jobs are becoming more common and printers who can turn around projects fast are in high demand. UV LED ink dries instantly, so you can send short-run jobs with tight turnaround times straight to the next production step immediately after printing. This means no more smudged or fuzzy prints and that it is capable of automatic duplex printing not possible with conventional inks.
3. It prints at high resolution: front-edge processing like that in AccurioJet KM-1, which uses UV LED inkjet technology, achieves a true resolution of 1,200 x 1,200 dpi with eight levels of grey, droplet size from 3.5 to 7 picolitres, and share, clear text quality.
4. It provides a wide colour gamut: with UV LED inkjet technology, you can achieve a 68 per cent larger colour gamut compared with four-colour offset printing. The AccurioJet KM-1 press has also achieved the world’s first FOGRA53 accreditation.
5. Energy costs are reduced: LED UV lamps last significantly longer than traditional UV lamps, saving time and money and emitting less heat. UV inks are also free of solvents, so LED UV curing eliminates the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and avoids the environmental issues caused by them as well as reducing energy costs and heat-related hazards.
6. It has precise registration accuracy: when printing on paper substrates, it eliminates issues with the waviness or curling commonly associated with thermal fixing and drying, with precise registration.
7. It is highly stable: UV ink doesn’t readily dry when exposed to air, so you won’t see ejection misalignment caused by ink drying on the nozzle surfaces. And, because the paper transport technology is identical to that of an offset press, you’ll see reliable and stable paper handling throughout the paper path.
8. It’s light-fast: prints with UV ink won’t fade as fast as those done on an offset machine, even when exposed to direct sunlight. So, your prints will remain vibrant, making them ideal for signage and displays and in some cases packaging
9.  Embellishment or value-added coatings can be used: you can pair a UV LED Inkjet press like the AccurioJet KM-1 with the MGI JETvarnish 3D Evolution to print embellishments digitally, turning plain jobs into remarkable materials by spot-coating prints to highlight defined areas or add tactile 3D effects. For even more options, you can combine the 3D Evo with MGI’s inline hot-foiling module.

In a competitive industry where your reputation depends on the quality of your work and the speed of project turnarounds, these benefits can make you stand out from the crowd. You may be able to attract new customers and move into new markets based on the capabilities delivered by UV LED inkjet technology like our Accuriojet KM-1

To find out more about why a LED UV inkjet press could be a great investment in the future for your business contact Konica Minolta today.