CBS Printing invests in UV LED system retrofit

Established in 1977, CBS Printing is a family-owned company supplying corporate print and marketing materials to brands across the country. The company has been a pioneer of new printing techniques, including UV LED curing systems.

The pandemic hit the business in early 2020, and the management had to be resourceful and adaptive to maintain a healthy level of operations. At that point, it ventured into producing food packaging for the first.

Stephen Wilson, managing partner at CBS Printing, commented: ‘There were so many hotels and restaurants that could not do their catering in the usual way, so there was a sudden high demand for ready meals and safely pre-packed foods. This line of business really took off for us and has brought in over AUS 1,000,000 in the past 12 months. So there has been an incidental benefit to our business from Covid, to counter the many negatives. And to add to this, the commercial print business is now steadily returning.’

The retrofit installation of the new UV curing system has been pivotal in keeping up with the new demand. The production team at CBS ran most of the food packaging on their RMGT 920 press because their second press, a Ryobi 754G, was not up to the job. The meal sleeves do not require the 920’s A1 sheet size, yet they took up most of the press hours, which is why Wilson decided that action was needed. The 754 was upgraded with a retrofitted GEW LeoLED UV curing system, mounted after the fourth print unit, and this has eliminated the unwanted demand on the 920. 

‘We looked at a few UV systems from various suppliers, but eventually, we settled on GEW for two key reasons: we had heard favorable reports about it from others in the industry, but we were also swayed by its remote monitoring and support service, which means we have a technical backup for our new system 24/7/365 and this gives us great peace of mind. That said, we haven’t yet had a reason to call on the service, but we know it’s there when we need it,’ said Wilson.

Having invested in the new UV curing system, Wilson is keen to capitalize on the benefits of ownership, and his production team has run successful tests on polypropylene-based synthetic papers. 

‘This opens up a world of new opportunities for CBS and allows us to broaden our portfolio further, moving into tags and labels, retail and packaging, menus, and other similar items where very high performance is required,’ added Wilson. ‘The instant drying that comes with UV makes printing on these added-value synthetic substrates possible and sets us apart from our competitors. In addition to the new production capabilities we now have with UV LED curing, we are saving substantial sums on our energy bills, we’re saving on coatings, and we have dramatically reduced the number of reprints necessary due to problems like set off and dry back. The new UV system has worked wonders for our business.’