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UV printing is a fast-growing segment of the printing and customization industry. This printing process serves many sectors, from industrial manufacturing to small businesses. With any piece of equipment comes necessary care and maintenance. Good maintenance can greatly extend the service life of a UV printer and its parts, reduce the failure rate, and keep excellent working performance. But before we move on to how you should take care of your UV printer there are some questions you need to ask yourself:

• With a wide range of applications, what are the best practices for maintaining these expensive machines?
• Who should be responsible for the daily care?
• Can the substrate you are printing on effect how often maintenance is required?
• Can the types of inks in the machine affect how often maintenance is needed?
• What products should I use when performing maintenance?
• What are the dangers of UV printing that can damage your printer?

Identifying who does what

You should be very clear about this point, it is very important that you should delegate the work properly so there should be no confusion when it comes to the maintenance of the machine. The daily care of UV printers should fall primarily in the hands of the trained daily operator. In-house service technicians should be the second line of defense. The regular operator has the most intimate understanding of the machine. They run it day in and day out. Your operator should be trained well, along with whoever is in the supervisor role.

Understanding your printer

There are some basic hygiene to follow around the UV printing process. Poor practices can result in damage to your machine. The frequency of maintenance on your machine usually depends on what you are printing on. Products that are not flat may produce more ink mist requiring more frequent maintenance by your operator. Follow the machine manufacturer guidelines and it is always advisable to only use the prescribed chemicals in the maintenance procedure. Also, make sure you are using polyester cleanroom-certified towels and swabs. Lint and dust is your main enemy.

Now that you have a clear understanding about your printer, it’s time for you to understand the routine maintenance of a UV printer:

• Maintaining a clean environment: A proper clean environment is needed for the smooth operation of UV printers. Too much dust may adhere to the surface of printheads and block the nozzles.

• Cleaning the machine regularly: This cleaning includes print platform, printer housing and base plate of the printhead daily.

• Cleaning the UV lamp: It is required to clean air filter every week (for air cooling UV ink curing system), so as to avoid affecting the normal work of UV curing lamp.
• Unplugging the power supply: Power should only be shut down after the UV printer is turned off.

• Lubricating: Regularly adding lubricant to the mechanical part will help in the smooth daily operations.

• Routine maintenance of print head: When the machine is not used for more than 5 days, the printhead should be clean. All ink in the printheads should be discharged. Besides, the printheads should be cleaned with cleaning liquid and moisturized.

Avoid splashing ink or cleaning liquid onto printheads or other electrical components of UV printer during any operation. This might cause a short circuit. If it does accidentally, the printer power should be cut off and the ink or cleaning liquid should be cleaned as soon as possible.

The bottom line

UV printers are built to perform and will give you consistent results if you take the time to perform these steps. With a bit of routine maintenance you will definitely increase the overall performance and the overall life of the machine.

Pixeljet®: A brand of trust

With more than 15+ years of experience of handling various inkjet print head technologies, installation base of more than 250+ UV printers and a team of 35+ qualified service engineers, we are dedicated to accelerate the wide format printing segment and offer the products that help our customers scale-up their business.

The large-format print industry is growing rapidly and experiencing growth & change with the continuous technological advancement in the field of printing. However, with the introduction of inkjet technology in wide format printing the increase of new applications has been exponential. The advancement of inkjet heads combined with newer types of ink has made it possible to print on a much wider range of media than ever before, creating new business opportunities.

What is UV printing?

UV printing is a form of digital printing that uses ultra-violet lights to dry or cure ink as it is printed. As the printer distributes ink on the surface of a material (called a “substrate”), specially designed UV lights follow close behind, curing – or drying – the ink instantly. This helps the UV printers print on almost any kind of media, which makes them truly versatile which includes varieties of rigid materials include as glass, tiles, wood, ACP, Acrylic, etc., and also flexible media such as wallpapers, canvas, and much more. It can print stunning colors and incredible textures directly onto almost anything.

What is latex printing?

Latex inks are like water-based pigmented inks, which contain small particles of latex, which is a form of plastic. Once applied to paper, heat is used to evaporate away the water, leaving just the pigment and latex particles on the paper surface. Like solvent inks, latex ink is waterproof, waterfast and can be applied to a range of media such as uncoated vinyl and PVC. And unlike solvent inks it doesn’t produce any harmful gases or odors that are harmful to the environment. However the main disadvantages of using latex inks is the heat involved in the process, there is currently a limited range of media on which latex printing can be done. Also, the process involves heat it uses more energy, which of course ultimately has an impact on the overall cost.

The big question – What will be an ideal investment for you?

The continuous need for sign companies, industries, print service providers to diversify their product offerings, deliver quality output at higher productivity, reduction in the over cost and improve their profitability are some of the  a key driving factors.

UV Printers offer many benefits in LFP market. UV Curable printing always offers opportunities to reduce the impact of printing on the environment relative to solvent based printing. It is still considered to be fast growing technology in the wide format market.

UV printers are excellent for any application which involves the printing of a variety of substrates. The inks are cured and fixed with UV light. Both flexible roll materials and single sheets, but also rigid media can be printed with ease. Latex printers require preprint and post print heaters to cure the media, resulting in higher energy consumption compared to other inkjet technologies. Some substrates may not be suitable for this kind of printing and may get buckle under higher temperatures.

Advantages of UV Printers over Latex:

1. UV printing allows printing on a wide range of materials
2. Lower Picolitre drop sizes compared to latex
3. Low maintenance cost as compared to latex
4. Less consumables required
5. Less Operating Cost and less Material Cost
6. Less Downtime in production vs a Full day in Latex
7. 1-2 or even fewer print heads to be replaced compared to 20 to 30 printheads in Latex over its life.
8. Higher Ink Yield, approx 25 to 30 % more
9. Ink consumption is cheaper than latex.
10. Less Power consumption.
11. Lower cost per sq/m then latex

Last words

When it comes to Latex inks, they have a limited choice of materials because the ink must be fixed under heat. However, UV ink dries instantly, which makes it excellent for non-absorbent substrates such as PVC, carton, wood, aluminum, glass, and ceramics, and substrates can be stacked, rolled, and finished immediately after printing. UV inks allows more versatility as it is suitable for printing on rigid and uncoated print media. UV Prints are extremely durable (UV-resistant, water-resistant, scratch-resistant also weather resist), gives true colour output and exceptionally high quality. It can print stunning colors and incredible textures directly onto almost anything. In addition to vibrant colors and extraordinary details, they can also produce stunning photographic details. It is generally possible to print much faster using UV ink than with aqueous or solvent inks.

Maximize your portfolio with Pixeljet® digital UV printers

Expand your reach and add more value to your business. The UV technology used in the Pixeljet® UV printers is capable of printing on almost any media. It can print on glass, wood, PVC, ACP, Ceramic tiles, acrylic, decorative applications, and many more. Pixeljet® UV printers have opened up a whole new dimension of opportunities and revenue options.