Autobond’s original SUV (standing for spot UV) is a full-width single-pass inkjet that applies the spot varnish. It’s built into a sheet transport unit that takes laminated sheets from the delivery end of a thermal laminator. Ink feeds and a Rip are in the cabinet under the transport. All units built so far run inline with a Mini 36 thermal laminator, which takes sheets up to 36 cm wide (so is fine for smaller digital presses).
Xaar 1001 inkjet heads are used, with curing by cool LED lamps. Sidelays give alignment and a vacuum belt keeps the work flat under the heads. It can laminate and spot varnish at 35 meters per minute (equivalent to 4700 SRA3 sheets per hour). The price is about £135,000 (plus £45,000 for a Mini 36 laminator).
At drupa Autobond is announcing two new configurations. The first is a standalone UV spot varnisher, the 52 SUV-SDF. It is 52 cm wide (for B2 portrait formats) and has a Heidelberg-Stahl suction drum feeder. Mr Gilmore says that a 52 cm inline unit will also be available, as well as a 36 cm standalone option.
‘We’ve found that spot UV almost always has to be applied over lamination or an aqueous coating,’ he says. ‘However some people want to put spot UV on both sides and you can’t do that with an inline system. The standalone unit can be used for work and turn, using a separate double-sided laminator if needed.’
Also under development is a high speed 74 cm SUV, planned for launch by the end of this year, when faster heads will become available. This will be the Mini 74 TPH-74 SUV-S. Sheets will be laminated and varnished inline at up to 70 metres per minute.
Contact: www.autobondlaminating.com
