Consumables

Not reinventing the wheel

Friday 08. February 2013 - technotrans at the Hunkeler Innovationdays 2013 in Lucerne.

“The graphic industry is faced with increasing machine speeds, with corresponding higher demand for cooling, ink and integrated conditioning. This can only be dealt with by using considerably more powerful units, than those in use today”, observed Peter Böcker in a workshop with leading printing press manufacturers. That was over 15 years ago in 1998.
Even then Peter Böcker was an employee of technotrans AG, the leading system supplier for the printing industry worldwide. Today he is head of the sales department for printing in the corporate group as well as responsible for print sales in the 20 Sales and Service companies in Europe, the USA and Asia. The printing expert is amused by his old quote. “You can apply that statement to the situation of digital printing technology today”, says Böcker, “barring the latter part of the message, because naturally the units that are necessary in the future are well known – at least to technotrans AG.”
When two years ago at the Hunkeler Innovationdays, technotrans presented a water-cooled colour copier, in which the whole refrigeration technology was fully integrated, the professional world was astonished. “Who needs that?” was the prevalent reaction that Peter Böcker recalls. Now there are an increasing number of machines with a performance rate that cannot be handled without precise cooling.
“The development is considerably more rapid than in conventional printing”, Böcker states. “The latest innovations had just been shown in Lucerne in 2011, when Benny Landa showed the next big thing at drupa 2012 – for digital printing with capacity characteristics formerly only available in offset printing.”
The derided photocopier of 2011 has resulted in co-operation with large digital printing press manufacturers. So the first installations of the new HP 10000 were equipped with technotrans refrigeration systems. “The system manufacturers naturally quickly realise that technotrans AG has quite a few solutions on hand”, is how Peter Böcker describes the situation. “If somebody considers single zone temperature control within the various areas of a digital printing press, then he will find that this is a technology that technotrans already uses in sheetfed and web offset for the last 25 years.”
The challenge for the international system supplier is the fact that many solutions need to be on a smaller scale. “Due to the machine speeds more and more ink must be provided to the process in increasingly less time”, says Böcker. “For this reason we are presenting a special ink pump with a capacity of up to two kilograms per minute at the Hunkeler Innovationdays 2013. In digital printing that is quite a lot. technotrans has also developed pumps that feed up to one kilogram of ink in two seconds – but at the current status of technology that would be rather too much ink in digital printing!”
Peter Böcker describes that a further advantage for the manufacturers of digital printing presses is the long experience of technotrans AG as an OEM supplier. “Experienced Key Account Managers at the headquarters of our company in Germany are familiar with the expectations and the special challenges of printing press manufacturers. Furthermore global suppliers automatically avail themselves of the worldwide Sales and Service network of technotrans AG – from Chicago to Tokyo – in eastern direction of course. As a partner of technotrans AG you can rely on technological aspects as well as on our great service and support.”
technotrans will be exhibiting at the Hunkeler Innovationdays 2013 from the 11. to 15. February 2013 together with the Austrian cooperation partner Merlin Luftbefeuchtungssysteme.