UV lamp design for moving print-head inkjet applications

With the advent of Piezo 'drop on demand' print-heads and the development of "jet-able" UV curable ink systems, the past 5 years has seen a dramatic uptake in the marketplace of UV inkjet. This growth has, (and continues to be), in both static and moving printhead applications. Visit any current graphics show and examples abound with modern roll to roll or flatbed scanning printers producing; banners; POP displays; printing onto glass, wood, & ceramics; as well as static high speed addressing systems; identity and security card printing; and CD printers. So was this an easy transition for UV lamp technologies to take from offset, screen, flexographic or any other traditional application? Certainly ink developments in the laboratory were all carried out using known lamp designs, however these did not always translate to the practical machine. Static applications have been able to fairly readily adopt existing UV lamp system technologies (suitably adjusted for the process requirements) however the moving head X-Y plotters/ grand format industrial graphic printers initially struggled to find appropriate lamp units, mainly due to problems of weight and size but also because of other unique requirements.