Marc Boden remembers a weekend in France drilling out the delivery of a Heidelberg Speedmaster according to a jig produced by Wallace Knight in Slough. The holes then had to be smoothed before the UV lamp system could be attached. That was more than 30 years ago when printing with UV inks and curing was in its relative infancy.
Boden had joined the company that was the UK’s cradle of UV printing as an electrical engineer because it offered the prospect of plenty of travel, not because he had a strong affinity to the printing industry. Thirty years later Wallace Knight has gone through many identity changes, ending up as Spectral Baldwin. And Boden’s own company Benford UV is one of the leading suppliers of UV curing technology to sheetfed litho printers.
However, like rock band Bush, Benford UV is much bigger in North America, where it is a household name, says Boden, than in the UK. “We do a few sales here every year and have customers in Eygpt, Nigeria and the Philippines, but nothing like the customer base in the US and Canada. These are responsible for 85% of our sales,” he says.
Many are fitted to conventional machines to convert them to UV printing, others are specified as new by customers already using Benford’s UV systems or others wanting a modern UV system. Most too are using conventional mercury vapour arc lamps rather than LED UV, though Benford can supply this. “We offer a really good product at a reasonable price,” he says.
It is also because Benford has managed to simplify UV curing, making the technology accessible to all and taking away the myths and barriers to its widespread use outside of carton printers. These remain the core of the user base, either printers expanding the amount of UV printing that they handle or moving from conventional commercial printing into carton printing.
The journey began after a round of redundancies in Slough after Wallace Knight merged with a rival business and recession made cost cutting measures essential. Together with service technical Dave Ford, Boden started a business to look after all types of UV installation. They worked together until Ford wanted to bow out, leading to a spilt in 2010 between the spares and service arm and the design and manufacturing side that Boden ran.
At that point Benford was not offering anything vastly different to others: Spectral, AMS, Eltosch or IST for example. “We started out as a less expensive alternative to these suppliers, perhaps because we had fewer overheads,” he says. “Most UV conventional systems are very complicated and it requires know-how and expertise to install and cope with the power requirements, how to handle the heat generated, the positioning of the lamps and so on.
“Then I was walking around Drupa 2012 and it came to me how I could simplify UV to make it easier to install and easier for printers to operate. Because of this we have products that are superior.”
The strategy of designing away complexity to make technology more intuitive has worked well for Apple, he points out. “Someone once said that the best expression of perfection is simplicity. Other suppliers have continued to compete with each other, adding features and then adding others to balance the impact of the new feature. That is not our way. The simplest is the best.”
It has called on all his experience of UV installations across the world from a career of over 30 years. “I am a Master of UV. It is all I have ever done so I have a complete understanding of everything about it,” he says. That also means, for the time being at least, traditional UV is the better option for more printers than LED UV.
Other suppliers are fully committed to the diode based newer technology, focusing all their R&D efforts on this. Meanwhile Benford UV continues to advance the more conventional systems, introducing 19 changes during 2020, says Boden. These are around making the systems even more intuitive for users. Some are deliberate tweaks; some are side benefits from third-party suppliers. For example, the company uses a touch screen panel to operate the technology and this comes with an internet connection to allow remote servicing. Benford now offers remote service.
It is not much needed, says Boden. “We have focused on making systems so that they do not need engineers to visit,” he says.
And it enables a company with its world headquarters in High Wycombe to service users on the far side of the Atlantic and complete installations remotely during 2020 with minimal help from the UK.
The conquest of the US started in Asia where Boden was fitting a system on a Komori on behalf of Howard Graphics, one of the largest press dealers in North America. It was a success and was followed by a Komori in Canada and other projects for Komori in North America, and from there to installations with Heidelberg and Koenig & Bauer. All modern presses are prepared for factory fit or retro fit UV. There is no need to drill out side frames.
It is one of the aspects of UV printing that has totally changed since the earlier generation of systems, though myths still linger. “Modern UV is a lot more economical than IR/hot air drying,” he explains. “And it draws 30% less power than ten years ago thanks to improvements in the ballast systems. And we can position the lamps closer to the substrates, we can run systems that do not generate ozone. And still many printers think that UV and inks are too expensive and that therefore they can’t afford it.”
Details of what is paid for ink is one of those conversations, like those that take place in the confessional or between a client and his lawyer, that is shrouded in secrecy. It cannot be a long term impediment, however, says Boden.
“We find that commercial printers making the switch to UV will want to be able to switch back, perhaps printing with conventional inks for two days of the week and three days with UV. But when we go back to them later we find that they never do this. Everything is printed with UV,” he says.
The increasing levels of automation on presses is making it simpler to print litho, UV included. “You don’t need the same skill levels you did previously,” Boden says.
If the barriers are no longer what they were, the benefits are increasing. It is a way to differentiate printers, opening up the ability to print on a greater range of substrates, including plastics and in the longer term whatever non absorbent sustainable material replaces plastic. UV also helps commercial printers achieve the sorts of turnaround times and service levels that are changing across the industry.
As print has become more digital and so predictable in many ways, drying times for ink on paper remain outside the digital control. UV, whatever the technology used, changes this delivering an instantly dry sheet that can more to finishing for further processing and predictable delivery to the client.
This was the case for Selsey Press which installed Benford’s EcoUV on a Komori Lithrone 29 at its Dorset factory. “It was about helping them cope with the growing work in progress that was arranged on pallets, each with 2,000-3,000 sheets, that were scattered around the factory waiting to dry,” he explains. Selsey Press has since retrofitted its other B2 Komori with the Boden UV technology because these advantages were so pronounced. “Printers without much space can easily fill a factory with work in progress. With UV they could offer same day turnaround on this work,” he adds.
A challenge for Boden is that a commitment from a commercial printer is likely to be a decision based on emotion rather than a financial calculation. This is not the case for a packaging business where the presses run 24/7 and where the value of a long term contract is calculated out in advance.
These companies are continuing to invest in traditional UV. One customer converted a press to UV because he had experienced a growth in UV work and although he had a number of UV presses already, was putting the extra work out. Other packaging companies are sticking with MV lamps because they need to standardise on inks and do not want the hassle of managing a second set of inks, especially spot colours, that would be needed with LED UV.
“And it can make financial sense for a carton printer to buy a secondhand press and convert it to run UV,” says Boden. “There are some big advantages to running UV with lamps. There is a better range of inks, including the low migration inks needed for packaging, and coatings are both better and cheaper for this this type of UV than LED: packaging companies produce a lot of long runs.”
The jury though is out. One of Benford’s customers in Chicago is planning to put this to the test with a combination of LED UV arrays, standard UV and Benford’s EcoUV using doped lamps. “This a very well respected printer who has promised to feed back to us the results of this testing,” says Boden.
The findings will be assessed and will help shape how Benford develops in the next few years. There is plenty of opportunity to keep Boden busy for many years to come.
