Prestigious Italian print giant Labanti e Nanni reaping the benefits of LED UV drying technology after upgrading its existing ten-color ROLAND 700 HiPrint press

Bologna-based Labanti e Nanni Industrie Grafiche Srl is happy to attest the advantages of drying with UV dryers, which has given a new dimension to its production output and capability.

Labanti e Nanni has been a major player in the domestic and European printing markets since its establishment in 1953. Cardboard packaging , brochures, magazines , various leaflets and instruction sheets are its principal products. With an annual production volume of 7,500 tons of paper and cardboard, the Italian printer seeks continuous improvement on production efficiency, flexibility and, most of all, top print quality for its growing list of customers.

Efforts were undertaken in recent years to achieve this target. These include introducing the latest print technology, setting up its own R&D department and standardizing its production process thanks to the ISO 12647/2 certification. The most recent of Labanti e Nanni’s efforts involves installing, for the first time, 2 LED UV lamps onto an existing ten-color ROLAND 700 HiPrint press. The results, needless to say, were outstanding.

LED UV drying technology is a proven energy and cost saver, according to test results at the Print Technology Centre in Manroland Sheetfed’s headquarters in Germany. LED drying equipment usually needs only 50%-70% of the power required by LEC-UV and 20%-30% of the power required by UV equipment. Significant environmental benefits can also be derived thanks to the powderless printing process, much lower curing temperature, and lesser power consumption. 

As for the various practical benefits of LED UV, Ing. Bonacini, the owner of Labanti e Nanni, is just too happy to elaborate on his amazing experience with the technology.

“We have tested LED on different substrates,“ he says. “We printed in perfecting with LED CMYK spot colors, opaque white and varnishes achieving an outstanging result. We have obtained the best result with the 8 colors printing (1 white + 7 colours ) on trasparent plastic material/50 micron with a perfect register thanks to the low temperature of the lamps. Especially on the uncoated material, a higher printing quality can be achieved – brilliant colors and sharp outlines. 

"The results on the metallized and plastic materials are truly impressive. With only one printing unit, a very good coverage of the opaque white can be reached too.

“What’s more, the LED UV lamps are very efficient. For the standard jobs, a very good curing result can be achieved already with only 40% of the possible LED power. For smaller formats, it is also possible to switch off the LED segment. In this way, we can save much more energy and cost.”

Ing. Bonacina together with his son Fabio and his partner, Mr. Andrea Fanti, are proud of being the first user of the Manroland Sheetfed LED UV curing technology. Mr. Alessandro Iattoni,, responsible for the Research and Development Department said that in the first two weeks after installation, he did a lot of different tests to find out the full potential of LED which is definitely above expectations.