Green matters to keep printers on their toes

There are a number of ways that printers can reduce the environmental impact of how they work. Gareth Ward presents PMM’s guide to the issues our printer is dealing with.

Print is not a naturally green process. Litho printing depends on the chemical behavior of water and oil; it uses aluminium plates where laser energy is used to transform the state of a coating material which is then processed by chemicals; spoilage and waste are inherent; raw materials may have to travel long distances; and it uses paper, the substance subject to more environmental muddle than almost any other material. Furthermore, adhesives that can be used in post-press create complications for recycling; direct mail can use window envelopes with the same impact and standard post-press lamination is a death knell for recycling prospects.

At least the chemical brews needed to make the plate coatings have moved from printer to plate production line and modern inks have none of the poisonous heavy metals that used to be commonplace. Indeed the majority of inks are based on renewable vegetable oils, coatings can be water-based, while processless plates are available and the elimination of VOCriddled isopropyl alcohol is achievable. Equally the elimination of water altogether from the press is possible, though a step too far for most commercial printers at present. Print is running out of excuses not to be green.

Manufacturers have in many cases been slow to adapt their equipment to this new way of operating, even if they have achieved environmental standards for their own manufacturing processes. The three German press manufacturers have the appropriate certification and have won awards for press designs based upon reducing the environmental footprint of production. For all Japanese companies the environment has been a watchword longer than in Europe. Fuji has eco impact built in, while Canon holds care for the environment as a core corporate philosophy.

Now that care is beginning to feed over into the equipment, as printers, often led by their customers, are seeking answers to these environmental questions. For some, the need to be green is inbred and highly altruistic; for others the first steps are taken because of customer pressure, legislation or in the case of moves to reduce the use of IPA (alcohol), by cost. However, many then find themselves turning from sceptic to evangelist. This is happening rapidly, as the five-fold increase in UK printers with ISO 14001 in the last 12 months underlines.

Prepress turns away from chemistry

Becoming green in prepress is largely about avoiding waste through the elimination of unnecessary proofs and encouragement for digital ways of working. This has the happy coincidence of saving money as well. Likewise computer to plate is inherently greener than imaging film, as a chemical process step is eliminated. The choice between silver coated and photopolymer plate coatings is simple: photopolymer wins every time. The choice between violet diode imaging and thermal imaging is less certain. What will make a difference is processor management to ensure that concentrations of processing chemicals are maintained at their proper level and that maintenance is carried out in accordance with recommendations to ensure that everything is working at its most efficient. Modern processors will have sophisticated replenishment systems to monitor the condition of the processing chemistry and to top it up only when necessary.

However, processless plates are a step in the green direction for the obvious reason that another chemical-based process is removed from the print room. The choice is between those that are processed on press by the action of the fount solution and ink, Fuji’s Pro-T and Kodak’s ThermalDirect, and those that need to pass through another offline device. A water and brush is all that’s needed for Presstek and a wash and gum for Agfa’s Azura plate. The downside is some loss of run length and a less robust surface needing more care in handling. Cost will also be higher, but mitigated by the savings on processor and chemicals. There should be no deterioration in print quality as specifications are all but identical to a more conventional plate except at the finest resolutions.

A bigger impact can be made through changes to administrative behaviour, for example ordering plates in bulk to minimise the number of deliveries that a supplier needs to make. Taking delivery of plates on a pallet rather than as separately packaged batches will drastically reduce waste material.

All aluminium plates can be recycled and the specialists, like J&G Environmental or Remondis, will collect, compress and sell the aluminium content, returning the surplus to the printer. These specialists can also deal with the spent processing chemical. A partnership between Fuji and Remondis has led to the waste specialist developing an on-site chemical treatment unit which results in fewer journeys to remove waste chemical and which produces a fluid that can be disposed of into the drain system.

Around the presses

Once in the pressroom (assuming sheetfed litho) things become more complicated and the choices more interesting. The areas that printers must look at include: power consumption, as a press is a big user of electricity; on press chemicals, namely the ink and fount solution; ancillaries such as blanket washers and solvent recovery; and changing working practices to minimize waste. Paper is not the issue it once was as recycled papers are considerably better than they used to be, but the rule that better papers can run faster, lead to less waste and take up less ink and fount, holds good. The stigma that papers are produced from rainforests is going away thanks to accreditation schemes like FSC, and to a lesser extent PEFC.

Demand in this country for FSC outstrips the rest of the world, and for printers with organised management systems, perhaps with ISO 9001 certification, gaining FSC is relatively straightforward, if a little costly.

Perhaps more of an issue than the environmental provenance of a paper will be the carbon footprint of paper, where those mills powered from hydro- or nuclear-generated electricity will have an advantage over those using hydrocarbon-derived power. Those mills with combined heat and power plants, fired from wood chippings and timber, will be best of all, earning a negative carbon impact in some cases.

The power issue can also be a concern for printers. Few have the resources to install a CHP system as Prinovis has done at Liverpool where excess solvent is burned off to generate electricity. Most can choose to buy electricity from a green tariff which allows the printer to mitigate his carbon footprint because the energy is deemed to have come from a renewable resource.

The modern printing press is an energy hungry beast thanks to the inclusion of dryers, coaters, plate loading and so on. It may pay to compare power consumption when selecting a new press. It will certainly pay to turn the press off when not being used. A printing press in stand-by mode still consumes a lot of energy.

Many then find themselves turning from sceptic to evangelist. This is happening rapidly, as the five-fold increase in UK printers with ISO 14001 in the last 12 months underlines.

Manufacturers are responding by working to make ancillaries more efficient. Heidelberg’s Star range has this as one of the key elements of the design along with a reduction in emissions and reduction in waste. The key area of attack is make ready waste, but issues such as inking and blanket wash up, air compressors and drying systems can all make a difference.

There is beginning to be a move away from ink cartridges. When introduced these were an improvement over tins because more ink could be used and there was no waste from oxidation. However, with changes in regulations meaning that any ink residue has to be handled as a hazardous waste, this advantage has disappeared. Central ink pumping from bulk containers is becoming more popular.

The German press ancillary manufacturer Technotrans is at the forefront of eliminating IPA, offering the reverse osmosis, accurate dosing and metering units, and additional filtration that is necessary. Currently not all presses run happily without IPA. Switching to no-alcohol print is all about eliminating variables, so a company that uses only a limited range of stock is going to have a better chance of eliminating it than a printer moving between coated papers, silks and uncoateds all the time.

Technotrans is now looking to find ways of capturing heat generated on press to reuse elsewhere in a factory, especially from the heat exchanger that is already part of its beta.c eco combined fount recirculating unit and ink roller chiller. Rival Baldwin offers a cloth blanket wash system where the cleaning solvent is pre-soaked into the material. Spent cloths can be used as fuel in industrial burners. Likewise, Baldwin can supply the matched equipment needed to run with minimal levels of alcohol or without any IPA in the fount as more printers are considering.

Modern UV dryers are far ahead of the older systems in terms of sophistication, control and therefore energy efficiency. Fast start-up lamps have eliminated the long warm up period that was once necessary and greater controls mean that there is no need for shutters or a standby mode.

Good housekeeping around the press is equally as important as the kinds of ancillaries fitted to it. Any environmental audit inspection will want to see tidiness, cleaning rags kept in a lidded container, paper waste segregated for recycling, empty tins and used plates taken to the appropriate areas for collection and disposal. As important is the monitoring of press behaviour, both to understand what the normal conditions are as a starting point for future incremental improvements and to spot any deviations that will indicate problems today.

This is without considering the merits of running completely waterless presses, which may prove the ultimate in ecolological terms, nor indeed the ability to run at minimal alcohol levels. One prediction is that at Drupa the ability to run presses without IPA is going to be a strong talking point and will feature in many demonstrations.

The question of digital print

Digital printing should be green, or at least greener than the litho alternative, but like the economic cost, there is a point where the additional cost for every litho sheet falls well below that of the digitally printed sheet.

>Digital print scores well in that there is less wastage than in litho, both at the press and, because of its print on demand nature, less for the client to dispose of. It scores well too in using less power per A4 page than a four-colour litho press. However this is not the whole story as digital presses will have greater demands in terms of controlled environment surroundings than litho and the consumables need more frequent changing.

As the majority of the digital press suppliers have an office equipment background, most are well advanced in terms of environmental performance and have the infrastructure to handle toner cartridges, replaceable components and even to take in replaced equipment. New products are generally designed with energy management in mind, and Xerox has announced that it is promoting a mechanical pulp office paper with better environmental credentials than chemical pulp papers. A Xerox corporate initiative is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10% over their 2002 levels within a decade, equating to a realtime drop in energy usage.

Canon designed its UK headquarters with energy conservation in mind, incorporating solar panels, rainwater collection and natural air cooling, which falls in line with its corporate philosophy, like other Japanese companies, of being highly aware of their place in the environment.

Xeikon and Océ have none of the North American zeal, nor Japanese fervour about the environmental aspects of their business, as both are European companies. Both, however, have products which score highly in terms of environmental impact.

Océ’s technology gives it an immediate advantage in that the fusing stage requires less heat than rival technologies, meaning less energy needed to print. The size advantage of its VP6250 has already won it custom from book printers who can print two-up book blocks. “The key is in the back to back registration,” says Océ’s Ed Hudson. “Previously this wasn’t good enough at the trailing edge to allow us to do this.”

Digital print scores well in that there is less wastage than in litho, both at the press and for the client to dispose of.

The philosophy goes deeper, splitting any print engine into the software which is updated every couple of years, major components which can be upgraded every five years and the structure which can remain for ten years. Consequently many of Océ’s machines can be upgraded in the field and do not need to be replaced. “We still have some ten year old machines in the market,” says Hudson. The newer eco versions of its presses are designed for even lower power consumption, faster start up and so on.

The approach has proved popular with local authorities where environmental impact assessments are a feature of everyday life. “One of their tenders will have half its questions about sustainability,” he says, adding that Océ’s production in Venlo, The Netherlands, rather than across the Atlantic or in the Far East is also beneficial. “Many consumer products are starting to appear with a carbon footprint label. We are going down that route as it can’t be too far away for us.”

Xeikon’s concept is similar in that it too will refurbish and upgrade machines rather than discard them when the software is upgraded or new processors become available. Its larger print area gives it an eco advantage over two-page only machines and it reckons advantages over litho presses as well. For a 5,000pp A4 run, energy consumption is 25-30% less than on a litho press, the company’s figures reveal. Research also shows that toner (and Xeikon’s toner is to be awarded Swan status to show its ecological credentials) is a little easier to recycle than printed sheets, and a lot easier to recycle than inkjet printed paper.