LED printing technology promises to improve your CSR with massive environmental benefits. So read what research group FOGRA think of this new ‘cool curing’ technique.

Since their debut, LED printers have lit up the world stage with their distinctive ability to work with thinner and more sensitive materials. Whilst conventional mercury arc lamps use heat to cure the ink, they limit their capacity to print onto the profusion of new materials that our clients are more frequently requesting.

The latest range of revolutionary, state-of-the-art LED printers deliver a superior quality and greater efficiency, far surpassing previous models, making printers like EFI’s VUTEk GS3250LX a valuable edition. With a printable width of 3.2 metres, a remarkable output speed of 223m2/hr and up to 1000dpi resolution, it promises to boost the production process as well as print quality. And it’s not just the cutting-edge hardware that helps to deliver this new level of ink accuracy: the rip software also offers a significantly faster processing speed, enabling us to produce graphics on a wide range of substrates in a fraction of the time previously taken, without compromising print quality.

Just when it seems that the arrival of LED printers couldn’t get any better, German-based Research Institute for the Graphic Arts, FOGRA, have yielded some exciting results: they have confirmed that “EFIs VUTEk wide-format printers with LED curing show energy reductions of up to 82% when compared with devices that use conventional mercury arc lamps”. And because the ‘cool curing’ LEDs are off in-between jobs, unlike mercury lamps, there is a 77% decrease in electricity usage, lowering their carbon footprint and saving money. FOGRA’s research results prove that LED printers are not only more eco-friendly than conventional mercury arc printers, but financially beneficial too.

With this in mind, large-format printing and graphics companies at the forefront of printing technology could well see a shift towards LED cool-curing, as it pushes the boundaries for quality, efficiency, energy-saving and value.

Here at MX Display, we’ve had a lightbulb moment.