News at ESC

Kuteno 2024

Plastic finishing - fast and at high-quality with printing technology from ESC

ESC will be presenting its wide range of modern printing technology for plastic finishing at Kuteno 2024. This includes screen, pad and digital printing machines with the complete periphery, which ESC customises to the individual requirements of its customers. This comprehensive program makes it possible to develop efficient production systems that not only deliver high-quality printing results, but also enable the automation and networking of various production processes. With this integral approach, ESC helps companies to increase their versatility and optimise their production processes.

Screen printing machines for high volumes

Many plastic products can already be printed cost-effectively with the basic model ESC-AT PA in 300 x 450 mm format. For higher quantities, flatbed three-quarter automatic machines such as the ESC-ATMACE are available, right up to fully automatic versions with feeder and stacker, which can be completed with corresponding dryers to complete production lines - customised to the customer's specific requirements.

The Sakurai cylinder screen printing machines are specially designed for industrial applications for printing on thin and surface-sensitive substrates at high speeds and with extreme precision and are widely used in the automotive, plastic card and packaging printing sectors. Equipped with servo drive technology and a CCD camera system for sheet alignment, the models in this series achieve high accuracy in colour or layer application and a printing speed of up to 2000 p/h.  

Universally applicable

Whether cosmetic, medical or electronic products - with the ESC-COMEC pad printing machines even the most complicated product shape can be customised. Where screen printing reaches its limits, pad printing is able to place a print.

Here too, ESC offers everything from entry-level models to complex fully automatic machines for single or multi-colour printing.

 Digital printing systems for industrial products

Inkjet flatbed printers and cutting plotters from Mimaki are also part of ESC's portfolio. The UJF and JFX models are powerful, user-friendly, offer outstanding print quality and are very versatile thanks to their UV inks. For example, the Mimaki UJF-7151 plus II is IoT-capable and can therefore be easily integrated into automated, unsupervised production with robots.

 75 years of ESC - special machines for printed electronics at LOPEC 2024

The use of screen and digital printing machines for optoelectronic applications continues to boom despite difficult economic developments. Products such as mobile phones, screens and membrane keyboards have become an integral part of our everyday lives and only get their function from printed electronics.

ESC has now been active in this sector for 75 years - a period of time to be really proud of! At LOPEC, the ESC-AT screen printing machines will demonstrate to visitors exactly the technology that was developed for OE and PCB applications and is also designed for integration into complex production processes.

Starting with the ESC-AT PAB 45, a compact entry-level model, all AT models offer exactly the high precision and repeat accuracy that is essential for the application of electrically conductive layers.

The ESC-ATMAOE, for example, has a 4-column system with retractable table top and has been developed for quality printing on flat materials such as EL foils, fibre optic plates, BEF foils, touch screens, membrane keyboards, flexible printed circuits, etc. It achieves a positioning accuracy of ± 0.05 mm. All parameters can be set digitally. The ESC-ATMAOE and many other ATMA models can be optionally equipped with an automatic unloading station with height-adjustable conveyor belt, a CCD camera system for precise material positioning and other accessories such as an anti-drip device or cleaning station.

 

High-performance systems such as the ESC-Sakurai all-automatic cylinder screen printing lines or inkjet printers such as the ESC-Mimaki UJF series for smaller formats can also be used for a wide range of applications in printed electronics. In order to find the right printing system for the respective application, customers should definitely seek a dialogue with ESC at the trade fair stand. 75 years of experience speak for themselves.

ESC: Hall B0, Stand No. 704

Special systems for printed electronics at Productronica and automotive interiors 2023

This autumn, ESC will be exhibiting at two trade fairs in Munich and Stuttgart as a printing machine supplier for applications in the fields of optoelectronics, PCBs and vehicle interiors.

Speed, repeat accuracy and extreme precision are the most important requirements for printing systems used in the electronics and automotive industries. As the basis for complex production systems, an ESC-ATMA screen printing system is the ideal, customised printing solution that can also be easily integrated into production processes. The complete process can be individually controlled in combination with various automated systems such as pick-and-place feeding, automatic registering with the aid of modern CCD camera systems, pre-treatment, removal station, suitable dryer, etc. It is precisely this versatility of the ESC-AT screen printing machines that is an important advantage when it comes to meeting the rapidly changing requirements in the field of printed electronics or in the automotive sector.

With the presentation of the Mimaki inkjet printers, ESC shows that there are also machine configurations in the digital sector that can be used in electronics production. Here, the Mimaki UJF systems for smaller formats with their versatile UV inks offer a wide range of applications. They are also characterised by outstanding print quality and user-friendliness.

ESC at the productronica 2023: B2.527
ESC at the automotive interiors 2023: 3.3152

Fakuma 2023

Innovative surface technology with printing systems from ESC and new, automatic screen washing systems from INPRO

The plastics industry is currently facing the challenges of digitalization and technical change. ESC offers the right printing systems to make plastic surfaces fit for new product concepts. This does not always require high investments in the production process - even with technically mature, cost-effective printing technology, plastics can be functionally coated and/or given a high-quality and robust appearance.
At FAKUMA 2023, the focus will therefore be on the small "all-rounders" with a wide range of applications, as well as on the automatic TC Combi-ECO screen washing system from INPRO, which has just been added to the product range:

The ESC-AT PAB 45 screen printing machine is designed for flat, round and oval printing and is already widely used in industrial production. This model achieves maximum precision, is easy to use and requires very little maintenance, especially in the field of coating with conductive media.

The ESC-COMEC EAZY pad printing machine is the entry-level model for pad printing and, like the AT PAB, is reliable and low maintenance. It can be used for 1- and 2-color printing and, depending on the version, offers a printing format of up to 145 mm in diameter.
All screen and pad printing machines are so flexible that they can be adapted to almost any task by means of different feeding systems, automation, dryers, etc. They can be used as stand-alone machines or integrated into production lines.
Especially in the field of special machine construction, ESC designs special printing solutions in close cooperation with the customer.

In the production of housings for mobile phones, electronic articles, USB sticks, control panels, etc., the industry increasingly relies on inkjet printing for surface finishing. For this application, ESC will show the Mimaki UJF-7151 plusII desktop printer. The UJF series is designed for small format direct printing with UV inks. Thanks to these specially developed inks, a wide range of plastics, such as polypropylene, can be printed in sharp, high-resolution print quality. This makes these models very interesting for industrial mass production.

To simplify the time-consuming process of cleaning screens, ESC has added INPRO's automatic screen washing systems to its product range. The TC Combi-Eco inline system is so versatile that it can be used for fully automatic screen development as well as for high-pressure screen cleaning. This means a quick return on investment. The screen is simply set up to a size of 900 x 1250 mm. Then the developing and washing processes run automatically and the screen is removed by the operator when finished. ESC will be happy to demonstrate the simple and fast operation of the TC Combi-Eco at its booth in Hall 1, No. 1115.

Open House at ESC

Successful event on screen printing technology with focus on printed electronics
Do small, target group-oriented events offer more advantages than attending major trade fairs? After the successful Screen Printing Days in April 2023, the answer to this question at ESC is clearly in favor of its own event - also due to the many positive feedbacks from the participants.

ESC as the organizer was able to focus intensively on their visitors and had enough time available to provide exactly the information that was important to each individual. During the live demos of the Sakurai and AT screen printing machines, questions were answered immediately and comprehensively. In addition, the presentation of a wide range of applications gave participants new impetus for their business decisions.

Practical demonstrations were given, for example, of the following printing systems:

• Sakurai MF-80VII flatbed screen printing press with connected ESC UV dryer Special for high-precision, flexible printing applications in the in the field of Printed Electronics
• Sakurai Maestro MS80AII stop cylinder screen printing system, also designed for complex printing tasks in the industrial manufacturing process
• ESC-ATMACE 710/G6 three-quarter automatic flat-bed screen printing machine, specialized for foil printing
• ESC-AT PAD 45 with NIR infrared dryer and KLT server for printing on PTC ceramics
• ESC-AT PAB and AT-P – universal screen printers for round, oval and flat printing
• ESC-UV-TRON® UV-LED system dryer with a radiation intensity of above 30 W/cm

The demonstrations were supplemented by presentations from speakers from well-known manufacturers such as ELANTAS EUROPE on the subject of functional pastes for printed electronics, Keyence on the subject of automatic print image control with vision apps. Pröll reported on the processing of the new NoriPUR® two-component ink system with NIR infrared drying. Tigres was teaching the basics of plasma pretreatment and X-Rite explained why colors should be measured at all and how the daily challenges in dealing with visual perception can be mastered.
Participants were thrilled that ESC gave them the opportunity to tailor the day entirely to their own needs, with the support of many experts.