Danish pioneers of surface treatment, Vetaphone, and Danish press manufacturer Tresu have combined to show the first example of a corona treater working on a sheetfed press line. The Vetaphone VE1A-J has been developed to work with the Tresu iCoat 30000, which is designed to work inline with the B2-size HP Indigo 30000 sheetfed digital press. Available as a single or twin coat modular unit, the Tresu iCoat 30000 is capable of handling UV or water based varnishes for a variety of folding carton applications from pharmaceutical to confectionery, cosmetics, electronics, promotional and giftware.

Speaking for Tresu, Vice President of Digital Solutions Kim Krintel says: “We have an exclusive agreement with HP as their sole inline coating supplier, and our long term working partnership with Vetaphone offered the perfect opportunity to develop complementary technology.  Digital inks contain plastic molecules that need to be oxidised to improve adhesion – this facilitates downstream processing such as the application of metallic varnishes on high added value cartons.”

For 2016 Tresu is predicting double digit sales of the iCoat 30000 units with Vetaphone corona treaters to carton houses around the world. Currently, the USA appears to favor the twin-coat model, with other markets, including Europe, opting for the single coat version – though Tresu believes the long term prospect is for twin coaters, and is optimistic of two installations in the UK soon.

Ronni Nielsen, who managed the project for Vetaphone, says, “The partnership has been a major success, with Tresu having a sufficiently open mind to make use of an unproven Vetaphone concept, and turn it into a working solution.  The resulting product is the Vetaphone VE1A-J, the world’s first working inline Corona unit for a sheet fed press, capable of running at 96 m/min on the Tresu iCoat 30000.”