RINGSTED, Denmark—In May 2013, Glunz & Jensen A/S acquired an initial 16.8 percent stake in Othonia Curing Technology A/S (Othonia). Othonia develops an innovative computer controlled UV LED concept for curing surfaces which is replacing the original Mercury lamp technology.
UV LED lamps offer instant on/off technology, removing the need for warm up time. The lamps also offer an extreme accurate and flexible wave length operation.
The biggest advantage of using UV LED Lamp Technology is the 60 percent energy power savings along with complete removal of mercury disposal, ozone and heat emission—a very environmentally friendly solution.
LED technology provides many opportunities for the use of UV LED in different industries. Glunz & Jensen has chosen to exploit the following three areas:
- Glunz & Jensen will incorporate the UV LED technology in its current exposure products for the flexo prepress industry, where it can benefit the production of flexographic plates, making it more environmentally friendly and cost effective. Glunz & Jensen brings to the market a generic product that can be tailor made for OEM partners. The initial field tests show very promising results and Glunz & Jensen plans to launch the first commercial product in the first quarter of 2015
- UV LED technology can be used in connection with the drying modules of printing units for flexo as well as digital printing machines. With the exact wavelength of the UV LED, it perfectly dries with significantly reduced energy consumption in the printing press. The LED light source exposes the material with a very little amount of heat, which makes it ideal for curing thermal sensitive substrates as foil, paper cardboard and aluminum. Glunz & Jensen is in close dialogue with printing press manufacturers and has performed an initial concept evaluation, also showing very promising results
- The new UV LED technology will also be used for curing surfaces in other applications, such as paint and lacquer in the furniture industry. The LED and the UVC lamp units expose the material with a very little amount of heat, which makes it ideal for curing thermal sensitive substrates as wood and electronics. Initial testing during the last quarter proved a strong concept and Glunz & Jensen is currently designing a field test module for the evaluation in a real production environment. The first field test unit is expected to be installed at a Danish customer site in October 2014
Moving forward, Glunz & Jensen and Othonia will cooperate on the development and commercialization of the technology. Othonia’s products will be marketed by Glunz & Jensen.