Heraeus Noblelight GmbH

Infradry systems from Heraeus Noblelight make printing and coating applications significantly more efficient, as infrared emitters work in conjunction with a specially developed air management system to reduce drying time.
 
Drying printing inks and lacquers is an energy-intensive process, which is reason enough to put conventional dryers to the test. Infradry modules combine intensive IR radiation with a controlled supply of hot air and exhaust system to ensure effective drying.  

This was accomplished with the help of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to coordinate radiation and air extraction via computer simulation before the system was built. Tests with customer materials confirmed the simulation. The drying speed was up to 30 percent faster than with conventional dryers.

Highly efficient drying
The air management system has been designed to absorb and then remove the moisture that is driven out of the coating by the IR emitters. This accelerates drying by preventing the atmosphere inside the process area from becoming oversaturated.
With a power density that is customized to the application and highly polished reflectors that concentrate the infrared radiation on the substrate surface, the new Infradry systems provide very efficient drying. Their modular construction makes them easily scalable for any working width, and they can be configured with a variety of interfaces. Sensors ensure exact control of drying.

Powerful twin-tube infrared emitters
There are currently two types of Infradry systems: The Infradry Compact has a very small footprint and is easy to retrofit. The Infradry Combi is suitable for larger web widths and is the first drying system in the world to extract the air within the infrared emitter field. Unlike conventional dryers, the moisture is extracted directly from the process area, making infrared drying more thorough, as a result.
High-performance twin-tube IR emitters provide the infrared radiation for drying inks. Depending on the application, shortwave NIR or mediumwave CIR emitters can be selected. Shortwave emitters produce very high temperatures very quickly, while mediumwave emitters are considered the most efficient method to dry inks and lacquers gently to protect the paper.
Heraeus Noblelight offers the whole range of infrared radiation—from near infrared (NIR) to mediumwave carbon infrared (CIR), conducts trials with the materials, and provides guidance in selecting the optimal emitter for every process. 

Players in the print market are facing enormous challenges: Competition is getting tougher all the time, costs are rising, and new applications are coming onto the market at ever shorter intervals. For this reason, press manufacturers and print shops not only need to be able to develop new machines and bring them to market maturity within the shortest possible time, they must also be able to respond quickly to changes at short notice.

IN THE LONG RUN, EFFICIENCY IS THE KEY
The Semray® UV5000+ series is ideally equipped to meet these challenges and offers solutions for new and used presses.
To ensure optimum LED performance, the UV LED curing system is equipped with special optical concepts.The unique optics of the Semray® UV5000+ reliably guide the photons after they leave the UV LED chip, even over greater distances. This is a decisive factor for economic success: It enables optimal dispensing even for larger working distances - with minimal energy loss. The quartz optics offer an additional advantage: they are not only highly light-transmitting, but also exceptionally UV light-resistant and show hardly any signs of wear. In this way, the optics made of quartz glass ensure a safe and well-dosed photon transport - especially at larger working distances. The unique system of primary micro-optics reduces stray light to a minimum - with an exit angle of 60 instead of 120 degrees. This ensures that more UV energy reaches the substrate. The result is a very high, uniform and dimmable UV output with lower energy consumption and shorter drying times, optimized for various applications such as sheetfed offset printing, for example.

CUSTOMIZED UV LED SOLUTIONS
Working conditions are changing faster and faster. For this reason, flexible solutions that adapt to these changes are in demand. Semray® UV5000+ can be tailored precisely to the respective customer-specific requirements because it is flexible in every respect:
- With adapted optical concepts, optimally matched to the specific application
- With different connections for each machine environment
- With flexible solutions for any desired working distance

RETROFIT OPTIONS FOR THE SHEETFED OFFSET MARKET
With its flexible design, Semray® UV5000+ is not only predestined for the development of new presses, it can also be easily and smoothly integrated into running machines. Its compact design and the unique possibilities for customizing connections and joints make Semray® UV5000+ the optimum solution for almost any press. 

UV-LED CLEARS THE WAY FOR OPTIMUM PRINT RESULTS
UV LED is a long-established technology in the printing industry, as it enables not only the processing of optimized inks, but also brighter colors and sharper contours. Depending on the materials used, additional coating steps can be avoided, simplifying and improving the process. UV LEDs also help users save energy,
as they can be switched off between each printed sheet and the energy supply can be precisely adjusted to the respective sheet size. UV LEDs also speed up production, as the sheets can be processed directly without additional drying.
More about UV LED systems from Heraeus Noblelight: heraeus-noblelight.com/semray