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Coating is a popular option for protecting and enhancing print. While inline coaters are commonplace on offset machines, for digital they are a rarity, apart from three notable exceptions led by Kodak with the Nexglosser, and followed by Canon with the imagePress C1+ and latterly Xerox with the Colour Press 1000.

So, for most digital printers it falls to an offline alternative, and if you want to avoid the running cost of laminating then UV coating is increasingly the way to go. Given that digital’s forte is personalised and on-demand work, coating is something you’d want in-house rather than to send out. With digital machines typically having a lower acquisition cost, productivity and operator skill level, the requirements for a compatible coater are low cost, compact sizes and ease of use - different to most litho work.

According to UK supplier Encore, those are the strengths of the KDC 13 RTF, its latest compact UV coater.

The knock-out feature of the machine, according to the firm, is squeezing in automation at a price comparable with rivals’ hand-fed machines, thus helping printers make the most of their staff’s time (and their own money).

"We used to sell the Versacoater Documate (a Drytac machine), but that was manually fed and to get an automated feeder you had to go up the range to a wider machine and into a higher price point," says Encore sales manager Paul Davidson.

At 330mm (13in) maximum coating width, the machine handles sheets up to SRA3, which means it’s suitable for digital and some smaller-format litho work. The price for the hand-fed unit is £15,000, slightly more than the Documate it replaces, but its USP is that, for £22,000, you can get a unit with a 200mm-deep automatic feed pile.

To date, rivals’ offerings with automation were built to handle a wider 508mm sheet – so can handle SRA2 work – but that’s academic if your output is all digital and therefore only two pages.

And when it comes to speed, the KBC matches its wider rivals, making up what it lacks in width with a faster linear speed of 30-35m/min, which for a 520mm-long sheet works out at 58-67 sheets per minute or 3,480-4,020m/hour.

"Duplo and Morgana are our main competition, but they both have wider 20in machines," says Davidson. "Talking to digital printers, their £30,000 plus tag is too high if they are only running one digital press."

However, Morgana has also got wise to the need for a smaller machine, recently launching the DigiCoater 33, a 330mm-wide unit. But unlike Encore, it believes the market will want manual rather than automated feeding.

If you need the bigger format then Encore also offers larger Kisun machines in 508mm (20in), 610mm (24in) and 914mm (36in) widths too, with an automated 508mm machine with two coating heads and six tanks coming in at £31,000, which is competitive against similar machines.

Unattended operation
The automated feeder is (for this sector of the market) a deep pile device. Its 200mm depth can, depending on stock caliper, take up to 2,000 sheets, allowing it to churn away without attention for half an hour if required.

"It’s a good depth for a machine of this size, where you tend to find the feeder will only typically take around 200 sheets," says Davidson, who adds that he expects most customers will take this option.

He thinks that the small footprint of the machine will also be a winner for space-starved digital printers. At 710x610mm, it takes up less than a square metre of floor space, smaller than some rivals, thanks to its clever paper path, which utilises the height of the machine (1,060mm).

"It’s very compact, which lends itself to digital printers. We’ve found that other UV machines tend to be quite large and that’s not ideal for many digital facilities."

Control is via a colour touchscreen, that as far as possible guides users through set-up and use, making training requirements minimal. Not that there is much to set up. Coating weight and speed are your only variables.

"It enables one operator to run the coater and the press at the same time," he says. "You can load it and leave it to run and get on with something else."

UV varnish is available in gloss or matt finishes. However, it only has the one varnish pot, so you need to swap if you want to change the finish. It’s a five-minute process to pump the unused varnish back into the pot using the recirculating pump. The bigger Kisun machines have multiple varnish pots and offer an automated switch between gloss and matt.

There is more to changing the finish of the varnish than just matt or gloss, the roller can also be changed, offering either the familiar super-smooth finish, or a range of textures including linen, leather, crystal checkerboard and canvas.

"It’s a great way to add value, and I think it will be popular for photobooks," he says.

Changing the rollers is another quick and simple job. The user undoes four screws, pulls out one roller and replaces it with another. Rollers can be used with matt and gloss varnish offering a wide range of potential effects.

Unless you stumbled upon it at Ipex you’re unlikely to have heard of Kisun. May’s Birmingham exhibition was the firm’s first outing to the European commercial print market. To date, despite a heritage in graphic arts in the East Asian markets around its Korean base, the firm’s western exploits have been limited to the photographic sector. But with the growth of digital applications such as photobooks, it has decided to tackle the print market too.

Since Ipex one UK printer has plumped for the machine, and others are considering it. A demonstration unit is currently en route from Korea and set to arrive in Encore’s Luton showroom before the end of the year.

Cost of use
Davidson says running costs are £5 per thousand SRA3 sheets/0.5p per copy when using the gloss coating, compared to £17 per thousand for laminating, although that price will vary depending on the coating thickness, which is between six and 14 microns.

"Coating is a lot cheaper than laminating – it’s one-third of the cost with gloss and a fifth for matte," he says.

However, he cautions: "In our experience, UV coating is not a direct replacement for lamination. For some work it may be better, for others lamination is still the better option."

Products he believes are more suitable for UV coating are books, magazines, brochures and greetings cards.

The KDC 13 uses UV tubes with an operating life of 160 hours, so time between replacements will depend on how often you use the machine. There’s no need to keep it switched on in expectation of a job coming in as start-up time is 10 minutes. Likewise, if you want to switch it off the process is simple, circulating varnish is returned to the pot, the roller pressure is released, the roller wiped and the tray cleaned, all of which should take less than 15 minutes.

Like most UV devices there is a requirement to deal with the emissions. There is a vent pipe on the machine, which if it’s located near an external wall, can be connected to an outlet. For confined spaces that can’t be directly vented, extraction may be necessary, with an additional cost for the unit and installation from £4,500 to factor in.

For digital firms, and small-format litho firms for that matter, looking for an entry into UV coating that offers convenience and an interesting range of features in a format that won’t take up too much floor space or leave a huge dent in your wallet, the Kisun could be just the ticket. The importance or not of automation remains to be seen, but either way the KDC is a good value machine.

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SPECIFICATIONS
Speed 30-35m/min (58-67 SRA3 sheets/min)
Max sheet width 330mm
Max stock weight 400gsm
Footprint 710x610mm
Price manual feed £15,000, with automatic feeder £22,000
Contact Encore Machinery 01582 562518 www.encoremachinery.co.uk

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THE ALTERNATIVES

DUPLO ULTRA-200
Launched at Ipex the Ultra-200 slots in beneath the Ultra-205A, running at half the speed. Optional SF 200 suction feeder offers 190mm-deep pile with double detection for reliable operation. Duplo says that a long path ensures high quality coating. At 508mm wide, the Ultra-200 enables SRA2 sheets to be handled, offering more versatility for companies running litho alongside digital, and for volume users the 205A can handle a true B2 sheet with a maximum width of 521mm.
Speed 20m/min
Max sheet width 508mm
Max stock weight 350gsm
Footprint 1,752x1,000mm
Price manual feed £24,495; automatic feed £30,995
Contact Duplo 01372 478221

MORGANA DIGICOATER 33
Morgana has also recognised the potential for a smaller machine and added the 330mm-wide version of the DigiCoater. Although automatic feeders in top-fed and deep pile configurations are available, Morgana believes the short-run market served by this machine will make the manually fed version the most popular. Like the KDC, the DigiCoater has a range of textured rollers, but it has the advantage of three varnish tanks. If you need to handle an SRA2 sheet, then the original 508mm-wide DigiCoater is also available.
Speed 30m/min
Max sheet width 330mm
Max stock weight 400gsm+
Footprint 1,500x700mm
Price £17,990 (manual feed)
Contact Morgana Systems 01908 608888

MGI U-VARNISH
One of the earliest UV coaters optimised for digital and other small-format work, the U-Varnish has proved to be a popular machine in the UK, primarily with firms running high-end Xerox and HP digital presses as well as MGI’s own specialist substrate digital press the Meteor Pro. Also in MGI’s bag of coating tricks is the JetVarnish. Not a direct competitor to the KDC 13 RTF as it offers the ability to spot coat as well as flood coat. Add in the ability to introduce variable data to the spot varnish, and you’ve got a powerful tool to add personalisation to your post-press set-up – although, like all other inkjet varnish machines, at a price that is far higher than a flood coater.
Speed 2,400sph
Max sheet width 360mm
Stock weight 150-500gsm
Footprint 2,740x1,350mm
Price £42,000
Contact MGi Technology 0845 388 6448