05.01.19
Beau Label, a third generation family-owned print service provider located in Hillside, NJ, installed its third Illumina LED Retrofit System along with 300 Series UV-LED inks by Fujifilm.
The Illumina LED-UV cure features an instant on/off process, lowering the energy usage and stress on lamp bulbs experienced in conventional ‘always-on’ UV mercury lamp curing. Illumina converts any traditional UV or water-based flexo press to LED-UV curing in one day or less.
“The power savings are enormous,” said VJ Melapioni, president, Beau Label. “It’s amazing. These units definitely use less power than our air dryers. We literally went from 120 amps to power the old lamps to 10 amps powering Illumina.”
The effective ink curing dosage of Illumina at 20% power setting is the same as the 100% power setting of other LED-UV curing systems. Patented LED technology delivers up to 44% more energy toward the substrate, and 5 times longer dwell time, resulting in faster curing, according to Melapioni.
“It feels good to use less power,” Melapioni said. “We have a much lower electricity bill, which is always good, and you feel like you can leave a softer footprint on the world; we are a little bit greener.”
Illumina and the 300 Series UV-LED hybrid inks continue to help Beau Label build its client portfolio, including a soap detergent client.
“We are experiencing phenomenal results, nice gradations; crisp, clean images,” Melapioni said. “This client represents a nice, pretty line of detergents. A lot of our success has to do with the improved register on the film liner due to the reduction of heat made possible by Illumina – it was sharp. Fujifilm’s 300 Series UV-LED flexo inks provide brighter, clearer, crisper and cleaner results.”