Efficient Production Solutions
Dr. Hönle AG – Energy savings through inert UV curing chambers on chilled drums

01.01.2023 UV curing in absence of oxygen is called inertisation and can bring significant advantages to the process. Oxygen inhibits the polymerization process and might cause the need for a higher number of UV lamps, resulting in higher energy consumption to compensate this effect.

Inert UV curing on chilled drums

Inertisation substitutes the oxygen by nitrogen which does not influence the polymerization effect. This technology is already well established since many years, but mainly for flat-bed applications. New is the transfer of this technology to wide format production lines on chilled drums. UV curing under inert conditions on chilled drums combines the advantages of inertisation, like a reduced number of UV lamps, a reduced amount of photoinitiators and higher line speeds with the advantages of the chilled drum, which is a better web cooling and a reduced nitrogen consumption of approx. 10 %.

Thanks to the horizontal movement of the lamp housing the access for cleaning and maintenance is very easy. In summary, this combination helps to reduce the overall energy and nitrogen consumption of the curing process.

Stand 736

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