Sustainability remains a critical focus for printers, converters, brand owners and consumers around the world.
To no surprise, when it comes to packaging production, press performance has considerable influence in defining sustainability. In short, if a press does not perform at optimal levels, it compromises other components’ abilities to positively influence the environment.
Linking print quality and high production speeds, presses must foster the advantages of sustainability at requisite economies of scale. Original equipment manufacturers, many being FTA members, have long focused on a number of ways the industry can operate in a more sustainable way. They include:
- Decreasing air emissions by using inks and solvents with the lowest VOCs
- Minimizing water and energy use
- Reducing non-hazardous and hazardous waste
All photos courtesy of SOMA
Zero Waste
If you can prepare the next job while the previous one is still running, you have a leg up on time and reducing waste. ARUN worked to produce a zero meter waste setup system. This unique offline solution combines advantages of a plate mounter with a fully automated device for plate topography and register measurement.
The system requires a slightly modified sleeve, because chips are actually built into them. Several manufacturers supply these sleeves. During plate mounting on the ARUN mounter, crucial data for registration and impression settings are measured and stored into the chips. This doesn’t take longer than two minutes.
Extensive testing consistently proves that even 1 percent highlight dots remain unharmed by the very smooth topography scan of the combined sleeve tape and plate combination. This information is later read by the flexographic press for a fully automated register and impression setting.
In tests, the total waste for establishing impression and register settings is reduced to 16.4 feet or less, which pretty much represents the circumference of the central impression (CI) drum—basically the approximate distance to achieve press production speed. This certainly reduces significant waste on press.
Ink Cartridge
An ink delivery system that saves ink will naturally help the environment. Working with a unique ink cartridge system offers a way to reduce costs on jobs where expensive inks for spot colors, special effects, or a metallic look are required. These special inks can be up to six times more expensive compared to standard CMYK inks.
On average, about five to seven liters of ink are in the press system (doctor blade chamber, pump, hose, etc.). When a print job is finished, this ink is returned to the bucket, yet some percentage of the ink is always lost on its way back, due to cleaning or residue.
With an efficient ink cartridge, like the one included on SOMA’s Optima 2 press, only a minimum of 1 liter (up to a maximum of 3 liters) is ever in the system. Therefore, ink losses are much less. Field tests show that on average almost 18 percent of the ink can be saved. The ink cartridge works with solvent, water-based and UV inks.
“In short, if a press does not perform at optimal levels, it compromises other components’ abilities to positively influence the environment.”
Faster Makereadies
Spot color matching is the most time- and labor-consuming task an operator has to perform during press makeready. Press technology is available as a spot color matching solution, reducing waste and significantly increasing the efficiency of on-press color correction.
The primary economic benefits for spot color management are based on ink inventory reduction, diminishing the time required for ink dose preparation, and with material waste reduction.
The typical on-press ink kitchen consists of a digital scale, touchscreen control panel with mixing software and connection to online or offline spectrophotometer to measure real Delta E and L*a*b* values from the print. From there, the mixing software guides the operator through a simple ink correction to match required spot color specifications.
Energy & Efficiency
Those impactful changes aside, there can be other sustainable features on a press. One is the cooling of the cylinder housings at motor side, similar to the cooling of the CI drum. This prevents any temperature-caused plate expansion and, hence, dot gain.
Energy can be saved with the use of an efficient motor, for example, Bosch Rexroth drives with IPM (integrated permanent magnet), which save up to 8 percent energy.
Sometimes, a reporting system can have as much influence as any mechanical improvement. An advanced, modern press monitoring system can allow supervision and long-term monitoring of efficiency and energy consumption via the internet. Communication devices allow management to review press performance remotely from the office or anywhere in the world.