/> The Alito Color Group of Leyton, London achieved significant benefits through one simple change: They replaced their existing drier, which was fitted with near infrared (NIR), short wave emitters, with a Heraeus Carbon Infra-red (CIR) System. Carbon Infrared (CIR) emitters from Heraeus Noblelight are especially efficient at drying inkjet inks. This is due to the medium wave infrared radiation, which the carbon emitters transfer into the inks at high power. Medium wave infrared radiation is absorbed extremely well by water-based inks. Carbon emitters combine high power and fast response times with the effective medium wavelengths.

Following successful tests, two carbon infra-red (CIR) were fitted in the existing drier frame. Each 24kW module matches a special 4¼ inch print head. As a result, it is now possible to realise the complete capability of the high speed print heads. Practical usage has shown that the print quality can be maintained even at the high print speeds. In addition, the new emitters require less energy than before and have a significantly longer operating life. This has greatly improved the machine energy efficiency.

UV Lamps with Intelligent Energy Supply
The emission spectrum of UV radiation is very important for the curing process. It must cause as many photons as possible to react with the coating, on one hand to cure the material completely and on the other to bind the coating with the substrate. Consequently, every curing process is complex and each coating system specifies its own individual curing parameters.


Some applications demand special testing and development work, such as processes which require a very high coating density with many pigments or inks. The chemistry of these coating systems requires longer wavelengths so that they can react with the UV light. In addition, other special applications require light at wavelengths which are different from those emitted by the standard mercury spectrum. This is achieved by the use of metal halide additives in the lamps and when the lamp is operated, the metal halides evaporate. Consequently, their additional spectra are emitted so that the curing process can be significantly improved.

The majority of applications today use a conventional medium pressure mercury lamp which operates at the industrial standard of 120 W/cm. There was a demand for a reliable lamp with a long operating life and a good output throughout this life. Both these factors were important because today a lamp in a typical system needs to run for up to 3000 hours at a consistently good process speed.

This has been made possible through close collaboration with OEM partners, advances in lamp production have been best realised with the aid of intelligent energy supply and the development of cooling systems.

Controlled lamp cooling has allowed higher operating output power. The power was so chosen that not only can the curing take place but also the lamp can be held in standby at very much lower power than was possible previously. Considerable savings can be made. Some processes need specially developed lamps, such as small lamps (50mm arc length) and miniature lamps (15mm arc length). These are used in digital printing, where the lamp, together with the print head, travels over the surface of the print.

UV-LEDs – small, flexible and energy-saving.
With digital printing, where the lamp, together with the print head, moves over the surface of the print, every little saving in weight and size matters. Here, UV-LEDs are the innovation for the future. Their extremely small shape allows great flexibility in styling. UV-LEDs from Heraeus Noblelight are matched to the machine environment according to customer specifications. The individual components to meet the specifications are assembled from a modular construction system. As a result, even special solutions can be built. The package also includes all the associated peripheral components such as cooling, control and power supply.

An important factor governing the operating life of a UV-LED is the fact that all components belonging to the system are harmonically matched to each other. Thermal management plays the most important role in this.

The LED special light sources help to save energy. Because they instantly switch on and off, energy is consumed only on demand, when it is needed, without impairment of the performance of the LEDs. LED technology stands for “solid state lighting”, a robust, solid and above all resilient technology.

The new “Optoelectronics” business division of Heraeus Noblelight GmbH profits from the core competence of the Heraeus Organisation in the manufacture of UV-LED modules and systems. In a complete development and production line, LED chips are processed in so-called “chip-on-board” technology and measured and tested in our in-house, accredited measurement laboratory. As a result, customer-specific system solutions can assembled and offered to meet special requirements.

Heraeus Noblelight offers the complete palette of special emitters for printing ink curing from UV to IR, carries out tests with relevant materials and advises on the optimum selection of emitters to suit particular processes.

Heraeus has more than 40 years experience with special emitters, working both with end customers and with OEMs and carries out practical tests with customer own materials in its own application centres to establish optimal and customer specific process solutions.