Label Design is a fully SQF (Safe Quality Food) Certified manufacturing operation located in Guelph, Ontario. The company specialises in supplying pressure sensitive labels to customers across Canada.​ By continuously renewing its technology and maintaining a focus on quality and customer needs, Label Design has grown steadily since its foundation in 1990.

Chris Glazier was appointed as Plant Manager in 2022. When UV LED curing was first trialled at Label Design, Glazier was not convinced of its worth to the business: “I was not completely sold into the LED when we upgraded into it, I wanted to do our testing. We’re 90% food, so I really wanted to make sure that everything is curing and anchoring properly when it gets out to the market and our customers are very happy and satisfied. We also use a lot of different coatings, so I wanted to make sure a lot of the coatings that we use are also compatible. That’s why we started with three systems to work with the LED, to make sure all our R&D is done properly and everything’s working.”

By using GEW’s ArcLED technology, whereby lamphead cassettes can quickly be interchanged between UV Arc or LED on any print station, Glazier’s team were able to introduce LED to their production process in a risk-free, measured fashion. This also means that any print or coating station can be reverted to conventional UV in a matter of minutes, as he explains: “It gives me the versatility between LED and UV, so if there’s a product they don’t have in LED right now, I can still use my UV system and it gives me my security within that market to stay with UV until we’re confident 100%. Because we were already a UV shop, the transition to LED was seamless… colour, anchoring, everything… you would never know, it’s been that close.

Glazier goes on to extol the benefits of ArcLED: “The great thing about this system is the quick change, it’s within minutes. When we had our old system, when the operators had to switch over from product to product, they could be hours changing the system depending on where the coatings need to be, or the adhesives had to be. With the new upgrade with the LED, they’re up and running within minutes with the quick changeover system. It’s been nothing but fantastic, and we’ve seen a large production increase.”

LED is known for curing effectively with opaque whites and stronger colours, as Glazier has also found: “One thing I do like about the LEDs is it does cure deeper colours than the UV, which before when we really needed to get that strong colour in the UV, we sometimes had to drop down to a water base to pull that strength because we just couldn’t get it to cure properly, where LED is hitting that marker for us.”

Glazier rounds up with his thoughts on whether UV LED was the right move for the company: “Do it, get into it… there’s nothing better than saving money and helping the environment at the same time.”

Scan the QR code to learn more about AeroLED2, GEW’s next generation, higher power UV LED curing system: