• Inline surface finishing cuts costs and halves delivery times
• Excellent price/performance ratio in UV printing
• Complete register accuracy ensures highest quality
• Powder-free production enables smooth processes in postpress

Druckhaus Becker in Ober-Ramstadt, Germany, has recently started using the world's first Speedmaster XL 106 five-color press with coating unit and the new DryStar LE UV dryer. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) unveiled this special energy-saving UV dryer - LE stands for low energy - at drupa 2012. "We now have a practical UV application with low investment costs that first and foremost can also be justified in environmental terms," says Managing Director Jens Becker, summing up the print shop's experience so far. Energy savings of over 60 percent and, consequently, the same cuts in CO2 have been achieved thanks to the inline surface finishing and new dryer, while delivery times have been halved. Druckhaus Becker committed itself to sustainability twenty years ago and has been developing this systematically ever since. The new Speedmaster XL 106 fits into this concept perfectly, true to the motto "green printing is happy printing". It is carbon-neutral, with 237 metric tons of CO2 being offset, uses eco-friendly processes throughout all production workflows, consumes less electricity than conventional presses, delivers time-saving inline finishing, and requires no powder at all.

Druckhaus Becker is a full-service print shop whose 38 employees supply its products throughout Europe. A Suprasetter CtP system is used in prepress for imaging, while the pressroom houses a Speedmaster XL 105 six-color press with coating unit and a Speedmaster SM 52 five-color press with high-pile delivery alongside the new machine. Stahlfolder folding machines, a Stitchmaster ST 450 saddlestitcher, and Polar cutters are used in postpress for finishing. Die cutting and embossing are performed by a Kama 105. A 3B-format foil laminating system is also available for surface finishing. All process steps -from prepress and press to postpress - are integrated with the Prinect print shop workflow.

Excellent price/performance ratio in UV printing
Druckhaus Becker specializes in premium print products and therefore coatings and special effects have always been extremely important. Prestigious customers from the automotive, watchmaking, jewelry, and finance industries require ever more complex special coatings and a constantly increasing number of UV applications. Run sizes are between 1,000 and 250,000 sheets. "We've been working with dispersion coating since 2002 and, at that time, outsourced high-gloss UV coating, which made the process laborious and time-consuming," says Thomas Groth, who is also Managing Director at Druckhaus Becker. In conjunction with Heidelberg, the print shop developed a press that was customized to meet its precise requirements and, depending on the application, can be used with conventional inks and coatings, standard UV inks and coatings, and highly reactive UV inks and coatings with minimal energy consumption. "The Speedmaster XL 106 with DryStar LE UV was a bold move for us and one that was preceded by numerous tests at Heidelberg. The press now gives us complete flexibility and ensures we can offer our customers everything from commercial to PVC foil printing on absorbent and non-absorbent materials. Even on uncoated paper, the highly reactive UV inks and coatings produce extreme brilliance that was previously unimaginable," says Becker. The new Speedmaster XL 106 is fully equipped with a foil kit and the Prinect Inpress Control inline ink control system. Druckhaus Becker is using its newly acquired know-how to create added value and stand out from the competition.

Smooth processes support sustainable printing
The DryStar LE UV is available with one, two, or a maximum of three lamps for each machine configuration. At Druckhaus Becker, most applications are operated with a 160 Watt per centimeter UV lamp in the end-of-press dryer, resulting in significant energy savings. No interdeck dryers are needed. The DryStar LE UV is equipped with an activated carbon filter and does not need any additional exhaust air connection. "We get absolutely no odor, which naturally benefits our employees' health, too," explains Groth. Thanks to lower heat transfer to plastic materials, no distortion occurs and this therefore produces excellent register accuracy, resulting in high quality. Up to 96 gloss levels can be achieved with a UV tube when using highly reactive UV coatings. Eliminating powder is a further big plus. "To my mind, this is a minor revolution that has enabled us to achieve faster, smoother finishing. Print products that are personalized at a later stage can now be produced without any interruptions. Previously, the lasers got dusty from the powder and had to be cleaned," says Groth. Thanks to the seamless finishing, the space taken up in the paper store has also been reduced and customers can now be supplied even faster.