Gomer Press switches to low energy UV

Print Solutions

Gomer Press is moving to LE-UV production to meet customer demand for the highest quality standards in short run book work. A Speedmaster XL 106-4-P LE-UV will be installed by Heidelberg engineers during the Llandysul plant’s two week shutdown at Christmas so 2018 promises many new sales opportunities.

The company undertook six months of research and considered conventional UV, LED-UV and LE-UV. It talked to all the main suppliers before making the buying decision. It saw a demonstration at Heidelberg UK in Brentford and visited an existing user running LE-UV before heading to Wiesloch in Germany to spend a day of extensive testing using its own files on a variety of papers. The quality of results from the Speedmaster XL 106 LE-UV model impressed the Gomer team!

‘We produce a range of limp and casebound books, including art books, where high quality print standards are critical. Some customers don’t want to use coatings because it flattens the colour and so this made LE-UV especially interesting to us,’ said Jonathan Lewis, managing director. ‘Also some of our work carries a lot of colour and this can cause issues with set off and marking issues in the bindery. As there is no need for the use of spray powder the print has a much smoother, tactile feel and we get the added advantage of a cleaner working environment throughout the factory.’

‘Eliminating coating and spray powder will help offset the extra cost of the inks and we also know we will reduce our energy bill but that is difficult to quantify. LE-UV inks are much more expensive but having dry sheets off the end of the press will reduce issues in the bindery and give customers even more impressive results which makes that worthwhile,’ he added.

The press will feature the latest ‘Push to Stop’ technology including Intellistart 2, Autoplate Pro, InkStar and Inpress Control 2 spectral measurement. This means that production automation is maximised and with Push to Stop the new press will be very efficient. Alongside the new press the company will also implement Prinect workflow updates and add a new Polar pile turner.

The B1 press will run alongside a Speedmaster SM 52-4-P and a Versafire CP digital press that was installed at the beginning of the year.