If You Cannot Measure It, You Cannot Control It: Why UV measurement is becoming mission-critical for industrial print

This article is inspired by a FuturePrint Podcast interview with Jim Raymont and PK Swain of EIT 2.0. You can listen to the podcast here.

In industrial printing, few topics are as quietly consequential as UV measurement. It rarely features on marketing slides or trade show headlines, yet it sits at the heart of some of the industry’s most persistent challenges - quality variability, unplanned downtime, wasted energy and unnecessary scrap. As digital inkjet continues its march into manufacturing environments, the ability to measure, understand and control UV curing is moving from a technical detail to a strategic necessity.

That was the central theme of a recent FuturePrint Podcast conversation with Jim Raymont, Director of Sales at EIT 2.0, and PK Swain, Chief Operating Officer. Together, they represent more than five decades of experience across UV measurement and curing systems. Their message was simple, but uncompromising: industrial print cannot scale reliably without measurement discipline.

Measurement as infrastructure, not insurance

EIT 2.0 may be a relatively new name, having been formed in 2022, but the heritage behind it is anything but new. The company traces its roots back to the mid-1980s, when UV curing was first becoming industrially viable. According to Raymont, EIT 2.0 was deliberately refocused to concentrate on UV measurement at a time when curing technologies were becoming more complex rather than simpler.

That complexity matters. In many production environments, measurement is still treated as something you reach for when things go wrong. A lamp fails, ink does not cure, scrap rises, and only then does the radiometer come out. By that point, as Raymont puts it, “the horse has already left the barn.”

The alternative approach - the one EIT advocates - is to treat measurement as infrastructure. Establish a process window at the beginning. Define target irradiance and energy density. Understand how speed, power, substrate and formulation interact. Then monitor deviation before it becomes failure. This mindset shift mirrors broader trends in advanced manufacturing, where predictive control increasingly replaces reactive troubleshooting.

The hidden cost of not knowing

PK Swain frames the issue from a business perspective. In his experience, customers are rarely upset when something fails. What frustrates them is not knowing why it failed or how to fix it quickly. In industrial environments, uncertainty is expensive. Every hour of downtime, every batch of scrap, every emergency call to a supplier compounds cost and erodes confidence.

Measurement shortens that uncertainty window. In Swain’s words, UV instruments often reveal that “70 or 80 percent of the time, the lamp was not even operating within specification.” Without data, operators blame ink, chemistry or equipment in the wrong order. With data, conversations become factual rather than emotional.

This is particularly relevant in digitally driven production, where uptime expectations increasingly resemble those of traditional manufacturing rather than conventional print shops. Industrial inkjet lines printing décor, packaging or direct-to-product components cannot afford ambiguity.

LEDs, myths and misunderstanding

One of the most revealing parts of the discussion centred on UV LED curing. LEDs are widely regarded as stable, long-lasting and maintenance-light - assumptions that are only partially true. As Swain points out, LEDs are still semiconductor devices. They degrade. Manufacturers specify this degradation explicitly through metrics such as L70, which defines when output has fallen to 70 percent of its original level.

The problem is not simply LED ageing. In practice, most curing issues stem from far more mundane factors: ink mist on protective windows, misalignment, substrate interference, changes in line speed or operator-adjusted power settings. LEDs may be functioning perfectly, yet the UV energy never reaches the surface in sufficient quantity or consistency.

Compounding the issue is a widespread misconception that LEDs do not need to be measured at all. This belief has been reinforced by marketing narratives around “fit and forget” curing. In reality, failing to measure UV output simply transfers risk from the system to the operator.

More concerning still is the misuse of measurement tools. Swain highlights that broadband mercury radiometers are frequently used to measure LED systems, producing readings that can be wrong by as much as 90 percent. The result is false confidence, poor diagnostics and inconsistent production outcomes. Dedicated instruments exist for a reason, and interchanging them undermines the very purpose of measurement.

A neutral referee in a fragmented supply chain

One of EIT 2.0’s most interesting self-descriptions is as the “United Nations” of UV curing. In an industrial print ecosystem that includes source suppliers, ink formulators, press manufacturers and end users, accountability can become blurred. When curing fails, responsibility is often disputed.

Measurement provides a neutral reference point. By establishing agreed targets before production begins, all parties align around data rather than assumption. When conditions change - and they always do - measurement identifies where and how performance has drifted.

This role becomes more important as inkjet continues to displace analogue processes. Digital systems promise flexibility, but that flexibility introduces more variables. Without measurement, flexibility becomes fragility.

Sustainability through control, not slogans

UV curing is often framed as inherently sustainable, particularly in comparison with thermal drying. LEDs strengthen that argument further by reducing energy consumption and eliminating mercury. But sustainability claims only hold if processes are controlled.

Poor curing wastes energy. Scrap wastes materials. Rework wastes time. Measurement underpins sustainability not through ideology, but through efficiency. As Raymont notes, LEDs cannot simply replace mercury lamps without testing and validation. Formulations behave differently. Process assumptions must be revisited.

This pragmatic view aligns with broader sustainability trends across manufacturing, where performance data increasingly trumps marketing claims. Measurement enables optimisation, and optimisation reduces environmental impact as a by-product of operational discipline.

When should measurement happen?

The answer, according to both guests, is earlier than most people think. Ideally, UV measurement begins during process development - when sources are selected, formulations tested and line speeds defined. That is when the cost of adjustment is lowest and learning is fastest.

However, EIT is also realistic. Many customers only discover measurement after years of production. In those cases, benchmarking existing processes still delivers value. Understanding what has been done right, what has drifted and where improvement is possible can recover lost efficiency surprisingly quickly.

What matters most is not when measurement starts, but whether it becomes embedded rather than episodic.

Why this matters now

The timing of this conversation is significant. Industrial inkjet is no longer experimental. It is embedded in flooring, furniture, packaging, electronics and product decoration. Expectations around reliability are rising accordingly.

As production environments professionalise, the industry is rediscovering an old manufacturing truth: control follows measurement. Without it, scale remains fragile. With it, digital print begins to behave like an industrial process rather than a sophisticated prototype.

That is why UV measurement, once considered peripheral, is moving towards the centre of industrial print strategy. It does not make headlines. It does not sell presses. But without it, the promise of industrial inkjet remains incomplete.

And as Lord Kelvin observed nearly two centuries ago - a quote Swain returns to without irony - what you cannot measure, you cannot control. In industrial print, that lesson is being relearned the hard way.