PrintUV 2010 - Three days in March UV technology is evolving almost faster than we can keep up. During a time when sheetfed equipment sales plummeted 67% and commercial ink sales dropped between 10% and 50%, UV printing technology has thrived. This year’s event, held March 7-9 in Las Vegas, had both technical sessions and business sessions, and it was clear that getting up and running with UV doesn’t stop at the plant floor. Training sales and customer service reps to sell the technology is as critical as installing a printer or curing unit. Out of the rut Rod Franson, General Manager, Carlson Print Group, talked about the challenges he faced bringing UV technology into his company. He looked at UV printing as a way to get out of the “rut” of general commercial printing. The change to UV helped turn Carlson into a “learning company” where learning – and change – is part of the culture. By focusing on some really well done promotional pieces, the sales team got excited about the new technology. Yes, it did cost a lot of money to create and produce the promotions, but in the end the question was: “Why didn’t we do this years ago?” “It is not easy; it will cost you money,” said Rod. “Be committed, get your policies and procedures in place, and train and support your sales team.” He describe himself as “sick and tired of being sick and tired” as the competition sold jobs for just about Carlson’s cost of paper. Finding a way to differentiate the company was the ultimate goal. Don’t sell ink on paper Creative expert and agency principal, Kit Hinrichs, Principal and Creative Director, Studio-Hinrichs, presented a keynote that clearly pushed the audience out of their comfort zone. Starting off admonishing the audience, “Don’t sell ink on paper,” Hinrichs made several key points about marketing to creative agencies:

• Offer something different - promote the bigger picture and your place in it
• Sell the benefits, not the process
• Don’t deliver a 24-page, slick print promotion with images of paper coming off a press
• Build a campaign - what makes your operation/location special?
• Educate your client, don’t put them to sleep - an equipment list isn’t going to do it
• Show your prospects how good you are, don’t tell them
• Please don’t send beautifully printed drek
• Do the unexpected
• Change your client’s point of view
• Don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself
• Help your clients pursue their passions
• People judge you not by the job that goes well, but by the job that you pull out of the fire

How can a small/medium-sized printer find someone who will help them design and produce exciting, engaging materials? If you’re going to influence people like Kit, you need to work with someone like him. You need to work with the best to create a piece that will really knock your socks off. If you work with someone who is “up the street” and does OK work, that’s the kind of customer you will get. If you want top tier, your promotions need to be top tier. An area that all printers should be involved with is design education. Graphics education it is getting more expensive and more complex everyday and print is being left behind. Volunteer at local college university, offer a course, and bring students to your pressroom to help educate them. Education does not have a quick pay off, it’s “paying it forward.” It could be five years or more before you see the effect. UV battle scars Scott Gorman, Premier Press, outlined a few of the “battle scars” he and his company acquired during nearly 10 years experience with UV printing. Some of the things he learned:

• When trying to squeeze every bit of life out of UV lamps, remember that the cost of new lamps will be made up quickly with improved productivity. Have a maintenance and cleaning schedule and follow it religiously; the effectiveness of curing goes down dramatically with bulbs and reflectors are dirty.
• Insufficient curing with inter-deck dryers can cause pilling or picking on blankets down the line. To help with dot gain issues on uncoated substrates, cure after applying black ink.
• Plastic UV inks are especially sensitive; use an extender to help control them.
• Find a blanket and ink combination that does not cause memory issues and consider some good old hand washing of the blankets. Network with other printers to find the right combination.
• For hybrid applications, you must have good wash-up procedures in place. And use a UV wash at the end of the wash-up to condition rollers.
• Printing on plastics has its own issues: to get good ink adhesion, know what your dyne level is; order stock carefully so you don’t get a stock with curl so badly that it won’t go through the press; and consider custom blending UV and traditional offset inks for plastics.
• With UV curing, don’t assume if a little is good that a lot is better. You’ll get brittle inks. And over curing can also make your stock brittle causing cracks on folds.

Update on LED curing An attentive audience got a look at the future when Jonathan Graunke, INX, Patrick Callahan, xpedx/Ryobi, and Stephen Metcalf, Air Motion Systems, presented a “technology update” on LED curing. Curing UV inks with “light emitting diodes” is the next wave of UV printing technology in development. Not readily available in the US, it is being installed and tested in Japan. According to Metcalf, the technology can be used in production although standards are being developed for inks and consumables. Because LED lamps run so much cooler, there are many advantages. The LED systems run at about 80 degrees - around room temperature - and use about 75% less power. The lamps contain no mercury and because they don’t generate ozone, no exhaust ducting is necessary. LED lamps have a considerably longer life expectancy, in some cases as long as 50,000 hours, although the technology really hasn’t been fully tested to know. Flexo and packaging printers who print on films and plastics will want to consider LED technology because the temperatures generated will cause less shrinkage and distortion. Who are likely to be the early adopters? Technology leaders who want a way to reach out to customers with a new message or specialty printers who can generate a clear return on investment will be the first out the door. Companies that are already making money with current UV technology or those running – or want to run – a hybrid UV process are not good candidates. And because the technology is not food-certified, some packaging printers will want to take a closer look. Benefits of PrintUV 2010 The 150+ attendees of PrintUV 2010 will probably tell you that the best thing about the event was the networking. At breakfast, during lunch, between sessions, and over beer in the evening, ideas and advice flowed freely. While some of the companies are competitors outside the event, dealing with common problems brought them together and solutions were willingly shared. Intimate events focused on a specific technology might be better described as symposia. In fact, “symposium” is probably the perfect word; according to Wikipedia:

Symposium originally referred to a drinking party (the Greek verb sympotein means "to drink together") but has since come to refer to a conference characterized by an openly discursive format.

The advice everyone left with was this: never have a comfort zone, never be complacent, always be excited! Good advice!