The Plockmatic Group has announced the release in North America of the DigiCoater Pro 400 flat sheet UV coater. The machine, which is already available in Europe, will be launched at the PRINTING United show in Atlanta in October.

The Plockmatic DigiCoater Pro 400 can produce up to 145 feet per minute of coated material and is available with a cold lamp UV system or with a much more power efficient LED curing system. Both versions are offered for inline and for offline applications depending on the type of printed sheets to be coated.

UV coating is rapidly being adopted to enhance, protect and add value to both digital and litho printed documents, and is suitable for a wide range of applications including greetings cards, photobooks and calendars. A wide range of coatings are also now available including high gloss, matt, soft touch and anti-bacterial finishes.

Commenting on the launch, Ray Hillhouse, VP Sales for the Plockmatic Group Offline Business Unit, said: “With coated sheets already a fraction of the cost of lamination, we are now delighted to introduce a product to North America that we believe can provide the lowest cost per sheet achievable on any UV coating machine in its class. The unique LED curing system uses significantly less power to cure when compared to other open lamp systems on the market”.

“UV coated sheets provide for rub resistance and a more robust finish when the final piece of print needs to be frequently handled or passed through other finishing or mailing systems prior to completion. In addition, UV coating is widely considered as being a more environmentally friendly alternative to lamination, as virtually no waste is produced in the production process. The sheets are recyclable whereas laminated sheets generally should be treated like plastic waste”.

Plockmatic LED and Cold UV coaters remove the risk involved with high temperature conventional UV coaters, eliminating any scorching of substrates and distortion of substrates. The LED version produces no ozone, so there is no need for expensive extraction systems to be installed and consumes much less power than conventional systems. It also has the benefit of long lamp life with instant start up and shut down and no cooling cycle on the lamp.

Options for the machine include a duplex coating capability to allow coating of both sides of the sheet in one pass; two feeding options, including the high capacity VFX dual bin vacuum feeder; and two stacking options including the recently launched long sheet MPS stacker.

Hillhouse continues: “Although the basic machine can be handfed, most, if not all offline machines will be supplied with one of our feeder options. The new VFL vacuum feeder appears to be the most suitable combination with the DigiCoater, offering a 2,000 sheets capacity and a quick reload. It also has the benefit of being able to run long sheets for new and emerging applications. The VFX feeder will offer continuous loading of sheets through two bins in a sheet size up to 25-inches. We also have a number of machines connected directly to printing systems such as the HP Indigo 7000 series and the Canon ix3200 inkjet range producing a wide range of on-demand applications”.

VFX Feeder
Up to 5,400 sheet capacity: Two tray configuration allows for uninterrupted job production. Adaptive Fan Control automatically adjusts air flow for varying media. The advanced double sheet detection with infrared and ultrasonic sensors helps to ensure smooth feeding. The maximum sheet size for the feeder is 14 x 25-inches. The VFX Feeder is common across all Plockmatic/Morgana booklet making platforms.

VFL Feeder [for long sheets]
Holds up to 2,000 sheets of a maximum sheet size of 15 x 51-inches. Adaptive Fan Control automatically adjusts the air flow for varying media. Advanced double sheet detection with infrared and ultrasonic sensors to help ensure the smooth passage for each sheet, up to 600gsm dependant on machine configuration and stock.

The machines are available now and Plockmatic are exhibiting the product at PRINTING United, Atlanta, 18th to 20th October. 

Full details of Plockmatic, Morgana and Intec’s product line-up can be found at: https://plockmaticgroup.com/