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ProAqualis: The Böttcher Roller System for the Dampening Unit in Sheetfed Offset

Sunday 08. June 2008 - ProAqualis stands for the Böttcher dampening roller system especially for IPA-free or IPA-reduced printing.

Particular innovations in this field are compound 124 25 as form dampening roller for conventional printing, compound 134 25 for dampening in UV and mixed mode printing as well as the new extremely resistant water pan rollers ProAqualis 128 25 and 427 40.

Depending upon the ink type, the dampening roller material and the fountain solution additives in use, more or less quickly radial swellings can appear in places with ink feedback on the water pan or the metering rollers with conventional covering; the exact mechanism behind this swelling process has not been explained completely. The classical dampening roller materials were modified in response to these results. Compound 147 25 was introduced as a “normal” water pan roller with highest protection against swellings as standard for the water pan and metering rollers. Unfortunately, there are still some ink-fountain solution combinations in use which produce radial swellings even with this highly resistant compound. The new dampening roller ProAqualis has a fluorinated rubber coating, which presents an extreme resistance against most diverse media. Due to high material costs of fluorinated rubber a 2-layer system was developed, which comprises a “normal” dampening roller material at the base and as surface layer a highly resistant fluorinated rubber. Apart from the swell resistance, the dynamics of the current dampening roller material are maintained, too. So far, no swelling problems have been reported on any of these rollers by users in the market.

A clear advantage of the ProAqualis system also is its good resistance to polar solvents contained in usual dampening roller cleaners and UV washes.

Most customers cite low ink feedback in combination with good water transfer as especially positive attributes.