PAT launches digital coater

28 September 2006


Montreal company PAT Technology Systems attracted plenty of interest at Labelexpo with what it claims to be the first truly digital UV coating systems. Two years in development and part of a diversification for the company, the web-fed, semi-rotary converter/digital coater, the Rotoworx, unveiled at the exhibition uses ink jet head specialist Xaar’s new hybrid side-shooter (HSS) technology. A sheet fed version (the Varstar is also available).

Paul Hebert, vice president sales explained: “Rather than using anilox rollers and plates to apply coating to digital print we achieve this with an array of Xaar heads.” PAT's system uses the first printhead from the HSS family, the Xaar 1001, which will be produced at the company's new UK manufacturing facility and is scheduled for full production from January 2007. “The print is scanned for a registration mark, the coating printed only where needed and then cured by UV. The intensity of the lamp automatically increases or decreases with the speed of the web and the amount of fluid being deposited, ” he said. The equipment on show also included a die cutter.

Flood, spot coating, textures, variable gloss levels with a single fluid, and special effects can be achieved requiring only a digital file. Xaar’s HSS platform combines advanced piezoelectric, drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet technology with its patented ‘through-flow' (TF) technology, to provide jetting reliability and to enable self-recovery. In addition, the new platform features Xaar's patented multi-pulse grayscale technology. This combination of high productivity in a single-pass and exceptional print quality is crucial to the equipment’s ability to deliver images, textures and special effects that were either impossible to produce or not cost-effective with traditional technologies. Added Paul Hebert: “By using grayscale- (different sized drops) we have taken coating from being just a protection to also a design feature. For example we can put down gloss or matt varnish from one fluid and in the same pass. And as it is no longer necessary to coat the whole width of the web so it also cuts waste.”

The Rotoworx has been beta tested and is available in two widths: 330mm and 508mm. “There has been massive interest in North America and Europe is definitely in our plans. We are now investigating how we will sell it there,” said Paul Hebert. The coating fluid is currently priced at 60$/litre, more expensive than traditional UV coatings. “But of course you only use it where needed and there are no plate costs.”

"The project required very close collaboration between development teams; becoming a launch partner for Xaar's HSS technology was a key aspect to its success," commented Wayne Baird, president of PAT.



PAT

PAT Tel: +1 450 424 4663 www.pattechnology.com





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