by DPS Magazine Staff
Spot and flood coating are two popular coating methods for digital print environments. Both aqueous- and ultraviolet (UV)-based solutions are available.
Kevin Chen, product manager, Duplo USA Corporation, says customers looking for an inexpensive way to enhance an image with a high-quality gloss, satin, or matte finish, or adding richness to its color while protecting it from scratches and scuffs can find a solution in flood coating. “Print providers can offer double the value by coating both sides of applications such as direct mailers, brochures, business cards, and book covers.”
On the other hand, spot coating is trending. “The primary use of spot UV coating is to produce a high-margin embellishment and value-added product in house that your customer can touch and feel,” suggests Chen.
The ability to coat larger output and the increased interest in digitally printed packaging generate additional interest.
Coater Round Up
Many vendors manufacture and sell coating equipment that is well suited for digital printing environments. Here we highlight several solutions.
The Alliance Technology Corp. (ATC) UV-13 Cyclone is an offline, sheet-fed liquid coating system that produces a high-quality finish on a variety of inks, toners, and substrates. The coating technology is ideal for protecting and enhancing output materials from digital and photo printers, offset press, and lithopress.
A new feature of ATC UV coating machines is an Energy Saving dryer, which offers greater curing power with lower operating costs.
American Ultraviolet Coating’s AUV-Coat Series of roll coaters are re-engineered and improved products that were originally manufactured by Al’s Co UV, until Al’s Co UV was acquired by American Ultraviolet in 2014. They can be set up with one to three separate UV tanks and pumps for coatings and wash. The devices run up to 0.375-inch thick substrates.
The Argos compact MK3 spot coater can provide the quality of digital coating up to 80 microns embossing. Utilizing the Argos proprietary feeding technologies and Microsoft Windows based graphical user interface, setup times are fast, producing a first print that is a sellable sheet.
Autobond’s Ink Jet Spot UV varnishing machine is able to enhance the end product by utilizing spot printing and gloss UV, creating a mirror finish gloss.
Brandjen & Kluge offers the OmniCoat 1800 and 3000 UV Roller Coaters. The OmniCoat 1800 and 3000 Series are part of Kluge’s expanded product line of UV roller coaters in 18 and 30 inches as well as wide format sizes.
Duplo offers a variety of coaters from flood to spot UV. Its flood UV coater lineup starts with the Ultra 100PRO entry-level device, all the way to its high-production Ultra 300Ai. The company provides different sizes to meet every production need.
EMT Chameleon Coater/Primer are available in inline or nearline configurations and feature a tight web management standard. The devices integrate with new or existing digital print production and finishing lines. UV or aqueous coating is available as well as prepress priming and integrated drying technology, along with both simplex and duplex options.
The Epic CT-660 and CT-660XD from Epic Products are versatile digital coaters. Using offset coating technology and advanced electronics, they support a range of coatings and can spot, flood, or security coat 4,000 sheets per hour.
GMP provides the EUROCOATER Series digital print on demand finishing for UV coaters. These devices feature three rolls, precise coating thickness adjustment with bi-directional metering roll, high-quality hologramming, easy controllable loading system, air stripper for preventing paper jams, adjustable UV intensity, automatic stream feeder with servo drive system, a fire prevention system with optical sensor, various range of optional automation, and compact design.
In 2019 Graphic Systems Services acquired the assets of Global Web Finishing and Scheffer. These two companies specialized in providing finishing equipment for direct mail web press printers.
The VividCoater series of coaters from Graphic Whizard are low maintenance, UV cured coating systems that produce a high-quality finish to the printed sheet. With a range of finish options, including satin, soft touch, matte, and high gloss.
Harris & Bruno International offers the ExcelCoat series of digital sheet and web coaters.
Kompac offers the Onyx 30, which is a nearline coating, priming, and die cutting system that applies UV, aqueous, primer/sapphire, and specialty coatings to a variety of substrates.
MGI offers the JETvarnish 3D digital spot UV coater. It features increased throughput for flat spot UV jobs as well as 3D raised effects.
The Scodix Ultra 1000’s series of digital print enhancement presses enhances from various CMYK print processes including offset, HP Indigo Electroink, inkjet, and toners up to B1 sheet size format with material weights from 135 to 675 gsm/six to 30 points and material thickness up to 0.7 milimeters/700 microns.
Shark Machinery offers the SUV-24 Plus UV Coater. The machine coats using traditional UV coating liquid. In addition, it has the ability to offer a soft touch and glass shine lamination-like finish at a fraction of the cost and time of lamination.
Steinemann DPE offers a series of coaters including the DM-MAXLINER 3D 106 and 76.
TEC Lighting offers the TruCoat Mini. The product is designed with the short-run printer in mind. It offers a fantastic finish all while being one of the smallest footprint production UV coaters available on the market.
TRESU offers inline and standalone coating solutions that are 100 percent modular and designed to enable full integration into many digital printing lines from leading manufacturers.
Coating Solutions
Coating solutions provide an inexpensive solution for enhancing an image with a variety of finishes, add richness to color, and offer protection from scuffing and scratching. Nuances of digital output should be considered when selecting a coater.
Nov2021, DPS Magazine
