GEW shares the case of a label printing company located in Pomezia, on the outskirts of Rome, that has switched from UV curing to UV LED with great success.

etic.a was founded in 2009 by Gianni Olivieri and his wife Patrizia. The company has grown steadily and now employs around 35 people, generating a revenue of around 10 million euros. The company’s guiding mantra is that ‘the customer is first.’

 

The management team took the bold step of upgrading all three presses to full UV LED.

 

 

The company serves a wide range of industries, including automotive, food, wine, spirits, cosmetics, home and personal care. etic.a stays at the forefront in a competitive market, through continuous investment in technology and people.

 

etic.a has partnered with GEW for its UV curing systems since 2014 and so, when the time came to upgrade to UV LED, GEW was a natural choice. Gianni Olivieri, the company’s Managing Director, comments: “When we decided to move to LED, we made market research and we decided to go on with GEW because of three reasons... the quality of product, the quality of the organisation - we had the good relationship - and also the price.” The supply and installation of all three LeoLED UV systems was fulfilled by Fornietic Srl, GEW’s exclusive distribution partner for Italy.

 

etic.a serves a wide range of industries, including automotive, food, wine, spirits and cosmetics.

 

 

The management team at etic.a took the bold step of upgrading all three of their presses to UV LED, at once. This followed a significant period of R & D work within the company to ensure a smooth and successful transition, as Vito di Martino, Operations Manager, explains: “We decided to change all the LED system because we have the confidence in our expertise and all the research with the inks, varnish and all support for labels. So we know that this change don't impact in our work and will be a success.” The changeover was further simplified as they prepared the cooling system prior to the LED installation, so the upgrades were seamless and did not impact on their production.

 

etic.a head office and production facility are in Pomezia, on the outskirts of Rome

 

 

Olivieri explains the key reasons for their choosing to move to UV LED: “What was very important for us is first, obviously, we want to reduce electricity cost. Second, using LED you reduce the impact to the environment. And third, last but not least, attention to the people. Because our people are less exposed to noise.” Since the decision to switch to LED was made, soaring energy costs have added a further dimension and significantly reduced the company’s projected ROI period, as Olivieri states: “The financial aspect is one of the reasons why we chose to move to the LED system. Because of the costs of electricity are going up very fast, the return of investment is shorter than we expect.”

 

etic.a was established in 2009 by Gianni Olivieri and Patrizia Windfang.

 

 

Production Manager Sergio Pasquini is responsible for all of etic.a’s day-to-day output. He describes the effect that the UV LED upgrade has had on the production team’s work: “Technically nothing has changed. We have the same quality, same speed, but the good thing is that we have no noise from the fans as we had with UV, or smell of ozone, that is no longer. The rollers stay cleaner because the ink dries better, that is a great thing… we are very satisfied with the investment and installation.”

 

The company is now in a much stronger position through its investment, with faster production, enhanced sustainability credentials and lower production costs to enable a competitive edge. The team’s confidence in UV LED has led to their complete switch over to this technology, as di Martino sums up: “We are now completely LED system and have no conventional UV curing.”

 

The company is ISO 9001 certified and committed to sustainability initiatives

 

 

GEW (EC) Limited designs and manufactures Arc and UV LED curing systems for printing, coating and converting applications. The company is the leading manufacturer of UV systems for label and narrow web printing and is experiencing a growing global presence in sheetfed and web offset for commercial printing and packaging. GEW’s UV systems are available for all new machinery, and can be retrofitted to any active press, allowing printers to breathe new life into older printing equipment. GEW has a world-class production facility at its UK headquarters, subsidiaries in the USA & Germany, and an extensive list of worldwide distributors. GEW specialises in the design and installation of UV LED systems, having introduced its latest UV LED product, AeroLED, in early 2022. Representing the next generation for UV LED curing, AeroLED eliminates the need for a chiller by air-cooling from a single remote fan to bring UV LED within affordable reach for all. LeoLED, released in 2019, is GEW’s water-cooled solution, delivering maximum power and UV dose for more demanding applications. AeroLED and LeoLED are both compatible with GEW’s renowned ArcLED hybrid system.

 

 

www.gewuv.es