Commercially available as of this month, the Morgana DigiCoater Pro 400 comes with a choice of two curing modules; a cold lamp UV system, which can produce up to 45m/min of coated print, and an LED equipped machine, which can run at up to 60m/min. Both systems are suitable for inline and offline applications.
A low coating coverage of only two to four grams per square metre is needed in order to cover the sheet, Morgana said.
The DigiCoater Pro 400 has replaced the DigiCoater 33 and 50, of which Morgana said it has a base of units in the field but has not actively been selling for a number of years.
Ray Hillhouse, vice president of sales and marketing for the Plockmatic Group Offline Business Unit, said the company believes this machine provides “the lowest cost per sheet achievable on any UV coating machine in its class”.
“Additionally, the unique curing system on the cold lamp UV unit uses significantly less power to cure when compared to other open lamp systems on the market,” he said.
“UV coated sheets provide for rub resistance and a more robust finish when the final piece of print needs to be frequently handled or passed through other finishing or mailing systems prior to completion.
“In addition, UV coating is widely considered as being a more environmentally friendly alternative to lamination, as virtually no waste is produced in the production process.”
Morgana said its HD LED and cold UV coaters remove the risk involved with high temperature conventional UV coaters, by eliminating any scorching of substrates or potential fire hazards. The coated stock is delivered at room temperature, meaning that there is limited opportunity for distortion or shrinkage of the sheets.
A wide range of coatings are available from Morgana, including gloss, matt and anti-bacterial finishes.
Options for the DigiCoater Pro 400 include a duplex coating capability and automatic feeding and stacking units. An optional IR lamp system is necessary for coating wax-based toner printed sheets.
Meanwhile, two choices of feeder are available for the machine; the VFX Feeder, which has a sheet capacity of up to 5,400 and can handle a max sheet size of 356x660mm, and the VFL Feeder, which has a sheet capacity up to 2,000 and can handle a max sheet size of 385x1,300mm.
“Although the basic machine can be hand-fed, most, if not all of the machines will be supplied with one of our feeder options. The new VFL vacuum feeder appears to be the most suitable combination with the DigiCoater, offering a 2,000 sheets capacity and a quick reload,” said Hillhouse.
“It also has the benefit of being able to run long sheets for new emerging applications. The VFX feeder will offer continuous loading of sheets through two bins but is limited in sheet size to 660mm.”
Pricing for the DigiCoater Pro 400 starts at around £70,000 depending on the configuration, which Morgana said is dependent on the print output that needs to be coated. The company is now running remote live demonstrations of the machine from its Milton Keynes showroom.
