AeroLED

• VIGC Partner
• 22 november 2022
• Eye-Opener, Partner

The future of air-cooled UV curing systems

UV curing specialists GEW have announced the launch of a major new product for both the company and the narrow web printing market. AeroLED is a fully air-cooled, high power UV LED system for full cure, printing, coating and converting applications up to 60cm wide. AeroLED delivers power and reliability with a totally unique concept which eliminates many of the operational problems in existing air-cooled LED systems on the market.

Benefits of AeroLED

• Fully air-cooled – Single remote fan sited behind the press means no integrated fans or electronics in lamp head.
• Fast curing – AeroLED’s 18W/cm² array gives industry leading performance for all narrow web machines
• Long lifetimes – The expected diode lifetime is >30.000 hours.
• Replaceable LEDs  LED array composed of 25mm replaceable modules for easy servicing.
• Cut your energy costs – No water-cooling + LED reduces energy consumption until 50-70%
• Easy and short maintenance – No spare parts or replacement of UV bulbs. 

Using the same fan and ducting arrangement as the industry standard E2C, customers have total flexibility to switch between arc and LED curing on any station. No filters are required due to the high redundancy, making maintenance a breeze and an AeroLED retrofit more cost effective than ever before. Moreover any customers with GEW’s RHINO/RLT power supply platform can upgrade to LED within a matter of hours, by simply changing the cassettes and running a software upgrade.

AeroLED features the same LED chassis and core components as GEW’s LeoLED lamp head, for proven reliability straight from launch day. As with LeoLED, the new lamp uses GEW’s standard cassette design for easy maintenance, with tough watertight seals to protect the LED modules from ingress and to make cleaning easy and safe. Every aspect of the design has been carefully considered to deliver robust performance and long-term reliability.

AeroLED’s efficient optical design enables the lowest energy usage of all GEW products. This delivers energy savings of typically 50-70%, when compared to a conventional UV arc system. In addition to offering greatly reduced operating costs, printers upgrading to LED are able to free up a significant level of mains capacity, which can then be used to install new machinery and subsequently increase production capability. Two AeroLED systems have a lower electrical supply requirement than just one conventional arc UV system.

A further advantage of LED in the curing process is its predictability and stability of UV output. AeroLED delivers a step change in process control by ensuring stable UV output year after year, and eliminates the uncertainty of conventional UV lamps, reflectors and mechanisms to ensure consistent production quality. The expected diode lifetime is >30.000 hours.

In addition to the sustainability benefits of AeroLED, GEW highlight the ease of installation to those considering a retrofit upgrade. For GEW RHINO and RLT users, UV curing systems can be upgraded to AeroLED with minimal downtime by simply replacing the lamp heads and updating their software .The table below illustrates the components needed for an AeroLED retrofit based on the existing UV curing technology on your press.

As AeroLED has GEW’s familiar E2C cassette design, upgrading an E2C system with RHINO/RLT power only requires switching to the AeroLED lamp heads and updating the software. All other components on press remain the same. This means that a retrofit upgrade can be implemented in as little as 1 hour.

UV LED is no longer just a technology for the future, it has become an essential technology for the present day. This change has been driven by the recent and dramatic increases in global energy prices, creating an unprecedented demand for low-energy, sustainable LED solutions as well as improved ink technology and availability. Technological advancement is leading to ever more efficient and cost-effective UV LED products, as is demonstrated by the introduction of AeroLED.