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Five Benefits of UV Coating for Printed Documents
With fierce competition and prospects who seem to flop between overwhelm and distraction, outshining (not outspending) the competition becomes mandatory if you’re going to thrive in the marketplace. The same goes for your customers, who are feeling the same pressure to wow prospects without breaking the bank.
How do you do that in print? Industry experts point us to UV coating, citing the following five benefits of UV coating for print finishers.
1. UV Coating Has a Slick, High-End Look for Less
These days, both print clients and their prospects expect (demand, even) a high-gloss finish to their print materials and packaging.
As it turns out, slick print finishing is no longer a luxury exclusive to those with deep pockets: Even the little guy running a business out of his basement wants to impress his prospects with shiny, vibrant materials.
And, trust me, they’ll find a printer that can offer high-luster without the high price tag. (Is that you?)
2. UV Coating is High Value & High Profit
More than just a pretty finish, UV coating is also practical and easy on the wallet. That’s because its no-dry time allows for lightning-fast turnaround and decreased manpower.
In the age of “I need this yesterday,” it’s an ideal solution for last-minute orders and challenging deadlines. How’s that for a competitive advantage?
3. UV Coatings are Environmentally Friendly
Can a sweet deal to your pocketbook be as sweet to the environment? It turns out UV coating and green printing go together like bees and honey.
After researching new UV technologies and EPA guidelines, Steve Waxman, a print consultant writing for the Printing Industry Exchange, reported the following findings:
- Newer UV materials are safe to workers and not carcinogenic.
- UV coatings can be recycled as “mixed waste.”
- Unlike solvent-based coatings, UV coatings are less flammable and do not release volatile compounds into the atmosphere.
- Its fast, no-heat drying ability requires less energy.
4. It’s Scratch Resistant
Who wants to invest in fancy-schmancy finishing that gets beaten to a pulp by the time it reaches its intended recipients? Not the folks paying you money, I can tell you that much.
While there are other scratch resistance methods for print products, UV coating may offer the best versatility and ROI. What does that mean for you? Satisfied customers coming back for more.
5. It’s More Than Just Paper
Even with knock’em-dead finishing, your customer’s needs don’t end with paper products. Rather, they want the same top-notch, low-cost solutions for banners, point-of-purchase displays, chotchkies, and beyond.
Lucky for you, the versatility of UV coating allows you to branch out into plastics and vinyl. Let me put it this way: More product options = More profits.
Combining high luster, high value and green printing, UV coating is one sure way for you and your clients to outshine the competition. Literally.
Busting UV Coating & Print Finishing Myths
Scads of business leaders make strategic decisions on myths rather than facts, wasting both profit and productivity opportunities.
Take print finishing technologies, for instance: With UV coating’s popularity on the rise (double-digit growth in the last 10 years, in fact), misinformation abounds. Throw green printing concerns in the mix (plus the health of your pocketbook), and it’s no wonder many of you are confused.
In a recent article for Products Finishing Magazine, Gary Cohen separates fact from fiction, debunking five UV coating myths.
While Gary makes strong points on all five counts, we’ll focus on the two we hear most often:
Myth One: UV Materials are Dangerous
The reality? UV coatings are actually much less toxic than solvent-based and even some water-based coatings. What’s more, it boasts low toxicity, emits little or no volatile compounds into the atmosphere, is not regulated as hazardous waste and does not cause cancer, as previously thought.
In addition to not being absorbed through the skin, UV materials have very low vapor pressures, which means you’re unlikely to inhale the stuff. In other reports, we read UV coatings can even be recycled as a “mixed waste.”
Bottom line? UV coating is safe.
Myth Two: UV Equipment is Too Expensive
It’s the typical technology scenario: A new equipment comes out on the market, and, over time, prices drop as it becomes more common-place. Likewise, UV equipment costs have dropped significantly in the last few years.
Pricing aside, it’s interesting to note that UV’s fast, no-heat drying capabilities require less space and less energy, which invariably translates into increased uptime, productivity, and profits (plus lower inventories, to boot).
Lloyds of Indiana offers entry-level UV equipment for less than $15,000 — a very fair investment for the costs savings and versatility it provides.
As we dig into industry reports like Gary’s, we find UV coating consistently comes out on top as the most economical and environmentally-safe print finishing solution.
Why Should I Put UV Coating on My Trade Show Posters?
Should I laminate my trade show poster or just have it reprinted for each of the trade shows my firm is visiting? Such was the devil’s alternative that many business owners who needed a poster for an impending trade show used to face.
Neither of these choices is very good.
In “Printing and Design Tips,” Steve Waxman notes that laminating processes employ a type of plastic, and this plastic is made from petroleum. Printing processes that use petroleum release toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere, thus damaging the environment. The chemicals used to clean the inks are similarly harmful.
Thus, lamination is not the way to go, even though it does make for a durable, high-quality trade show poster.
Reprinting a poster that is thrown away at the end of every trade show is another option. Reprinting avoids the petroleum-related environmental problems that come with lamination, however, reprinting has a few such problems of its own.
First, reprinting posters wastes paper. Wasting paper contributes to deforestation and increased use of fossil fuels in logging. Both of these things damage the environment. Yes, there’s recyclable paper available, but the energy and effort that it takes to print a new poster would be better spent elsewhere.
This means reprinting is no better an option than lamination. So what’s a socially responsible, would-be green business owner who still needs their trade show posters to do?
The answer is simple: get a poster printed using a UV coating print finishing process.
The durability of a UV coating means that one trade show poster can be reused many times, just as if it was laminated. This saves the paper that reprinting would waste.
UV coatings are scratch-resistant, add thickness to the paper, and make the colors pop much more dramatically, so it’s a much better option, graphic design-wise too.
Finally, since UV print finishing techniques take substantially less energy to produce than many other such processes, they help the environment in still a third way. The next time your firm needs trade show posters, do the earth (and yourself) a favor and get it UV coated!
UV Coating is One More Green Printing Tool for Print Finishing
RadTech’s Technical Committee report, “UV/EB Technology: A Way to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” says that since ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, American companies have been under increasing pressure to reduce polluting emissions.
Printing firms have not been spared.
Old paper coating techniques such as varnishes and laminates are chock-full of pollutants. Printers need a new, environmentally friendly paper coating option. Green UV coating technology can form the centerpiece of a print firm’s strategy to become more environmentally friendly by gearing itself for sustainable printing.
Steve Waxman, writing in “Printing & Design Tips,” says that petroleum-based varnish coatings create emissions that, in turn, damage the atmosphere. Laminate coatings, on the other hand, contain what amount to plastics. Most plastics have a petroleum base. Hence, laminates hurt the environment in the same way as varnish coatings.
Waxman says that while older forms of UV coating had environmental problems (especially carcinogen content and a lack of biodegradability), new UV technology no longer has these problems. As a result, UV coatings are a much safer and environmentally friendly alternative for print finishing shops.
In contrast to non-UV based coatings, new UV coating technology has become a type of green printing. There are several reasons for this.
First, unlike other types of coatings, this new UV coating technology does not give off pollutants into the atmosphere. Second, the coating chemicals are less flammable than solvent-based materials. Finally, and most importantly, they require a lot less energy to cure than other types of coatings.
This energy savings is crucial because, as Mike Kelly writes in “The Economics of Sustainable UV Coating Technology,” green technology must be economically viable in order for firms to use sustainable practices enough to really benefit the environment.
In other words, because UV coating techniques take less energy to produce than other types of coatings, it helps the environment by using UV coatings. Plus it costs a printer a lot less than traditional solvent-based solutions.
The energy efficiency of UV coating technology means that, if printers use environmentally-unfriendly coating techniques, they hurt their bottom line by doing so. But by switching over to UV coating machines, printers can not only help the environment, they can improve their bottom line as well.
How to Green Your Catalog
Want to start printing greener catalogs? Maybe you want to delve into sustainable or green papers and inks? Here’s how:
1. Choose virgin “green” or “sustainable” paper
By stocking sustainable or green paper, you can offer more choices to your customers that are both environmentally friendly and humane. The Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) are two different bodies that both audit and certify forest managers and loggers in terms of their environmental sustainability as well as cultural and local responsibility.
2. Try recycled paper
Another green printing option is recycled paper stock. You can start at 10% recycled content and work your way up to 100% recycled (meaning the paper is made from 100% post-consumer materials). The recycled content of a stock can affect its finish and its gloss, however many designers have not only worked around this, they’ve made the “character” of 100% recycled paper part of the design itself.
3. Organic and non-toxic ink choices
Instead of depending on traditional, petroleum-based inks, opt for ink choices that are biodegradable and non-toxic. Not only are these inks better for the Earth, they’re better for your health.
4. Think about the long-term uses of that catalog
To make your catalogs as green as possible, try to make them as evergreen as possible, meaning they’ll be applicable and up-to-date for as long as possible. Also, encourage readers to recycle by including a “Recycle Me” logo on the back.
And remember, “green printing” goes beyond stocking sustainable paper or printing catalogs with corn ink. You have to make a commitment to also change your own internal policies. Are you recycling at your shop? How are you disposing of potentially toxic waste? Are you minimizing your waste? And what are you doing to buy locally?
How are you making your shop greener and what sort of green printing products are you offering your catalog customers? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section.