Press Accessories

Hot air and infrared (IR) dryers, like their cousin, the UV curing system, play an important role in the print production process, much like a field goal kicker for a football team. Think about it. When everything is going right, no one pays much attention to the kicker. But in critical situations, a missed field goal or botched extra point quite often results in dire consequences. Likewise, a sheetfed press’ drying/curing system generally doesn’t garner any attention, unless it doesn’t perform the task at hand. Instead of boos from 50,000 people, the result is screams from one unhappy customer. “I have always taken the

Your ultraviolet (UV), infrared (IR) or hot air drying/curing system serves a valuable purpose for sheetfed offset presses. It dries, it cures and, most of all, it stays out of the way of completing the job. And that’s just the way it should be, according to John Crosby, project manager for drying systems at Baldwin Technology. “It’s all about flexibility,” Crosby says. “The customer does not want the drying system to be any kind of limitation. He wants to be able to run the full range of substrates, and at high press speeds. He doesn’t want to limit the process because of the dryer.”

BY MARK SMITH UV rays beating down. Hot air blowing across the skin. Catching some waves. Sounds like a great day at the beach. In the sheetfed offset printing arena, those descriptions also fit three technology options for boosting quality and speed—UV curing and drying with hot air knives or IR (infrared) energy. Market pressures are dictating that printers implement some form of drying/curing capability, but the "right" choice of technology remains an open question. "With a multicolor machine plus coater now being the standard for modern sheetfed presses, adequate drying systems have become a must to achieve the highest quality results," notes Bill

BY CHRIS BAUER Keeping a watchful eye on quality web offset press production has never been easier. With the influx of digital equipment for web inspection and closed-loop color control systems, accuracy, reliability and speed have all taken big steps forward. "The primary influence has been the availability of high-resolution digital cameras versus traditional analog cameras, which provide printers with a more accurate image of their print quality," explains John Woolley, vice president of sales and marketing for PC Industries, of Gurnee, IL. "The other trend is the availability of powerful, low cost computers to analyze printing defects. The bottom line is that

BY SCOTT POLK For printers looking for a cure to their press drying woes, it would be wise to brush up on your alphabet skills. That's because the current solutions have names like UV, IR, WIR, EB and TDS. And if that sounds like a bunch of hot air, well, that's another option, too. Though this multitude of choices can be staggering to someone not versed in the world of sheetfed and web press drying systems, it is also a blessing since the different options have pluses and minuses that benefit a variety of applications. Ultraviolet (UV) curing is a favorite among printers

Brent Woodruff was tired of turning down large jobs. If a publication required more than 30,000 copies or was larger than 32 pages, he had to decline the business. And he was tapped out in terms of sales. With his presses running 24 hours a day, he couldn't fit in any more jobs. As vice president of operations for Salt Lake City-based Woodruff Printing, he was taking care of his intermountain service area with his sheetfed presses, but couldn't expand in any direction, geographically or product-wise. Woodruff was keeping his ear to the ground, though. He kept reading about UV printing in trade magazines and

BY ERIK CAGLE Ray Frick, CEO and president of Pennsauken, NJ-based The Lehigh Press, recalls a time not long ago when in-line finishing could not match the speed of web offset presses. It was simply impractical. "For many years, the conventional wisdom in our business stated that in-line finishing, as a process, was slow," Frick notes. "There really wasn't a need to purchase new high-speed equipment, only to throw a ball and chain around it, so to speak, with respect to a finishing line and its auxiliary components." That is no longer the case. The rotary cutter, formerly the culprit behind the slowdown in