If asked just a short time ago, I may have guessed it was the name of a newly discovered planet.  However, after visiting Drupa for the first time, I now realize it is actually the intergalactic emperor of trade shows.  I was humbled.  And, I was excited at the universe of opportunities for modern electron beam curing technology.

As a sign of the growing trend to find sustainable and safe alternatives to conventional curing technologies for food packaging, our friends at ESI demonstrated their beams running on a flexo press from Comexi and a web offset press from Drent Goebel.  As expected, sustainability and energy efficiency were strong themes.  Also front and center were foci on overall productivity, economic solutions for short run packaging, and product differentiation solutions through process innovation, all for both digital and conventional printing solutions.

With the growing success of EB curing for traditional print packaging, we are seeing an increasing interest in deploying electron beams in a wider range of non-traditional applications.  In the April issue of the Radtech report, we discuss some alternative approaches to EB curing.  Leveraging AEB's compact, cost effective emitter technology opens up another universe of curing possibilities for the printing and packaging markets.