Heidelberg Pushes "Eco Printing" |
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| 01/18/2008 |
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Environmental issues are playing an ever greater role in the print industry.
For a number of years, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) has been working on solutions for press development, production and utilization that will limit the consumption of resources, reduce emissions and cut wastage.
The ambitious end-to-end concept that Heidelberg has developed is proven in practice. Ever since the company-made environmental protection a key business aim in 1992, this crucial issue has become increasingly important. "After all, we have a responsibility to the environment, to our customers and - in the long term - to the next generation," explains Dr. Jürgen Rautert, Management Board Member responsible for Engineering and Manufacturing.
Development: environmental portal drives standards
Heidelberg is the only company in the industry to focus on delivering a comprehensive, carefully conceived and integrated solutions portfolio that covers the entire printing process. "We are confident that a truly holistic approach is the only way we can effectively lessen environmental impact," stresses Rautert. This approach incorporates all the key stages in a press’ life cycle, in other words, not just the printing process itself, but the production and development of a press too.
Last year, to push ecological factors higher up the agenda when designing and developing new presses, Heidelberg joined forces with the Darmstadt University of Technology to develop an intranet-based environment portal. Developers working on a new inking unit, for example, can use the portal to search a comprehensive database and extract the environmental requirements relevant to their work. Moreover, they can also feed their own environmental protection know-how into the database, where it can be used in the medium term as an example of best practice. The portal is to be launched shortly and has been designed to anchor environmental protection in the very first stage of the product life cycle - a stage that is also crucial for shaping the future and driving standards forward.
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Production: environmental certification at all sites in Germany
When it comes to manufacturing presses, Heidelberg strives to ensure that its in-house production processes are as energy efficient and environmentally friendly as possible. For a number of years, environmental standards at the company’s German sites in Heidelberg, Wiesloch-Walldorf, Amstetten, and Brandenburg have been certified to the widely recognized ISO 14001 standard. Heidelberg also employs environmental officers at all production and development locations.
Heidelberg sites log a whole range of key environmental data, including their consumption of electricity, gas and water and the volume of waste they generate. This data is regularly sampled and analyzed by both internal and external specialists. A management review is also carried out on an annual basis, when all relevant issues are closely scrutinized and the potential for further improvements and savings is discussed. It is worth noting that, over recent years, key environmental data at several Heidelberg sites has improved significantly, despite a clear growth in production. For example, the foundry in Amstetten (Southern Germany), which is an energy-intensive plant by nature, succeeded in reducing its consumption of natural gas for each metric ton of output by 30 percent and cutting water consumption by 20 percent - all in just one year. This end-to-end environmental philosophy also incorporates the suppliers for each site, who need to meet similar environmental standards to Heidelberg.
The printing process: paper and power consumption are not the whole story
The wide range of technical solutions built into Heidelberg presses help print shops to improve the environmentally friendly credentials of their production processes in a variety of ways. Indeed, the "Green Printing Catalog" from Heidelberg boasts a total of more than 50 different measures.
The printing process utilizes a whole range of different resources - paper, power, inks, alcohol, cleaning agents, water and powder. In terms of their output, presses generate alcohol, cleaning-agent and powder emissions, as well as paper waste. "By developing pioneering new technologies, Heidelberg has succeeded in ensuring that resources are used in a much more efficient manner and that both waste and emissions are cut," states Rautert.
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The most striking results are the reductions achieved in paper consumption. Heidelberg offers two innovations in this area - the Prinect workflow product family and, for small format presses, the Anicolor short inking unit. When used together, the Prinect Prepress Interface, Color Assistant and Inpress Control solutions enable print shops to cut paper waste by 1.8 million sheets per year, thereby saving five percent on the amount of paper they need. This in turn means that 200 fewer metric tons of CO2 are released into the atmosphere. A significant proportion of these paper savings are achieved by lowering startup waste. In small-format printing, it is the Anicolor short inking unit that has the greatest impact. When used in conjunction with Print Color Management, this device can in many cases cut startup waste to just ten percent of previous levels.
The second major resource consumed during the printing process is power. The majority of power savings can be achieved through peripheral equipment, an area where the "Star" product family marketed by Heidelberg is delivering ever better results. The new high-speed turbo radial blower of the AirStar 3000 air supply system means print shops can cut the amount of power a press uses for air generation by 30-40 percent. This leads to savings of around 40,000 kilowatt hours a year and 20 metric tons of CO2. When it comes to ink, using the InkLine automatic ink supply system enables print shops to cut ink residues - and therefore consumption - by up to four percent, which in our example equates to two metric tons per year.
The use of alcohol in dampening solutions is becoming an increasingly important issue. Compared with all other manufacturers, Heidelberg offers the widest range of presses that use dampening solutions with well below the average of eight to nine percent alcohol, or indeed run without any alcohol whatsoever. This also helps to dramatically reduce emissions of volatile hydrocarbons, which are harmful to both health and the environment. Similar emissions reductions can be achieved by using high-boiling cleaning agents in cloth and brush washup devices. Heidelberg is the sole manufacturer to develop such devices in house and use them on a large scale. During drupa 2008, the company will be exhibiting further presses that deliver alcohol-free printing processes.
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There have also been significant improvements affecting waste and powder. In our sample case, using improved filtration systems can help to cut the volume of waste water that needs to be disposed of as special waste by around three quarters. The PowderStar AP 500 also applies powder more efficiently to the printed sheet, cutting powder consumption by 50 percent. And, last but not least, the CleanStar ventilation system cuts fine dust emissions in the pressroom to a fraction of the statutory limit.
The winners: the environment and customers
In the end, cutting consumption is not just beneficial for the environment - it also helps to reduce print shop costs. If we add together all the potential savings made possible by a six-color Speedmaster XL 105 with coating unit, they enable the print shop to reduce yearly operating costs by a good five percent, or approximately 210,000 Euro. However, these savings are not just reflected on the balance sheet - they also help to boost the print shop’s image. When placing orders, large customers in particular will in future lay far greater store by the importance a print shop attaches to environmental protection. "That is another reason why Heidelberg is certain that investment in environmental protection is not just worthwhile for the environment, it also pays for itself very quickly" sums up Dr. Jürgen Rautert, Management Board Member responsible for Engineering and Manufacturing.
Graphic 1:
Input/output analysis of a press using the example of a Speedmaster
XL 105 six-color press with coating unit and dryer.
Image 1: Wiesloch-Walldorf
The Wiesloch-Walldorf site has operated a certified environmental management system since 1998 and has been certified to the international ISO 14001 standard since 2001. Almost all Heidelberg sheetfed offset presses are assembled here, on an area the size of 88 soccer fields.
Graphic 2:
Savings that can be made through green printing.
Image 2: PowderStar AP 500
The PowderStar AP 500 - shown here in the delivery of the Speedmaster XL 105 - reduces powder consumption by 50 percent.
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