About TDC
TDC is a flexographic printing company specialising in self-adhesive labels, based in the New Germany district of Durban in South Africa. Founded in 2007, TDC has an established distribution infrastructure to provide packaging solutions to clients across the country. The company specialises in labelling for the food and beverage industries, dealing directly with manufacturers and producers in this field.
Background
Being mindful of its impact on the environment, TDC has optimised its operational processes to the extent it has now been able to reduce its overall energy consumption by 45%, since beginning the sustainability drive. The company has turned to the latest technologies available, including switching from conventional UV Arc curing to UV LED, to contribute to this impressive reduction.
Trevor Nadar, Owner of TDC, explains the background and describes how he first heard about GEW: “TDC has a good drive of cost efficiency and that brings our prices down as well. We’re always looking for better machines, for better technology. The presses that we have – a Mark Andy 13-inch P3, and we have a Mark Andy 2200 10-inch, both eight colours, both UV LEDs. I first bought my machine in 2010, my Mark Andy 2200. That’s the first time I’ve seen the name GEW because it came with the press.”
Price versus quality
When the time came to update the older 2200 press with a UV LED curing system, Nadar moved away from GEW in favour of a cheaper option: “When I first ventured into LED on the 2200, the reason why I chose an alternative UV supplier, it was purely based on price.” However, when the P3 machine required a similar update in early 2025, Nadar chose to invest in GEW technology, as he explains: “The reason why I chose GEW for the AeroLED2 on my P3 – I want to have less problems now. And that’s why I went with the GEW system because I believe it’s a premium quality system. Although it’s a bit more in terms of price, but on the long run, it’s actually a cheaper system to work with. The AeroLED2 gives you 35,000 hours.* With the LED on the 2200, every 20,000 hours, we have to change the lamps.”
He continues: “The other reason why I went to the GEW AeroLED2 is the cooling system. There’s no chiller. The cost of running my chiller on my 2200 compared to my P3 was chalk and cheese. Without the chiller, I can guarantee you that I’ll definitely get more than 30% savings on my electricity. I’m perfectly happy.”
Combining UV Arc and LED
A further factor in Nadar’s choice of the GEW system is its patented, interchangeable lamp technology, which enables UV LED and conventional UV Arc lampheads to be run side by side on the press. This choice also meant that the installation was quick and simple, as he describes: “It was an easy transition from my Arc to the LED because all I had to do is just to get my electrical upgraded to the RHINO system and from the RHINO system it was just plug and play. You just put your LED lamps in. It’s the same socket. So, I was very happy about that because it wasn’t like a very big job to do.”
Improved productivity
Rojie Singh is Production Manager at TDC, and is responsible for ensuring productivity is optimised in every area of the business. He highlights the substantial increase that is achievable in press production speed, expressed in metres per minute: “With the mercury Arc on the P3, we were averaging speeds between 100 and 120. Now, with the new LED system, we are getting speeds up to 180. Our production capacity has increased by an average of about 30%. With the Arc system, we could not meet our OTIFs… OTIF is on time in full. But now with the new LED system, it makes it so much easier for us to meet our OTIFs every day. And this also helps us to reduce labour.”
A further benefit of UV LED systems is their instant on/off switching, which eliminates warm-up and cool-down waiting times. LEDs are ready to use from the moment they are switched on. Singh illustrates this point with a typical example: “The UV lamps, it takes a long time to warm up and make ready, and obviously if we do have a web break or anything of that sort, we have to shut off the system and then the waiting period is about 5 to 6 minutes for the UV system to warm up again. But with the LEDs, as soon as you switch your machine on, everything is ready to run.”
Nadar agrees and points to the financial benefits: “We push our presses up to like 170, 180 on a full colour job on a UV LED, but you couldn’t do that on the Arc, you know, because of the drying. But with the LED, it dries so quick that you can actually push your press. So we’re getting like a 30% efficiency on our machines now, you know. So more work out, more money in.”
Sales and sustainability benefits
Andrew Williams, External Sales Manager, is the central customer contact at the company and manages relationships with all of TDC’s key clients. He has witnessed many positives since the introduction of the GEW curing system, from a sales viewpoint, and is reaping the rewards. He comments: “With the newer technology, we see phenomenal efficiencies, effective on-point printing, reduced lead times and improved quality to the customers.”
The point about print quality is reiterated by Nadar, who adds: “The other positive we have on the LED, which our clients actually picked up, we’ve seen a better quality of printing, and we questioned that and what we’ve noticed is that there on your normal UV, on your substrate, it soaks one above another, you know. With the LED it’s so quick when it dries so basically you are seeing like your ink on just on top of the surface of the paper and it’s actually bringing out a much more brighter and vibrant colour on it. We haven’t changed the inks. We haven’t changed anything and we’re just seeing a better quality print, and that’s what’s selling for us.”
Williams also points to the sustainability benefits and the sales advantage that this brings, when addressing customer demands in this area: “In terms of the environmental impact, we see huge benefits on the carbon footprint and how that benefits our customers is that we reduce waste. Our customers do ask us about environmental factors and the carbon footprint, and in terms of the GEW installation and equipment that we have here at TDC, we are able to answer those questions with confidence. We’ve seen significant reductions in the carbon footprint and the data analyses that we are able to put out to our clients. We are now able to present to them exactly what they require.”
Lower power, higher speed
When the production team first began to use the GEW LED system on the P3, they followed on from how they had used the previous UV Arc system and ran the AeroLED2 lampheads at full, 100% power. However, it soon became apparent that this much power was unnecessary, as Singh explains: “We had the knowledge of the Arc system where we had to run on full temperature and we did the very same thing on the setup, but as we were running we found that, hang on, you have to now drop 20% to achieve a better result. So basically we are now curing at a lower temperature and a higher speed.”
Installation and technical support
As is the case with many GEW system retrofits, the installation was carried out by a local country distributor for GEW, in this case SArepco. Nadar was initially concerned that the installation process could significantly disrupt production, but was pleasantly surprised at the outcome: “When they did come and install it, it was almost like they’re putting a puzzle together. So that’s how fast it was. From what was consulted to what was put on the table, that was something I was very, very happy about. Yes, they stuck to the time, you know, from the time they came in to the time they left and not a single problem.”
Singh agrees: “The installation was approximately three days. All went according to plan. SArepco’s team handled the installation very, very well.”
A further reason that the team at TDC chose AeroLED2 was because of GEW’s strong relationship with SArepco, which they knew would mean they could expect responsive and reliable technical support, locally. They also knew of GEW’s remote monitoring service, which keeps a watchful eye on the operation of GEW systems around the globe, to facilitate fast and proactive technical support for the customer. Singh comments on this: “The remote monitoring system works well for us. It saves us a lot of time especially when we’re troubleshooting. We did experience once the LED system did go down and with the remote monitoring, they managed to find the fault and they said to us that it was our damper that was faulty. So, we just installed the damper and we were ready to run again.”
Summary
The team at TDC summarise their thoughts on the AeroLED2 system, beginning with Andrew Williams: “We are absolutely excited about the new installation. The results that we are now achieving through our business and the efficiencies… what we’re able to produce and give to our customers here is way beyond what we were able to achieve in the past.”
Trevor Nadar adds his view: “I’m very confident that I’ve made the best choice. It’s the future. LED is the future and I’m just happy that I’ve taken the step to upgrade my presses to the LED, and I have a peace of mind now that I have a good contractor, SArepco, that’s going to be servicing it for me. So, less problems, less issues. With the LED, we can run our presses up to 50% faster.
“There’s a lot of cost savings involved in it and it’s hassle free. That’s what I love about LED.”
In the production environment, it’s the increased efficiency that matters to Rojie Singh. He comments: “This system powers up faster and cures exceptionally well. And, with speed, we find that the LED performs even better. Better speed, better curing. It’s much easier now.”
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*Note: AeroLED2 expected diode lifetime: >30,000 hours
For further information on GEW’s next generation, higher power, air-cooled UV LED curing system, AeroLED2, visit www.gewuv.com/aeroled2
To read about AeroLED winning the FTA Sustainability Excellence Award (May 2025), go to https://www.gewuv.com/gews-aeroled2-scoops-fta-sustainability-excellence-award/
For more about TDC visit http://tdcprinters.co.za/
GEW is represented for all Label & Narrow Web business in South Africa by SArepco. For more information visit https://www.sarepco.co.za/
