If cost is the most important thing to your customers, yet they demand high quality documents, uv coating fluid can help. While it does not offer the same protection or “insurance” of laminating film, it does offer rich output. Most important, the cost is far cheaper than laminating film.
So, how does it work? At Lloyds, we use REVO Coatings. It is sold in 1 gallon sample or 5 gallon jugs. Cost per 8.5 x 11 sheet is between .01-.02 on a $280 5 gallon bucket of UV Coating Fluid. With 5 gallons, you should be able to print 12,500 sheets. At this cost, your margin on your projects should be pretty high.
Now, UV coating fluid does not come without its challenges. You need to make sure the formula you use is compatible to the printer you use. Not every UV coating fluid is going to work with your Konica-Minolta printer. One that does is REVO Coating’s SureCoat 2010. It is formulated specifically for Konica-Minolta printers and is low odor.
The other is your lamp output. I was just reading about a poor guy that went cheap buying a Chinese uv coating machine on PrintPlanet.com. The machine is putting out low quality sheets like the coating is not curing properly. As is being recommended, he needs to make sure his lamps are producing the right amount of heat for the curing to be right. (Our recommendation, don’t buy cheap on a UV Coating Machine, it ends up costing you more in parts and service in the end).
If you have the right machine and the right fluid like REVO Coating UV coating fluid, your cost per sheet is far lower than using laminating film, while giving your customers a high quality output.
