GEW has launched a range of peripheral technologies designed to reduce operating costs and shorten payback time for its UV systems. They include intelligent power management software to boost energy savings when the UV system is on stand-by, cost effective UV monitoring solutions, proactive servicing via the Internet and extended equipment warranties.
The stand-by power level of GEW systems is typically around 15% of full power and further savings can now be realised through the Green Timer software with its ‘intelligent’ avoidance of power wastage. Printers typically leave a UV system on stand-by for long periods instead of switching off so that they are always ready to run when the press is started. Commonly, this happens during make-ready and work breaks.
Green Timer allows the operator to program the system to start automatically after the desired amount of time and to power down after a pre-determined time on stand-by. The total number of hours the system has been ‘intelligently’ switched off is logged so that managers can easily quantify savings.
GEW has now developed two new options. The first can be fully integrated with the lampheads to give a constant read-out on a touchscreen and the second is a hand-held unit for taking readings from each lamp. The integrated version simultaneously measures the output of all lamps in the system, and displays a percentage read-out on the touchscreen showing the relative output compared to a brand new lamp.
As the lamps age, the decrease in their output is easily seen allowing the printer to replace the lamp(s) or increase the input power as necessary. This makes it easy to ensure that a sufficient level of UV power is always available to cure the job being printed and avoids wastage on cure-critical applications where lamps might otherwise be replaced more frequently than is necessary.
The hand-held unit is inserted into a docking station in the front door of the lamphead to measure the UV intensity in milliwatts per square centimetre. It can store readings from up to 16 lamps in its internal memory which can then be downloaded to a computer via a USB cable. A line graph can then be plotted to show how the intensity of each lamp changes over time, indicating when it is time to replace the lamp. The effects of cleaning the reflectors and glassware can also be quantifiably measured.
GEW will shortly be offering remote monitoring of its installations. The system’s control units can be directly connected via the internet, where they can be monitored from any of the company’s service centres worldwide. Conditions that affect UV curing performance, reliability and efficiency such as ambient factory temperature, unchanged filters or other minor maintenance issues can be diagnosed and pre-emptively corrected, eliminating unnecessary downtime and service calls.
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