Which UV Coater for Digital Shop??

kristianeyman

Well-known member
Hello,

looking for some advice from digital print shops that utilize a uv coater. i am currently looking at the graphic wizard vivid coater micro and the versa coater documate. does anyone have experience with either of these units or hearabout? i am limited for space and looking to add this to my services, also does anyone know what it costs to run 1000 sheets on something of this size? thanks, kristian.
 
Small format UV coater

Small format UV coater

Tec lighting has a small format UV coater that retails for under 11K. It has all features of our larger UV coaters just in a smaller footprint. The cost to run 1,000 12" x 18" sheets is approximately $ 6-7 dollars. Please feel free to contact me at 714-529-5068, Daniel
 
UV Coater

UV Coater

We recently purchased the Tec Lighting unit. Looked at the Graphic Whizard unit & got info & samples on the Versa unit.

We also were hard pressed for space, but ultimately decided that the Tec Lighting unit (approx. 8'3" long x 32" deep) with hand feeder was the way to go.

1- Feeder adds several feet of length & about $6k to price.
2- We can always add the feeder at a later date.
3- Operator needs to watch constantly because of potential fire hazard if unit jams, so he may as well feed rather than just stand & watch.
4- Unit works well with digital & offset using the same UV coating material.

As I recall, pricing was similar for Tec & Graphic Whizard. Versa was more expensive.

I felt that the samples from the Tec Lighting unit were better than the others & was impressed with their knowledge & support.
Spoke with 2 users of the Tec Lighting unit to confirm that they were pleased with the unit.

Have been very happy with our decision.

Actual material cost is about $.04 per sheet (per side). Vendors will tell you it is $.025, but given waste, larger percentage of 12" x 18" sheets, etc, I use $.05 as our cost.

Dave
 
Thanks for the Kind words Dave.

Call us up for your Free UV Coating.

Moses
Tec Lighting
Sales Manager
714-529-5068
 
Would have to agree with davek on this. We to were in the same boat a year ago, looking for a UV coater. We went with TecLighting's 25" unit. For the price, it was a great buy. We have been using it about a year now and love it. Fast startup and easy cleanup. Best of all, the quality. It does a wonderful job on all our digital media as well as our offset. There are alot of UV coaters on the market now, as compared to a few years ago. Tec Lighting has the time under their belt to build a good machine. The others, time will tell. We also worked with Moses from Tec on our purchase and he and their company were very professional. Just my 2 cents worth. Hope I dont sound like a Tec salesman, but, when you get a piece of equipment that operates as stated, in this day and age, its rare.
 
We've had our UV coater installed for a few months now. We went wtih the machine from Tec Lighting and have been very happy with the results. As others have said, it's easy to use, fast to clean up, and fits into a fairly small space. I can't imagine us living without it now. Runs in line with our Ricoh C900s. The installer was great and has made himself readily available to answer questions by phone after the initial installation regardless of where he happens to be working.
 
What is you are using the Booklet Finisher, how does this affect the inline UV unit on the C900?
 
What coating are you guys using? The TEC coating?

We have an old K2 Coater we just bought and I find it doesn't bond well to the konica prints (esp. high coverage). I'm wondering if it could be an old bulb though perhaps?
 
What coating are you guys using? The TEC coating?

We have an old K2 Coater we just bought and I find it doesn't bond well to the konica prints (esp. high coverage). I'm wondering if it could be an old bulb though perhaps?

The K2 system is old technology. They were never designed to work with polymerized toner that KM and other use.
 
What coating are you guys using? The TEC coating?

We have an old K2 Coater we just bought and I find it doesn't bond well to the konica prints (esp. high coverage). I'm wondering if it could be an old bulb though perhaps?


We have been using a K2 Coater for 4 years. IMHO the bulb is probably due for replacement. We changed ours last winter and the results have been great. We use it for both offset and digital. Our UV solution is from Prisco.
 
The K2 system is old technology. They were never designed to work with polymerized toner that KM and other use.

Your comment is very true, however, by utilizing the right coating and possibly adding a few IR lamps to soften the wax based toner, allowing the coating to bite into the print, you could get similar results to a newer system. In regards to adhesion of the coating to the print.

we could help you with both.
 
I vote Tec Lighting...

We've purchased two UV coaters from them and loved both of them. Today, we had the second unit installed... It's a XtraCoat 19"... So far I'm very impressed!

The performance for the price is great!

Just my .02
 
Thanks for the Kind words Dave.

Call us up for your Free UV Coating.

Moses
Tec Lighting
Sales Manager
714-529-5068 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting**************714-529-5068******end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Hello Mr Moses,

Would you give me the price of UV coater on plastic substrate PVC, ABS, ...for 350mm x 520 mm size. pls give me me full specification of this machine.
Pls Kindly advise if we can become you dealer in Vietnam.

Best Regards
Jimmy Ha
[email protected]
[email protected]
 
I wanted to revive this...I saw both the Tec Lighting's Xtra Coat Mini and Graphic Whizad's XDC Micro. They both look good and great size for digital. The Tec Mini is around $11,500 and the GW Micro is around $11,200. The difference that GW pointed out was that their's is 20 in wide vs Tec's 18" wide. Also he mentioned this is good for when you have different grain directions with the paper...is this a valid point? Also, GW said you can use any UV coating from any supplier. Is this the same for Tec? and couldn't you just buy their coatings if you wanted to anduse on a GW coater?
 
I've never heard that grain direction and UV mean anything... I have a 21" (TecLighting) and we always feed on the short edge first of the 12x18. Unless you have a mechanical feeder, getting it perfectly square is almost impossible during feeding. I'd go with the TecLighting any day over a Graphic Whizard product. Just my $0.02...
 

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