The reliable and high performance made-in-Italy UV

[Original article from MetaPrintArt translated into English]

UV-RAY lamps installed on a Dutch MPS flexographic press supplied by BAMA to Multistampa in Padua, Italy, dry any type of material from 20-micron film to sleeves and have continuously worked for 4 years in two shifts without any issues.

Founded in 1978 by siblings Maria Luisa and Giampaolo Scaldaferro as a small family print shop, Multistampa in Limena, Padua, began its history, like the print shops of those years, by producing commercial prints, letterheads, business cards, brochures. In a few years with the inclusion of their children in the company, it was transformed by devoting itself to continuous form printing, but with an eye toward printing self-adhesive labels.

Today Multistampa is a young and dynamic company that has been able to pass on the values of a family tradition to future generations through specific training of new recruits.

Over the years, the offering has specialized in high-quality printed products, especially in the label sector, to meet packaging needs in different product areas. Continuous investments in technology and training have made it possible to achieve high levels of quality, efficient service, for increasingly detailed label productions and runs, while maintaining constant values of density, color balance and colorimetric coordinates. Today, ISO 9001 - ISO 22,000 and FSC certifications are nearing completion.

The reliability of UV curing

The production department today is equipped with different printing technologies: offset, flexo, screen printing. Of course with all the necessary control systems and color stability. In addition, there can be no shortage of digital printing for short runs to meet the demand for greater customization and for variable data printing.

All printing equipment is equipped with one or more embellishments: hot foil, cold foil, embossing, braille, and more. The market for self-adhesive labels and plastic film sleeves targets the wine, cosmetic, food, pharmaceutical, and industrial sectors, as well as a range of anti-counterfeit labels. Self-adhesive labels have been joined in recent years by demand for wrap-around labels on flexible elastic or shrink film.

Flexo Dutch UV Italian

Delivered in 2016 was an MPS EF 430 fully automatic flexographic press, with eight colors plus a rotary screen printing unit and cold foil unit, distributed in Italy by Antonio Verdi of BAMA.

The MPS is set up for printing with UV-curing inks, and the lamps installed are from Italy's UV RAY, which has mounted nine Atom 160W units with a dichroic reflector, which guarantees a production speed of 180 Mt per minute on film up to 18 microns thick and with a product temperature, after nine passes, below 35° C. UV modules are installed between all printing units plus one at the outfeed.

A 160-W Atom lamp capable of curing ink or varnish on unsupported labels and films up to a thickness of 18 microns was installed for the screen printing unit.

We ask why this choice was made.

"It was BAMA's decision," Alessandro Guadagnin, owner of Multistampa, explains, "because among the many offers on the market, he considered the Italian company to be the one that offered the best price-quality ratio, especially for reliability. And in fact," he adds, "it has not given us any operational problems in all these years."

We note the reliability of printing on all kinds of substrates, from papers to films, including pvc, of which we can admire excellent results in color sharpness and vividness. Guadagnin assures us that the colors on these labels have demonstrated a long life and security of hold.

But how do they rate these UV lamps, from the point of view of daily work?

"They have shown very good performance. We have been able to work and dry on any type of material, and they have been working continuously for four years now on the two shifts."

We are at the end of a terrible year. How have they experienced it in Multistampa and how do they envision the future in the near future?

Alessandro Guadagnin is optimistic and does not complain about the albeit difficult and unpredictable period we are going through.

"The year 2020 with all its problems has been a difficult year from the management aspect because of the general economic uncertainty. However, the investment policies and business strategies we had adopted over the past 2 to 3 years allowed us not to suffer setbacks by even increasing turnover by 20 percent . The printing department works on two shifts and we have further increased the fleet of machines with a digital and a Cartes finishing machine unique in speed and versatility of processing."

For 2021, Multistampa plans to further improve productivity and customer service. "There is a growth in competitiveness," Guadagnin concludes, "but we are motivated to grow the company further. We are also grateful to UV RAY for the expertise with which it supports us."