Offset Printing

Fast, lean, and sustainable throughout

Friday 05. December 2014 - oeding print in Braunschweig - Germany's first zero-emissions print shop in an energy-plus building

Unlikely as it sounds for a print shop to be generating power, that’s exactly what oeding print GmbH in Braunschweig has been doing since the beginning of this year. The Oeding Group started production in a 5,500 square meter energy-plus building at its new site geared entirely toward sustainability at the end of November 2013. It was essential for the prepress, press, and postpress equipment to fit perfectly into the company’s overall concept focused on sustainability, so oeding print invested some EUR 4.5 million in environmentally friendly equipment from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg). What’s more, full process integration in an end-to-end workflow paves the way for sustainability to be optimized further still.
The family business was founded over 200 years ago. Previous items in the production portfolio included sheet music, scientific publications, and Braunschweig’s first telephone directory. In keeping with the company’s tradition, the Group still publishes directories at the new site. With some 40 staff, the company also produces commercial products for customers from diverse branches of industry, takes care of data management, and offers cross-media services.
Sustainability concept with scientific support
Oeding has always made a point of being courageous and pursuing new approaches so as to remain competitive over the long term. “That’s why we developed a clear sustainability strategy from 2008 onward,” says owner and managing director Frauke Oeding-Blumenberg. “We achieved our objective of obtaining certifications such as FSC, PEFC, and EMAS while still at our old site, but we were unable to take things any further there. That’s one of the reasons we decided on a new building,” she continues. With scientific support from Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, the company set about creating a zero-emissions building that generates all the power it needs. Given the plans for a cogeneration plant, the solar modules, heat recovery from the equipment with underground tanks to store heat, and structural measures such as insulation and triple glazing, it became clear at the design stage that creating an energy-plus building was a realistic goal. The cogeneration plant and solar modules have generated around 260,000 kilowatt hours of electricity since they were taken into operation – a figure that exceeds expectations. “Our building already has a positive energy balance and feeds excess electricity into the public grid,” reports Oeding-Blumenberg.
Products manufactured making exclusive use of sustainable practices already account for some 30 percent of sales at Oeding. This proportion is increasing and is expected to grow at an annual rate of five percent. A great deal of work previously went into explaining to customers why environmentally friendly print production makes sense, but now they almost come knocking to obtain comprehensive advice on sustainability. “Word has gotten round that we’re a leader in this field,” explains Roland Makulla, who is responsible for environmental management at Oeding. Customers include utility companies, manufacturers of natural cosmetics, and eco-pioneers, but also businesses that are keen to demonstrate their sustainability credentials. Although green print products are in demand, even environmentally conscious customers are not automatically prepared to pay more for them. “Sustainable print production has only a marginal impact on the price that can be obtained for products,” reveals Oeding-Blumenberg. “Our systematic focus on sustainability is a strong unique selling point and one way of ensuring customer loyalty. Investments pay off through benefits such as lower energy and operating costs and lean processes,” she adds.
Integrated – not simply networked
Fast, lean production, minimal waste, low disposal costs, and high energy savings combine to offset the additional costs of sustainability measures. The new building represents a total investment of some EUR 10 million. Cutting-edge technology, high quality, efficient processes, and resource-conserving production go hand in hand at Oeding and were also key selection criteria for the new equipment. “We wanted an integrated print shop, not a networked one, because networking also always involves interfaces that can create problems. Having an integrated print shop means we only enter our job data once in the workflow – and this technology gives us data back about the production processes. That provides us with the transparency we need to control our production operations and we’re able to respond quickly if problems occur,” explains Oeding-Blumenberg.
“Heidelberg was the only manufacturer that could offer us a solution with total integration – in the shape of the Prinect workflow, which covers everything from prepress to postpress,” she adds. To expand its existing capacity, the management team decided on a package comprising the Suprasetter 106 platesetter, a Speedmaster XL 106 eight-color perfecting press with coating unit, a Stahlfolder TH 66 folding machine, and a Stitchmaster ST 500 saddlestitcher. In favor of a total integration, the company divested itself of some solutions such as the Agfa prepress workflow. The management information system (MIS) comes from a third-party supplier.
In the pressroom, it was particularly important to ensure short makeready times and fast inking-up with minimal waste for shorter runs. The carbon-neutral Speedmaster XL 106 eight-color press has already proved itself in this respect. Oeding uses it for virtually all standard jobs. “Makeready times are even shorter than we expected and we’ve identified further potential here,” says Oeding-Blumenberg with obvious delight. Precise evaluations of makeready times are planned. The perfecting device is used for over 90 percent of jobs. In the nine months it has been in operation, the press has produced 13 million prints at an average speed of around 12,500 sheets per hour.
Central compressed air supply and heat recovery
Heat recovery and the central compressed air supply for the equipment make a key contribution to sustainability. Heidelberg has reduced the number of compressors on the equipment, which means Oeding saves a great deal of energy and can efficiently store the waste heat from the central compressor to use for both heating and cooling. The new postpress equipment is also much quieter than before – a key health and safety benefit.
Even before its relocation, Oeding used the Saphira Eco line from Heidelberg – in particular with an eye to the health of the staff working with consumables all the time. The company obtains roughly 60 to 70 percent of its inks, coatings, and dampening solution additives from this product line. In this case, too, using a one-stop shop pays dividends. One single contact is responsible for all issues relating to print production and materials are perfectly coordinated with the equipment. This plays a role, for example, in ensuring that PSO certification requirements are complied with over the long term. The Prinect Inpress Control inline color measuring system in the Speedmaster XL 106 was also instrumental in obtaining PSO certification.
Sustainability as a continuous improvement process
In the first nine months since relocating, oeding print’s management team has focused on smooth production. The tasks for the coming months consist of evaluating environmental KPIs and further optimizing integrated production. The company intends to pay particular attention to load management in the future. One possible way of significantly improving energy efficiency in this connection is the new standby function that recently became available for all Heidelberg machines equipped with the Prinect Press Center. Operators can switch the press to standby mode at the touch of a button rather than shutting it down completely and then having to restart it. According to the manufacturer and calculated over an entire year, print shops that switch to standby mode for just one hour each day can save enough energy to power a family home. Another planned step is to use the Heidelberg energy measuring device on the XL 106. “We don’t see sustainability as a fixed target, but rather as a continuous improvement process that ensures the company’s future viability. And we’ll continue to make progress in this respect,” concludes Oeding-Blumenberg.