Uv coating equipment

[franluz]

Hello,I am a commercial printing I do a lot of work to the trade(MEXICO), I print mostly offset and a little digital (konica minolta bizhub 452), I am on the market looking for an off line UV coating machine not very expensive, with feeder, size 29", which could be my best options. I also have floor space problem so the machine must be compact. Teclighting? Is it really a profitable bussiness I mean to have the UV coating in house. Thank´s in advance.

[points522]

Franluz,

I would recomend looking at the Count Coat made by Count Machinery. It is a very small compact system that easy to operate. I own and operate 2 different print shops here in the states and just purchased a second unit for my other location from Count Machinery. The sales staff there is very knowledgable and will help you with the best solution for your needs. Here is the link to there website for any additional information.

UV Coating Machines, Numbering Machines, Perforating Machines, Scoring Machines, Creasing Machines, InkJet Numbering Machines By Count Machinery Company

[hondarr9]

Be careful the Biz Hub is almost impossible to coat. The finish does not adhere to the KM toner very well, and is weak. Sales people will tell you it will be fine, but in reality its not. KM pieces need more time under the UV lamp, so with a small footprint machine thats almost impossible even at slowest speeds. I hear Tec Lightning has this problem solved but I dont know this to be true for sure.

[SnappySteve]

UPDATED 10/21/10 - See Post below - I was wrong about the Count Coat.

The Count Coat is NOT the DFG or Graphic Whizard coater. It will NOT coat your digital materials as we have two Oce CS 66x machines, which use the same toner as your Konica, and we tried one of those unsuccessfully. We sent samples to Tech Lighting and they successfully coated them, but it requires a special Coating solution and I guess has a learning curve to get it to work well. You have to get the Infrared with it though. But those short machines just don't give you an even coat like something with a longer conveyor and/or an added IR lamp.

Pretty much anything will coat your offset sheets...

[hondarr9]

The Count Coat is basically the DFG or Graphic Whizard coater. It will NOT coat your digital materials as we have two Oce CS 66x machines, which use the same toner as your Konica, and we tried one of those unsuccessfully. We sent samples to Tech Lighting and they successfully coated them, but it requires a special Coating solution and I guess has a learning curve to get it to work well. You have to get the Infrared with it though. But those short machines just don't give you an even coat like something with a longer conveyor and/or an added IR lamp.

Pretty much anything will coat your offset sheets...

Yeah, we have the Graphic Whizard XDC Micro, and it does have IR but still doesnt coat KM stuff very well at all. Even with a "digital specific coating" it still flakes off easily. We even have some trouble with Xerox pieces. Offset is no problem though.

[SnappySteve]

We could have coated offset all day long on the DFG model, but that is not what we wanted - we want to coat the digital printing.

Supposedly Duplo has it down also for the toner, but that is an expensive machine and not compact at all. We would have to do a boat load of UV coating to even try and break even on a Duplo, and the Tech Lighting is pretty high too.

[countmachinery]

SnappySteve,

Our CountCoat is not the same as a DFG or GW! We know the DFG unit very well and there is a big difference between our equipment and that unit.

Our CountCoat is designed to do the job almost as well as the big ticket coaters at a much smaller price tag than those machines. Our goal was to create a simple and easy solution at an entry level price tag. The biggest difference is our machines are built here in Southern California right here at our headquarters. The majority of our parts are machined right here in our manufacturing shop and are readily available.

Sure there is an advantage to having a longer conveyor, but again we are looking to give good quality coating without breaking the bank. There are better coaters out there, but the difference in negligible in relation to the drastic cost difference.

As for the KM issues, the wax based toner has always been a problem, but that has been overcome easily with IR and specifically tested coatings. Our CountCoat has an optional IR on it to warm the toner and the UV fluid in order to successfully coat just like everybody else. Having the right UV fluid is all the difference. At Graph Expo we were specifically running our literature off the KM 6500 to show that we can coat the most high maintenance toner out there no problem.

As for the GW, we get a lot of feedback here on print planet about the quality and workmanship. Parts are cheaper in price and quality when you import them from China. You get what you pay for to a certain extent and our customers appreciate our machines being built here in the US with US parts. If you still don't believe that we can successfully coat off your KM send us some samples and we'll show you what we really can do! If you want to hear it from KM end-users I can get you references as well.


Frank Flores

Count Machinery Company

[SnappySteve]

OK Frank - I stand corrected then. But it sure looked a heck of a lot like those. Where is the IR? I don't see where it is possible in the video on your website?

you can email me offline if you prefer steveswart@snappyprint.net