NexPressForums

matthewd32 · Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 6:08 am Post subject: Latest Generation of UV Coaters

I was wondering what everyone does for UV coating with the NP. We've tested the heck out of the glosser, but I can justify the cost of the Glosser unit, and the clear gloss doesn't hold up in shipping - our UV makes labels bulletproof.

However, after 6 years of the Rube Goldberg contraption that we used to UV coat, it's time we get a serious solution in here. The owner wants to run all items through the NP and UV coat instead of having outside printing done. After many days of inventing new swear words and having the whole shop hear me rant, I finally got approve to start looking.

We're looking at a Kompac Kwik Finish, and a locally-made roll coater. The Kompac is 4x as expensive.

Any thoughts?

-Matthew

illyith · LevelA Joined: 17 Nov 2008 Posts: 41

We have used our glosser on quite a few jobs, and besides some cracking on folds when done againtst the grain havent encountered any major problems. Have you tyried using the gloss coat assistant? Open your admin tab, goto substrates, highlight the substrate your using and on the bottom, 3rd icon from the left click the glosser icon. Works very well to adjust the fuser and glosser settings for the best quality.

matthewd32 · Posted: Fri May 29, 2009 10:33 am Post subject:

We don't have a glosser - we didn't buy it with the upgrade. We did have Rochester coat a bunch of our labels, which we tested.

We're unconventional, in the fact that most of our printed materials are used for labels on bottles. We print 80# gloss text, then UV coat for some customers. We have a cold glue system which adheres the label to the bottle, so we don't need to run pressure sensitive stock.

When we tried the Glossed samples, they looked great until we did a ship test. We shipped a bunch to the owner's house, then looked at the result. The gloss wore away whereever it touched the cardboard bottle dividers, and some of the toner rubbed away as a result. We don't have that issue with UV.

I've even tried with just the protective coat - to try and fudge the settings to get a more permanent gloss. it got better, but we need perfect. The glosser is just not UV coating.

-Matthew

matthewd32 · Posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 12:41 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure if anyone is in the market for a UV coater, but I wanted to pass this on. We're the proud new owners of a Kompac Kwik Finish UV coater. After trying the competition, I'm convinced this is the way to go.

I have no connection to the company - I'm just finally relieved that we got a serious press in here.

Check them out at www.kompactech.com

-Matthew