A/S ‘Liepajas Papirs’ is a label printer based in Liepaja, Latvia. With over 30 years’ experience, Liepajas Papirs is one of the most accomplished printing companies in the Baltics.
They offer a full range of printing services, including design and layout development, production of films and printing plates, post-processing of the printed material, through to delivery. They also use multiple print technologies as part of these services, including flexography, screen printing, digital printing, foil printing, relief printing.
Like many within the industry, Liepajas Papirs is focused on sustainability and observes regulatory requirements relating to environmental protection. To support this move, they have acquired the following ISO certificates: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 50001.
As part of their sustainability program, Liepajas Papirs decided to retrofit six 38cm, 395nm GEW AeroLED cassettes to their MPS EF4, following the previous installation of a new Omet X4 flexo press that was supplied with a hybrid GEW system combining the water-cooled LeoLED system with E2C arc lamps.
GEW’s International Sales Manager, David Lyus, took time to discuss this retrofit with Liepajas’ Juris Hoijers, who is their Production Manager. Read the interview below:
David Lyus (DL): “Juris, thanks for taking the time to discuss your retrofit with me. To begin, could you please describe your company’s activities?”
Juris Hoijers (JH): “A/S “Liepajas Papirs” is a company with over 30 years’ experience in flexographic printing, so we are well established within our market.
“A large focus for us is self-adhesive labels, which are 90% of our output, but we also produce shrink sleeves and wrap-around labels.
“In terms of who our customers are, we service local markets and exports markets with around a 50/50 split.
“We first introduced UV curing into our flexo process back in 2003 and, starting with our first system, all of them have been manufactured by GEW.”
DL: “How long has your GEW system been installed?”
JH: “The air-cooled UV LED system, AeroLED, was installed in the summer of 2023 as we looked to upgrade the UV system on one of our existing MPS presses. When we bought our first Omet press in 2022, it came with an already installed GEW UV LED drying system (but with water-cooling).
“Working with this LED system gave us confidence and enough experience to understand how effective it is. It made our choice easier when we decided to upgrade our other press with the AeroLED UV system.
“The decision to move from the water-cooled system to the air-cooled system was due to the sheer simplicity of the AeroLED system: the investment consisted of only a set of AeroLED cassettes, which slide into the press in place of the original E2C cassettes. The existing power supplies and cooling system are reused! If we ever need to run a mercury lamp again in future, we can easily swap an AeroLED with an E2C in any print unit we like.”
DL: “What applications is it being used for?”
JH: “The AeroLED system is being used for production of self-adhesive labels, shrink sleeves and wrap-around labels, so our main product lines.
“What has surprised us is how the switch to LED drying has been unexpectedly and remarkably smooth. There has not been a single job that we could not repeat with LED drying. We have been able to continue working with all the previously used print substrates, including sensitive thin films for shrink sleeves and wrap-around labels.
“The curing has remained exceptional throughout.”
DL: “That’s really positive. So what benefits has the GEW system brought to your business?”
JH: “There have been three main benefits for us. First of all, the energy efficiency and electricity savings, which is a very important factor for us, because electricity prices have increased several times in recent years.
“Second, the feedback from our print operators has been very positive. They enjoy working with the AeroLED system because of the consistently stable curing it provides. It has reduced the number of claims where under-curing is the cause, which improves our efficiency and leaves us with a happier customer base.
“Thirdly, our company has implemented the ISO 50001 standard, which obliges us to take care of rational and efficient use of energy resources. The AeroLED system, and the UV LED technology behind it, support this standard.”
DL: “Many positives then. And what can you do now, that you could not do before you had the GEW UV LED system?”
JH: “In terms of new business, this isn’t something we’ve used the LED for. However, it’s a time saver as we are not consistently buying new, replacement lamps, as we had to with the mercury arc UV lamps.”
DL: “And what would you say to anyone considering purchasing a GEW LED system?”
JH: “Do not be afraid of LED curing, especially if you are already in UV flexo, because the transition truly is seamless!”
DL: “Lastly, please describe your overall experience with the GEW team.”
JH: “We have been working with GEW for more than twenty years and our cooperation has been very successful.
“When installing the new air-cooled UV LED system, AeroLED, the service specialists worked very quickly and efficiently. It only took a day of work before we could start using the new LED system.
“Over the past twenty years we have worked with five different systems manufactured by GEW, and we can confidently say that the new AeroLED system is the best one yet, and one of our most successful recent installations.”
DL: “Thanks for your time, Juris.”
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To learn more about AeroLED2, GEW’s latest air-cooled UV LED curing system, go here.
To learn more about LeoLED2, GEW’s latest water-cooled UV LED curing system, go here.
For more information on Liepajas Papirs, go to: www.liepajaspapirs.lv
