Technotrans is best known amongst Indian printers for its efficient dampening filtering, chilling and circulation systems. Its spray bars used on web offset presses have also become a standard product for precision dampening of litho plates in high speed weboffset towers for printing quality color on newsprint. Amongst the improvements that we discussed in this category at drupa was the Delta Spray bar which uses a Venturi air pressure effect to keep the outsides of the spray nozzles clean. Many of the faster and bigger presses in Indian newspapers such as The Hindu, Dinamalar and Malayala Manorama already use the technotrans Delta Spray bars which allow them to control the dampening on a column by column basis of a newspaper page.
The insides of the Delta Spray nozzles still need regular maintenance cleaning every two or three months depending on the ink use by taking out the spray bar from the machine, mounting it on a wall bracket and then cleaning with air pressure and or ultrasound cleaning systems. The experience of Indian dailies with technotrans dampening and spray bar systems has been excellent especially because there are often last minute changes in pagination which mean that a blank plate needs to be run and the Delta Spray is able to deliver just enough moisture to keep the blank plate and blanket clean. The control panel supplied with technotrans spray bar systems also contains curves for slow startup, middle and high speed running which once set, allow hands off running in the main.
At drupa technotrans presented special solutions for applications with highly reactive UV inks and reliable and efficient cooling of the HUV or UV-LED curing systems for high process reliability and optimized performance. It also showed an ink supply system with a patented piston sealing system for highly reactive UV inks. These will become more interesting for Indian newspapers as UV inks are difficult to pump through most ink pumping systems and there are safety issues associated with the handling of UV inks as well. The automatic ink supply prevents any direct contact with the UV ink, which could cause skin reactions if it had to be scooped out of the ink cans by hand.
“Printing with highly reactive UV inks is a challenging task, even for the suppliers of peripheral equipment like us,” explains Eike Moes, director of Dampening Solution Technology of technotrans AG from Sassenberg, Germany. “The cooling systems for the UV dryers and, in particular for the new HUV and UV-LED dryers, must be customized for the machine and technology that is applied.” The specialist for cooling and fluid applications can offer its customers bespoke solutions for conventional UV systems up to the new LED dryers. Its portfolio includes open or closed systems, with one or more circuits, or with integrated water softening units, including conductivity control.
