UV-LED and inline coater MetalCoat 480 at Gruppo Fanti

MetalStar 3 line with full UV-LED curing installed at Gruppo Fanti in Italy

• Most environmentally friendly technology available today
• 90% less electric power in comparison with classic UV
• Increasing number of UV-LED metal decorating lines

An increasing number of metal decorators are deciding for green UV-LED curing on their new MetalStar 3 and Mailänder 280 metal decorating lines. Starting some 5 years ago at Litoprint in South Italy, Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint meanwhile has installed seven lines of this kind in Italy alone, giving a share of almost 50% of all 15 new printing lines supplied to this regional market since 2016.

One fantastic example is the state-of-the-art six-color MetalStar 3 with trailing inline MetalCoat 480 Anilox coater with complete UV-LED curing for both the printing and the overvarnishing process, which was commissioned last year at Gruppo Fanti in Bologna. After a thorough evaluation Gruppo Fanti opted for the UV-LED curing system to be supplied by Italian PrintabLED s.r.l

Luca Fanti, Technical Manager at Gruppo Fanti, explains: “For our new production lines to be installed in our brand new factory building in Bologna we were looking for the most efficient and reliable technology available today. Being a loyal customer to Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint since decades, it became clear rather quickly that our new metal decoration lines will consist of a MetalStar 3 printing press and a MetalCoat 480 inline coater for printing and overvarnishing and a separate coating line with a MetalCoat 483 and a famous LTG thermal curing oven with fully integrated EcoTNV air purification system for lowest possible gas consumption and CO2 emissions. For the 6-colour metal decoration line we were in parallel looking for a modern, energy efficient and green production process. The UV-LED curing system attracted our attention due to their economic and ecological benefits. Beside a drastically reduced demand of electric power – 90% less in comparison to the classic UV mercury system on our older MetalStar 2 line – and the unnecessity of a high voltage installation, we became convinced by the avoidance of any expensive heat and ozone extraction from the printing press and the elimination of mercury UV-lamps which are a hazard to our environment.”

The six-color MetalStar 3 metal decoration line at Gruppo Fanti is equipped with all available and unique features such as DriveTronic SIS sidelay-free infeed for gentle sheet positioning at highest possible accuracy without any need for operator intervention, DriveTronic SRW and CleanTronic Synchro for parallel washing of rollers, blankets and impression cylinders, FAPC fully automatic plate change, and many more. On top, there are the latest automation features installed such as DecoStar inline camera inspection and DensiTronic Professional color and density control. As all MetalStar 3 presses, the line at Fanti also is equipped with LogoTronic Professional for comprehensive job data management and integration of the printing press into the central MIS including CIPlink data exchange to the prepress workplace. All these features finally bring “Industry 4.0” to metal decoration and guarantee unrivaled stability and reliability to the printing process at the highest quality level together with incredibly short change over and set-up processes for the most flexible operation in times where print volumes per design become shorter and shorter.