NobleCure® – new UV LED solution for printing applications

Ultraviolet light is used in innovative printing and curing applications. Space requirement and weight are important features, in particular in compact plants. UV LEDs are a space-saving and efficient option to equip printing systems.

Heraeus Noblelight is a leading manufacturer of special light sources and closely cooperates with system manufacturers and final customers to develop customer-optimised solutions for industrial processes. When Heraeus invented the quartz glass mercury lamp in 1904, the foundation was laid for the production of special UV emitters. Today, even printing and curing applications can benefit from the use of innovative UV-LED light sources.
The LED or solid-state lighting technology is an efficient future technology. LEDs can be switched on and off without delay to follow the process cycles and they only consume energy when they are operated. An essential advantage becomes obvious: The service life of the LEDs is equal to the time they are actually used. This makes the UV LED light source very efficient and economic in cycled operation. The advantages are longer servicing intervals and reduced cost of maintenance in addition to a reduction of production downtimes.

In a fully equipped in-house development and manufacturing line, Heraeus processes LED chips using the chip-on-board technology and measures and tests them in its own accredited measuring laboratory. "Our development engineers are specialised in the development of application-specific and customer-oriented LED solutions and tailor the design precisely to the respective machine environment", says Mr Harald Maiweg, head of the optoelectronics division within the special light sources business division of Heraeus.

NobleCure® - the first series-production UV LED solution
The latest development for innovative curing applications in printing is NobleCure®, a modular LED unit in the near UV range. It comprises all peripheral components such as cooling, control and power supply. These components are optimally tuned to each other to optimise the service life of the light source.
At a wavelength of 395 nm, NobleCure® has an irradiance of at least 4 watts per square centimetre. As the area of the emission window is almost 40 square centimetres, the resulting total output is about 200 watts. This effective radiation capacity is supported by the use of state-of-the-art micro-lens technology. The lenses enable the shaping of the beam that increases the uncoupling efficiency of the UV LED system by more than 50%. Irradiance remains relatively stable and drops just slightly even at different distances to the material to be cured. Therefore, NobleCure® can be used at different working distances to the substrate without the need to retool the system. Its compact dimensions (95 mm wide, 64 mm high, 77 mm deep) make the NobleCure® suitable in particular for all drying and curing systems that are subject to space saving requirements. It can be implemented in the wavelength range of 365 to 405 nm and can thus be used also for various adhesive curing and digital printing applications.

Other modules for the near UV range will follow this first series-production module to offer a range of standard UV LED modules for innovative printing and curing applications all over the world. Learn more about LEDs and NobleCure® at
www.heraeus-noblelight.com.

Heraeus Noblelight GmbH with its headquarters in Hanau and with subsidiaries in the USA, Great Britain, France, China, Australia and Puerto Rico, is one of the technology and market leaders in the production of specialty light sources. In 2009, Heraeus Noblelight had an annual turnover of 71.6 Million € and employed 707 people worldwide. The organisation develops, manufactures and markets infrared and ultraviolet emitters for applications in industrial manufacture, environmental protection, medicine and cosmetics, research, development and analytical laboratories.

Heraeus
Heraeus, the precious metals and technology group headquartered in Hanau, Germany, is a global, private company with over 155 years of tradition. Our businesses include precious metals, sensors, biomaterials and medical products, dental products, quartz glass, and specialty light sources. With product revenues of € 2.6 billion and precious metal trading revenues of € 13.6 billion, as well as more than 12,300 employees in over 110 subsidiaries worldwide, Heraeus holds a leading position in its global markets.

Heraeus Noblelight GmbH
Heraeusstraße 12-14
D-63450 Hanau
www.heraeus-noblelight.com
Juliane Henze
P: +49 6181 35-8539
E: juliane.henze@heraeus.com

This release was published on openPR.