Published on: Thursday, June 22, 2023

ORAFOL and Agfa celebrate ten years of partnership

The ORAFOL and Agfa partnership has resulted in an optimal product range to produce traffic signs for permanent signage and construction zones.

The ORAFOL and Agfa partnership celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. The close partnership between ORAFOL and Agfa has resulted in an optimal product range to produce traffic signs for permanent signage and construction zones. This is based on the Agfa Anapurna UV digital printing systems, the ORALITE UV digital printing inks especially developed for this application, and the ORALITE reflective films and protective laminates. The technology offers sign shops a highly reliable and easily scalable solution to produce traffic signs.

The specially coordinated printing technology could only be developed and continuously enhanced in close cooperation between the two partners, ORAFOL and Agfa. Stephan Gilleßen, Sales Manager DACH at Agfa, quoting Henry Ford, says: “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, working together is success”, adding, "In these ten years of cooperation, we have been able to learn a lot from each other, have found common paths and are deepening our partnership based on a very trusting cooperation at eye level.”

Employees from both companies work closely together in research and development, and both companies ensure that the world's largest OEM technician network for traffic sign printers can always meet all customer requirements.

Regular technician training courses make an essential contribution to this. "We are proud of the trusting cooperation with Agfa. Customers can rely on both companies' consistency, competence, and service orientation. Agfa accompanies our development and contributes technology and great know-how to our joint projects. Thanks to this stable partnership, we can secure our, and more importantly our customers, success in the long term," says Adalbert Dörner, Technical Sales Manager of Reflective Solutions at ORAFOL.

The products for traffic signs and guidance devices in the ORAFOL portfolio, which are used worldwide under the name ORALITE, were developed for all areas and applications where visibility must be ensured despite poor lighting conditions.

Modern, Emission-free and Environmentally Friendly
All colours are printed onto a white, retroreflective base film in digital printing. The printed image is then covered with a transparent protective film. The film laminate is then applied to the aluminium substrate.
This environmentally friendly production of traffic signs also offers the following advantages:
High-quality, low-pollutant ingredients in the reflective base film, mainly when prismatic materials are used.
Intelligent processing procedures.
A long service life due to the protected surface of the combined ORALITE films and inks.
Ink savings and low-pollutant processing compared to screen printing
Constant Exchange and Further Development for Optimum Service

The cooperation with Agfa and the sophisticated UV printing technology enables ORAFOL to act as a supplier for its customers in traffic signs and guidance systems. This also means one contact person for the customer with a worldwide guaranteed, long-term, responsive service and support.

The high-speed hybrid inkjet system with UV LED curing enables high-quality printing on various uncoated rigid media and roll stock. The industrially developed system is designed for a permanently high workload and maximum efficiency in terms of time and costs as well as sustainable production: the "thin ink layer technology" and intelligent workflow software enable extremely low ink consumption. In addition, optimised self-cleaning of the printer prevents unnecessary ink consumption. Furthermore, there is no need to mix inks.

The UV-curable inks for faster drying and with a comprehensive colour gamut were explicitly developed for digital traffic sign printing. Developers and application engineers from ORAFOL and Agfa work hand in hand to guarantee high quality and durability. The inks are also VOC-free, so no solvents evaporate. The LED lamps used for printing on thermally sensitive materials are very energy-efficient at 290 watts, enabling constant UV output with low costs for maintenance and consumption.

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