A small Italian company has developed a system for heat removing in the IR range produced by UV lamps installed in drying oven in offset printers using water or solvent-less inks. Heat removal is obtained with a special filter device that captures the heat in a cool water flux between two extra pure quartz plates installed on the bottom side of the lamp box near the printed surface. They are looking for company interested in manufacturing the equipment.

An Italian company is a small industrial consulting and design company working in the field of UV lamp applications. They have patented an innovative and high-efficiency system for the removal of heat in the IR range, produced by UV lamps installed in drying oven necessary in offset printers using water or solvent-less inks.

In the last few years the offset printing machines changed the quality of the inks for removing solvents dangerous to health. This safe enhancement was reached by the introduction of water-based inks, but this reduced the efficiency. The amount of heat generated by the UV lamps can reach 40% of the total power. This heat must be eliminated to avoid thermal stress on the printed surface, especially in plastic or thermal-sensitive materials. The state-of-the-art solutions are based on forced air ventilation of the lamp chamber and of the reflecting dichroic mirrors. This means a powerful circulation fun and a non-optimised lamp temperature range. The lamp temperature has a very important influence on the UV emission per unit of energy input. Sometimes the temperature increase forces lamp power reduction and consequent printing speed reduction.

The technology presented consists of a special filter device that captures the heat in a cool water flux between two extra pure quartz plates installed in the bottom side of the lamp case. The moving direction and the flux speed are regulated to obtain the right temperature value on surface in an independent way, so that the lamp temperature is not affected. Then the heat is moved to air or to a secondary fluid through a heat exchanger. The filter implementation allows: the use of water ink on materials sensitive to temperature, the possibility of increasing lamp power and consequently the printing speed. The energy consumption is lower than in ventilated machines, with significant energy saving. In case of high power density or printing speed it is possible to enhance the filter performance by a special reflecting coating of the external surface of the lower quartz plate that redirects the outing heat to the refrigerant fluid zone. Innovative Aspects: The main innovation is the heat transfer due to the use of a liquid exchange and the reflecting coating.

The separation between the lamp temperature and the printing surface temperature, with the emerging energy saving, make the use of the filter device very interesting and useful for different applications. Main Advantages: Easy to manufacture, low effective cost, and possibility of adapting it in old existing machines without hardware modification.

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