Duplo UK have become sole distributors for the Ultra range of UV, aqueous and soft touch flood coaters for the UK print industry, to enhance print and turn it into an energetic, vibrant, and inspiring communication medium. Duplo launches the full range of near-line flood coaters from entry level to high speed, duplex and in-line with some digital print engines from the 1st of June 2021. The Ultra brand is owned by Mark Hunting SRL out of Belgium. Martyn Train, Managing Director for Duplo UK said, “Duplo’s financial year starts on 1st of June and so launching the Ultra coaters at the same time gets our new year off to a great start, energising the company with new opportunities and creating some new relationships in the process.”
“We’ve made some great in-roads with the DuSense even through a pandemic year, and we’ve been able to show many customers how important embellishment is to print. The Ultra range of flood coaters offer both UV and the new Aqueous, water-based coating for a more environmentally friendly coating but also certified for coating the inside and outside of food packaging. They also offer options for duplexing multi-pass or single pass along with in-line coating with some HP print engines. These machines are perfect for digital printers who are looking for an easier, cheaper and more productive solution to lamination, but also for those wishing to move into the packaging environment for both food and non-food products.”
Réginald de Ghellinck, Managing Director of Mark Hunting SRL, speaks about the specifics of the machines, “When the Ultra range was first introduced, the UK was one of the biggest markets in EU. There have been many installations around the country, mainly with digital printers producing greeting cards, business and postcards. “For many digital printers, lamination has historically been the standard way to enhance and protect digitally printed substrates. In comparison, UV and aqueous coating has been very common in the conventional offset market. With the evolution of digital printing, new manufacturers technologies, new types of varnish have now been manufactured making UV & aqueous more accessible and easier to use.
“For cost, practical and ecological reasons, some of our customers have moved away from lamination as our solutions are easily 30% cheaper to run, minimise the use of plastic, contain fully recyclable substrates, no need for stocks of different films sizes and thickness, and no more need to trim after lamination etc. There is a growing trend of people are moving towards the aqueous versions of our solutions as water-base coating is environmentally friendlier than UV and lamination.”
“The full range of Ultra PRINTFLOOD range of coaters includes the 100PRO – up to 13 metres/min with a paper format 356mm 510mm, 200PRO – up to 34 metres/min with a paper format 530mm 750mm, 300A – up to 45 metres/min with a paper format 530mm x 750mm. The newest model is the Ultra 1000A and is the latest addition to the range. Its main feature is that it can run B2+ format, long edge feeding to run up to 730mm wide paper allowing an increase in production of 25% compared to a machine able to run B2 Short Edge Feeding.
Secondly, it is the perfect machine for the packaging market and for customers running an HP Indigo 10000 and 12000. The world’s first installation took place this May in Holland at one of the countries biggest digital printers using HP12000 press. At first, they wanted to move into aqueous coating, so we installed our PrintFlood 300A which they used for 2 months in order to validate the solution. They very quickly realised that with the PrintFlood 1000A, they could increase their production by 25%, by turning the sheets 90° using B2+ portrait instead of landscape. This led to the installation of our largest machine with duplexing a solution for the future!” “A major development that we’ve designed into our machines, that not even the higher priced UV coaters have is the Auto-Gap system. The auto-gap guarantees that the top ’application’ and the bottom ‘pressure roller’ are never in contact with each other, preventing smearing on the reverse of the sheet. This is a common issue in coating, and all other manufacturers need to use scraper blades to remove the excess coating. This is not the case with us as there is no excess to be removed!”
Martyn concludes “We were looking for a partner with strong experience to offer the UK market a solution that complements our already strong portfolio of offerings. Duplo has been successful in selling the Ultra UV coaters in the past. Now that Ultra have extended the range and the fact that they now offer eco-friendly aqueous coating solutions, we realised the potential of such proven technology for UK customers would be an exciting proposition.”
