Davis is the General Manager at MidSouth and he helped drive the decision to retrofit each of the company’s three Mark Andy 2200 presses with two 53W/cm, 30cm width GEW AeroLEDs, and one 140W/cm E2C.

MidSouth are a leading producer of printed materials in the region. They cover a wide range of products, such as lumber tags, placards, bundle tags, labels, and other custom solutions, whilst serving the lumber, rebar, brick, door, and other wood product industries. Specifically, the LED is used for printing on the reverse of MidSouth’s tag products, whereas the E2C cassettes are used for an overprint varnish (OPV) on the front face.

The AeroLED lampheads were installed in 2023, giving Davis and the team time to reflect on the impact the introduction of LED has had. Davis is effusive about the difference the technology has made at MidSouth: “The benefits of switching to LED are vast. Whilst the GEW units replaced 1988 UV technology, which was clearly on its last legs, the modernisation is still remarkable. For example, we’re getting clear value add on our back inks – this is the process of instantly drying so you can print on the reverse of a product, such as a tag or label.

“With GEW’s AeroLED we’re undoubtedly getting a clearer print. We’re not wasting ink, which means lower costs overall due to a significant reduction in ink consumption. There are soft cost savings too, like not having to put ink in and out of the pans, and not mixing catalyst every shift. We also have cleaner printing plates that last longer, which is another benefit.

“The only thing that’s difficult to classify is the power savings – I’m sure they are significant, it’s just quite difficult for us to measure these because of the other variables.”

There have been other aspects of LED that have impressed Davis, as he explains: “The LED technology gives us the opportunity to turn our product around quicker, whilst also giving us more product options in terms of what we can offer our customers. We’re also excited by the flexibility the GEW system offers. The ability to switch between our AeroLED and E2C cassettes just by switching the cartridges means we can pick the technology best suited to the product we’re printing. It also gives us the option to go full LED on this press when varnishes are developed for use with LED.”

In the background, GEW’s online Remote Monitoring platform quietly keeps track of all UV systems at MidSouth, as is the case with every GEW RHINO installation, globally. This ensures the systems are operating within the correct operational parameters and recommends any necessary changes. Remote Monitoring also creates monthly performance reports which are automatically provided to all RHINO system users, which is an aspect that Davis appreciates: “From a personal perspective, the ability to track usage and hours on the UV bulbs with the system instead of manually makes my job easier and I’m a big fan of the usage reports we receive from GEW, which informs our production schedule and helps us to fully appreciate what’s working well and what can be improved.”

Considering the improvements seen at MidSouth, Davis offers his viewpoint on GEW: “I consider GEW to be a leader in the industry, having been a big player in the UV curing market for over 30 years. It’s clear they’re a leading innovator in the UV technology arena. For this reason, I never had to be ‘sold’ on the company, only the LED system they were selling.”

When asked to describe his overall experience with the UV supplier, Davis focuses on two key points – the sales process and the installation. He remarks: “We were first introduced to AeroLED in a GEW sales presentation at Labelexpo in Chicago in 2022, and I quickly realised that this was a presentation I needed to take to our leadership team. It clearly outlined what AeroLED could do for us and I realised this was a change we needed to make sooner rather than later.”

Regarding the installation process, Davis was equally satisfied: “We had three units installed throughout 2023 and were visited by several GEW technicians. All were fantastic to work with and went above and beyond… one even cleaned some of our existing units whilst here. The GEW team in general were brilliant, and we look forward to working with them again.”

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You can find out more about AeroLED here.