Offset Printing
Economy through Ecology
Monday 09. February 2009 - At PraxisDialog 21, manroland and industry partners provided information about environment-friendly print production
Printing companies are keen to make a good impression with environment-friendly production – so long as it pays off. The many practical solutions for doing this were explained by manroland and printing industry partners at PraxisDialog 21 held recently in Offenbach.
Image enhancement, customer loyalty, higher margins: the compatibility of “Economy and Ecology” can be a printing companys success model. Particularly impressive during the PraxisDialog about this topic held in Offenbach on 29 January was how clearly and understandably the speakers dealing with the print value-adding chain explained the way to ecological production. Host manroland positions its environmental activities under the motto CMYK+GREEN and, with manroland EcoLogic, offers ecology-compatible products and solutions. Experts from different companies also provided information about energy and emission reduction, testing methods and certification procedures, environment-friendly consumable materials, and resource-conserving machine technology right through to financing models.
Energy efficiency and reduction of emissions
Associations play an important role in establishing environment-friendly print production and comparable standards are demanded. For example, print buyers more and more often want printing companies to provide a CO2 balance sheet. This is what the “CO2 calculation tool” presented by Walther Fleck from the BVDM (German Printing and Media Industries Federation) is intended to make possible. Another interesting thesis, also concerning emission reductions, was put forward by Dr. Axel Mayer from the BG Druck and Papierverarbeitung (Employers Liability Insurance Association of the Printing and Paper Processing Industry): “Health Protection is Environment Protection”. Measures to reduce emissions have a positive effect on staff working conditions as well as the environment and this is why action groups such as the “Industry Initiative for Offset Printing” are pushing strongly for low-emission production. Another core topic, namely energy efficiency, was illustrated by Torsten Fritsch from Berg Energiekontrollsystem GmbH. The guests fully understood the process steps necessary for comprehensive energy management. The overriding objective is to increase a printing companys efficiency and protect the environment by reducing energy consumption and thus energy costs.
Consumable materials, technology, and financing these
With consumable materials such as paper and coating produced in a resource-conserving manner, ecology flows into print production in a very practical manner. Thomas Wegner-Ney from VDMH (Hesse Print and Media Association) showed why uncontrolled exploitation of forestry resources must be stopped. He pointed out the ecological benefits of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)-certified paper and explained how a printing company can receive FSC certification. “TerraGreen” coating which was presented by Frank Kamphuis of ACTEGA Terra is also based on natural resources, in this case resins and wax. Up to 75 percent biologically degradable, this coating received the 2008 German Printing Industry Innovation Award.
The press and workflow technologies available from manroland for environment-friendly print production were presented by Vincent Krafft and Joachim Ruf aided by a print demonstration on a six-color ROLAND 700 HiPrint with coating module. The equipment behind this includes QuickChange options to reduce makeready time, inking unit presetting with ColorPilot, gray balance control with okBalance, QuickStart and PrepressLink. Great interest was aroused by what is possible with the manroland eco-counter. The calculator shows the costs that can be saved by using environment-friendly technologies. Still, despite all innovative progress, one thing remains the same: new technology requires investments on the part of a printing company. Marcus Kaufmann from the KfW-Bank explained how investments in environment protection can be assisted by less expensive financial services and special financing. He outlined the procedure involved in applying for energy efficiency consulting subsidies and gave examples of investment calculations.
Environment-friendly production: Druck- and Verlagshaus Zarbock
Many of the options for environment-compatible print production explained in the course of the day have already been implemented at Druck- and Verlagshaus Zarbock in Frankfurt. The guests were very interested to hear how Frank Zarbock has lowered energy consumption in his printing company. This includes heat insulation of the buildings and development of a heat recovery system for all production areas. Like all other print experts at the PraxisDialog event, Zarbock showed that ecological awareness pays off because it also brings economic benefits. After all, efficiency is the basis for establishing environment-friendly print production. This is a matter of both corporate and social responsibility that concerns the entire industry.