Printing on glass with UV-LED curing inks in comparison to ceramic curing inks offers two major savings opportunities: The ink volume and energy consumption in the drying process. This article explains the amount of savings and how the printing process works.

Printing Process With UV-LED Technology

Printing on glass with UV-LED curing inks in comparison to ceramic curing inks offers two major savings opportunities: The ink volume and energy consumption in the drying process.

In comparison to ceramic inks, the particle size of organic inks is smaller, this means you can use a finer polyester mesh instead of a metal mesh. This reduces the printed ink layer and thus the amount of ink by about 40%.

According to a well-known lamp manufacturer, UV-LED inks consume only 3 kW per curing unit during the curing process. Ceramic inks are baked in the oven at high temperature. This requires at least 140 kW. The energy and CO2 savings for UV-LED inks are above 90%.

The Ultra Glass LEDGL from Marabu is a UV-LED-curable screen printing ink with excellent properties in terms of initial adhesion, opacity, gloss, and reactivity. It's a two-component ink system for glass, metals, varnished surfaces and PETG.
 

YouTube: "Marabu at IPI - Printing on Glass Goes Future Part 1"
Pascal Iffland (on the right), Key Account Manager Packaging at Marabu, explains the advantages of Marabu's Ultra Glass LEDGL ink system.

Printing And Drying Process With The Ultra Glass LEDGL

First, the glass is pretreated by flame. This process increases the surface energy, which allows the ink to adhere ideally. The ink is prepared with UV-HV8 adhesion promoter before the printing process starts. Depending on the printing machine, the ink is exposed to UV-LED lamps directly after printing. The ink dries in a fraction of a second. The result: a chemical- and scratch-resistant motif with strong adhesion.

YouTube: "Coating and Screen Printing of Glass Bottles"
This video accompanies the process of printing on bottles with the Ultra Glass LEDGL at the Italian glass printing company Vetroelite.