23-09-15
Member news
Promoting UV efficiency cuts converter waste
As part of the Working without Waste project, Malcolm Rae, managing director of GEW, explains how waste and downtime can be minimized through advances in UV technology.
Converters are at the forefront in the war on waste and there are several areas where they can improve their performance by minimizing UV-related energy consumption and downtime by fully exploiting recent advances in UV curing technology.
The areas where most common inefficiencies in UV curing systems are encountered are:
l Power supply
l Degraded UV lamp output
l Reflector underperformance
l Reflector cooling energy requirements
l Characteristics of the ink and its response to UV light
Every component in the system generates a loss and the cumulative effect of several weak links in the chain can considerably lower the efficiency of the entire system.
Modern high performance electronic power supplies convert energy with very low loss. They offer a high level of protection against common issues such as mains spikes, dips, transients and output short to ground. Use of military-grade components guarantees enduring performance with the highest reliability.
Heat management
As a by-product of UV production a considerable amount of heat is generated when converting electrical power to UV. Whichever way UV light is generated makes little difference to the amount of heat produced.
However, excess heat generated by the system can be reduced by correct geometry and careful material selection. Any cooling that is required can technically be considered as waste and poor reflector configuration can add further losses by preventing the optimum output. Modern reflector designs use dichroic reflector surfaces. GEW’s E2C lamphead uses a patented airflow design and cools the glass reflectors from behind.
Significant improvements can be achieved by reducing secondary sources of losses such as during burn-in or in stand-by mode. There have been documented cases of 18 hours of machine stand-by in a single day!
Optimizing existing resources and available technology are the keys to successful reduction of profit-gnawing waste of energy, time and materials while at the same time improve performance and production capacity.
Converters are at the forefront in the war on waste and there are several areas where they can improve their performance by minimizing UV-related energy consumption and downtime by fully exploiting recent advances in UV curing technology.
The areas where most common inefficiencies in UV curing systems are encountered are:
l Power supply
l Degraded UV lamp output
l Reflector underperformance
l Reflector cooling energy requirements
l Characteristics of the ink and its response to UV light
Every component in the system generates a loss and the cumulative effect of several weak links in the chain can considerably lower the efficiency of the entire system.
Modern high performance electronic power supplies convert energy with very low loss. They offer a high level of protection against common issues such as mains spikes, dips, transients and output short to ground. Use of military-grade components guarantees enduring performance with the highest reliability.
Heat management
As a by-product of UV production a considerable amount of heat is generated when converting electrical power to UV. Whichever way UV light is generated makes little difference to the amount of heat produced.
However, excess heat generated by the system can be reduced by correct geometry and careful material selection. Any cooling that is required can technically be considered as waste and poor reflector configuration can add further losses by preventing the optimum output. Modern reflector designs use dichroic reflector surfaces. GEW’s E2C lamphead uses a patented airflow design and cools the glass reflectors from behind.
Significant improvements can be achieved by reducing secondary sources of losses such as during burn-in or in stand-by mode. There have been documented cases of 18 hours of machine stand-by in a single day!
Optimizing existing resources and available technology are the keys to successful reduction of profit-gnawing waste of energy, time and materials while at the same time improve performance and production capacity.