OCE 440 Flatbed

[Robert M]

Looking at a used OCE 440 and can't seem to find out what the UV light source is. The printer will be used for heat sensitive products. The brochure calls the UV source "low heat" which I would think would rule out metal halide bulbs. Does anyone know what bulbs this printer runs and what their life and replacement costs are. Any other input would be helpful.

 

[BigfishDM]

If its being used for heat sensitive items just make sure they are LED and not Mercury lamps, just call Oce they will tell you.

 

[FireSprint.com]

Fuji Has a hybrid printer for around $50k that is LED. - http://www.fujifilmusa.com/products/graphic_arts_printing/large-format-printing/printers/acuity/led/

Vutek has a machine too - the 1625 and is around $110k - http://w3.efi.com/WideFormat/Products/EFIH1625LED


Otherwise if you have a heat sensitive material, you can run a half lamp setting on most machines. That might work too.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

As far as I know Oce doesn't offer any printers in their lineup that use LED technology.

Our cost on OEM bulbs is around $575 (probably much cheaper in the US) and their "suggested" lifespan is around 500 hours. We're nearing 400 hours and so far no real sign of them losing their curing ability. I believe once you get into the higher end models (including 440) you have more fine tuning for pre/post curing lamp settings, where as on ours (318gl) there are only 3 different increments.

What kind of heat sensitive material are you wanting to print on? I've printed on every material I can get my hands on and haven't had any issues with warping or buckling while printing. (Including paper, banner, .010" lexan, vinyl, .020 styrene, wallpaper etc etc)

I've taken a set of bulbs into 900 hour territory and they were still fine.
We only replaced them because one of the lamp housings started playing up so we switched bulbs to try eliminate them as a source.
The old ones are still in a box for emergency purposes.

But I'll +1 to what you have said... the Océ range use halogen and not LED UV lamps.

 

[DravidDavid]

I've taken a set of bulbs into 900 hour territory and they were still fine.
We only replaced them because one of the lamp housings started playing up so we switched bulbs to try eliminate them as a source.
The old ones are still in a box for emergency purposes.

But I'll +1 to what you have said... the Océ range use halogen and not LED UV lamps.

How on earth did you manage to get them to 900 hours before grenadine something else? What model do you have? Ours are coming up on 560 I believe and we occasionally trip the 16A circuit breaker when engaging the lamps because the power supply for the lamps want too much juice!

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

How on earth did you manage to get them to 900 hours before grenadine something else? What model do you have? Ours are coming up on 560 I believe and we occasionally trip the 16A circuit breaker when engaging the lamps because the power supply for the lamps want too much juice!

We run a 360GT. Our lamp breaker is 20A and controller breaker is 10A. Perhaps that's why we don't pop anything.
The Arizona preparation guide says to use a 20A breaker in the USA or 16A in the EU.
Not really sure how that relates to Australia, but our tech requested the 20A option.

 

[DravidDavid]

We run a 360GT. Our lamp breaker is 20A and controller breaker is 10A. Perhaps that's why we don't pop anything.
The Arizona preparation guide says to use a 20A breaker in the USA or 16A in the EU.
Not really sure how that relates to Australia, but our tech requested the 20A option.

Interesting. Ours is a 16A 240V socket. We were told it pops when we engage the lamps as the older they get the more current they draw. One of our techs was telling us a story about a company that ran theirs up to 1300+ hours and ended up having to replace every electrical component from where it connects to the circuit board leading up to the lamps themselves. We were also told it can be a serious fire hazard.

But if your system can take it, I guess you can push them a little harder.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Hmm, that's interesting indeed.
In our warehouse the printer is probably about 5m from the main power board (which has a 100A feed), so maybe the short run wasn't as big a worry.
That being said we've been running it for 18 months now without a single pop of the breaker so hopefully all is good for the future.

Do you do much printing at maximum lamp strength? We generally print on the low or medium (5 or 7) settings, and only use 9 for metal or glass printing.

 

[DravidDavid]

Hmm, that's interesting indeed.
In our warehouse the printer is probably about 5m from the main power board (which has a 100A feed), so maybe the short run wasn't as big a worry.
That being said we've been running it for 18 months now without a single pop of the breaker so hopefully all is good for the future.

Do you do much printing at maximum lamp strength? We generally print on the low or medium (5 or 7) settings, and only use 9 for metal or glass printing.

We have an Oce 250GT. Maximum lamp strength is 7 with the lowest being 2 or OFF, from memory. I usually use 5 or 6 daily. I only ever use 7 if I'm turning the leading lamp off completely to avoid lamp related gradient banding on sensitive materials. Gradient banding also becomes quite a problem when exceeding lamp lifespan. Nothing to do with nozzles, but instead how evenly the ink dries on the material itself.

Something to keep in mind if you end up having issues with banding and all your nozzles are firing well.

 

[uvgerard]

UV curing lamps with heat sensitive substrates Oce Arizona

Looking at a used OCE 440 and can't seem to find out what the UV light source is. The printer will be used for heat sensitive products. The brochure calls the UV source "low heat" which I would think would rule out metal halide bulbs. Does anyone know what bulbs this printer runs and what their life and replacement costs are. Any other input would be helpful.

I wanted to address the heat issue associated with Oce Arizona printers. The later versions of OCE Arizona machines including the Arizona 440 use a lamp assembly designed and engineered by OCE. They are extremely competent in heat management. The lamp assembly incorporates UV cold mirror to reflect UV energy while removing heat-producing infrared energy. The removal of most infrared energy is accomplished using a reflector that absorbs infrared energy transferring the absorbed heat to aluminum extrusion positioned behind the cold mirror.

To complement the cold mirror, a quartz barrier plate is inserted between the lamp and substrate. Technically the plate does not absorb infrared, however it reradiates at a lower temperature than the lamp. Plate can be repeatedly cleaned. While not an optical filter, it allows copious amounts of cooling air to be impinged on the substrate without fear of overcooling the lamp. The more air the cooler the process.

All told this is an extremely effective heat control method resulting in lower temperatures in the irradiation zone, allowing printing on temperature sensitive substrates.

At TCS Technologies we manufacture second source UV curing lamps and quartz plates for most UV systems including Oce. Lamp cost is $195.00 each and they are absolutely interchangeable with the OEM product.

I certainly would not rule out medium pressure UV curing lamps for temperature sensitive substrates. They give the most “bang for the buck” and provide fastest cure speeds.