Going Green

By Erik Nikkanen on Sep 14, 2009 | Reply

Waterless printing was developed to get around the ink/water balancing problems in conventional presses. It is a surprise that waterless has not caught on but it is a losing battle, which will get worse as time goes on.

The Anicolor press gets to colour in 20 sheets and it is not waterless. How can waterless compete with that?

Waterless is more consistent than conventional offset but it still has variation in print density. There is no water but it still varies. Waterless varies in density for exactly the same reason conventional lithography varies, which is related to the non positive ink feed at the ductor region of the press. Water just aggravates this problem but if one would correct the inconsistent ink feed, waterless and conventional lithography would both be much more consistent than they are now.

Water is not all bad. Water also provides benefits to the process by cooling the press due to evaporation, lubrication of surfaces and keeping lint under control.

There is a concern of the waste disposal of spent fountain solution. What is the cause of having spent fountain solution? It is caused by having recirculating fountain systems that eventually get so contaminated that they have to be changed. Have direct feed fountain solution that is not recirculated and then you will not have to deal with waste disposal. This is an engineering problem.

Waterless is running out of time as the opportunities for conventional lithography continue to be developed.

By Pat Berger on Sep 15, 2009 | Reply

I have looked at waterless for many many years and I have always come to the conclusion that it is probably the most power hungry offset process.

A 4 color 20 inch DI machine has a power load of 28kw plus pressroom heating and air conditioning requirement of 72º F along with auxiliary equipment. I have seen estimates of total power requirements of 40kw to 50kw and more for a 20 inch machine.

A 5 color 28 inch wet offset press has a power load of 18kw including auxiliary equipment and does not require a controlled pressroom environment of 72º or any auxiliary drying energy. We can have our pressroom vary from 60ºF to 110ºF and still work with virtually no problems.

The following statement can be true for some but are not true for thousands of presses

“Conventional printing is a chemical process that relies on isopropyl alcohol or substitutes.”

There are ten of thousands of press units around the world that do not use alcohol or substitutes. Thousands of press units have been 313, haps, prop 65 free for over 10 years.

Waterless presses use the same washes and roller cleaning products as any other press.

Your trade off is using massive amounts of electrical energy verses using water that has been recycled and used and recycled millions of times. Once the water evaporates it comes back to us to reuse.

By Tadao Iokibe on Sep 16, 2009 | Reply

In Japan waterless printing does not lose the battle against conventional offset. On the contrary to the popularity in US, it expands the share due to environmental benefit.
Amazingly, one of most biggest graphic arts dealers owned by a certain big film manufacturer begun to deal with Toray waterless plates as Japanese sole agent of Toray waterless plates since 2 years ago. That meant waterless would not neglect in our country as an environmental printing process.
According to our big established member’s color consistency report between waterless heat set offset and conventional heat set offset, it shows clearly waterless achieved much better result, in other words, more consistency.
Talking about the color consistency, we should argue the matter not only by an impressed view but by actual printed fact.
Although water filtering and recycling is surely best method, it is not common in our country. Therefore, many printers ask the spoiled dampening water to the recycling process providers which charge considerably.
As far as direct feed fountain method it is not common here, due to having the defect of some spotty trace caused by micro bubble.
Talking about more electric power consumption, the pointed figure was out of date. Using recently developed waterless inks could contribute to reducing the gap.
Talking about make-ready required sheets, when it comes to similar machine like Anicolor, namely in case of karat 74 or Rapida 74G, the result is more or less the same as Anicolor. Amazingly, Cortina cold-set offset proves very limited make-ready sheets as the same level as Anicolor.
According to the VOCs emission source figure in Tokyo announced by Tokyo Metropolitan Government, most VOCs emission source comes from painting industry, and second biggest source from printing industry which shares a short less than 30% of total emission. Supposedly it is same in USA. The fact will not be allowed in near future due to climate of opinion.
We measured the actual VOCs emission figures caused by a certain printing company together with the environmental specialist of Tokyo Metropolitan Government as you see
http://www.waterless.jp/about/activity/060220Bunseikaku%20report.pdf
We choose one printing company, called Bunseikaku Printing which had waterless dedicated press room in 3rd floor and conventional dedicated press room in 2nd floor, in other words, two offset printing processes adopted in different floor.
We found the fact that waterless offset could reduce 60% to 80% VOCs emission over conventional. Furthermore, main VOCs emission sources come from firstly, dampening system, and secondary from washing solutions and thirdly, from inks.
Recently we developed so called water washable inks together with DIC Company, which was produced by Sun Chemical in the past. The new generation of W2 ink is much improved one and at the same time Toray developed non-alkaline washable solution which is water based. It is still expensive but we try now to decrease the price by increasing the usage amount together with our members.
We have the confidence that waterless could contribute to sustainable printing on which conventional printing could not solve from the point of VOCs emission reduction.

By jay mandarino on Sep 16, 2009 | Reply

to whom it may concern;

While it is true that conventional lithographic technology “continues to be developed” including the anilox / doctor blade technologies, for now and the foreseeable future waterless printing presents an alternative that mitigates the “engineering “ shortfalls of the traditional lithographic press. If one concedes that the two most dramatic influences on color variation are ink feed and ink / water balance, then waterless clearly eliminates half of the problem. Over the past 15 years of development, press technology has become faster, more automated, and less operator centric, however short of the Anicolor technology (currently not available in a high volume production format), no engineering solution to the non-positive ink feed has been put forth.

The elimination of the fountain solution rather than the direct feed still eliminates the degradation of the ink film and the effects of fountain solution on ink gloss and drying.

I am not able to comment on the 20 inch DI configuration however in the high speed 40 inch press arena, it is not possible to run quality consistent production without the use of roller chilling. In the waterless configuration the amount of chilling required is actually less that that used for conventional lithography and thus uses less power than conventional. Furthermore, since there is no fountain solution used there is no need to chill that fountain solution and there is a further saving on power usage.

While it may be arguable that Waterless Printing will not be the final solution to the printing technology conundrum, at this point in history Waterless Printing allows for the highest possible quality product to be produced in a very environmentally responsible manner.

By Erik Nikkanen on Sep 16, 2009 | Reply

“no engineering solution to the non-positive ink feed has been put forth. ”

This is of course not true. I have a patent on a very simple and low cost positive ink feed solution to the problem that fundamentally causes inconsistent SID and ink/water balance but the industry does not seem to want to believe it is possible.

I have over many years tried to inform the industry. I have even sent emails to Jay and lots of other printers in Canada and elsewhere but always there is never any questions asked. If you always have your mind closed to potential solutions, new ideas will never see the light of day. Keep your mind closed and you will always be right.

My patent was recently featured in Deutscher Drucker in a section that covers interesting patents, every two weeks. Eventually it will be shown that density control is a simple problem to solve and at that time conventional offset with positive ink feed will out perform existing waterless, which still varies. It will also be more predictable in presetting than existing waterless.

One major problem in the industry is that it is not as scientific as it thinks it is. As an industry there are a lot of questions that you can not answer. The role of science is to give answers.

My point is that you do not understand your own process at a fundamental level and this prevents the required improvements that are needed.

Here is an example of a question that most can not answer. It is a simple enough question and is a critical in understanding the density variation problem.

Here goes the example:

A press runs at steady state conditions and prints a SID of 1.3 evenly across a 20% solid bar that goes across the sheet or web. The ink adjustments are never changed. The water adjustment is increased a bit. The press goes through a transient and the density settles down at 1.2.

Most people would tend to say that there is less ink on the 20% bar at 1.2 density pts than there was at 1.3 density pts.

So the question is: Where did the missing ink go?

If you can not answer that question properly then you don’t understand the density variation problem at a fundamental level. If you can answer it, then you will understand what has to be done to obtain consistency.

Predictability is not possible without consistency.

If this kind of question makes you very curious then your are thinking as a scientist but if you think it is a waste of time, then you are a craftsman. We need a bit of a mix of both to move forward and not go to technologies such as waterless that do not answer the needed questions and still have not gained enough traction after all these years.

If someone who has bought a waterless press suddenly finds out that better performance can be had with conventional offset that has a bit of new science applied, do you think they will go to waterless again for their next press?

In the end, the market will decide.

By Pat Berger on Sep 16, 2009 | Reply

Interesting.

In Japan it appears VOC’s are a problem.
For every $1,000,000.00 in sales our pressroom VOC emissions are less than 35#. Our VOC’s emitted are classified by the OHSA as nonhazardous.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owasrch.search_form?p_doc_type=STANDARDS&p_toc_level=0&p_keyvalue=

A 6 color 40″ press conventional offset water chilling requirements can be accomplished with a 2 ton 12,000 btu chiller.

If the temperature control requirements of a 6 color waterless press are less than 2 ton that would certainly make it more efficient.

By Arthur W. Lefebvre on Sep 17, 2009 | Reply

There are no longer any witches in the waterless closet. Witness the report from Mr. Iokibe in this blog and the number of waterless OEM applications of offset presses. There are numerous narrow web label press makers and the highly successful KBA Cortina waterless cold set web. Interestingly one such press (in Belgium) has had a dryer added to run heat set with no change of ink. Quoted savings are that paper saved in 11 months of printing allows the firm to get the 12th month free.
It’s time to sweep away all the misrepresentations about waterless offset printing.
And how about temperature control with a refridgerated fountain recirculator.

By Tadao Iokibe on Sep 20, 2009 | Reply

Thank you Pat’s reply. Our view is slightly different from Pat’s one. VOCs may not be hazardous in US as far as OHSA, although the situation is different in Japan. Talking about the air quality, VOCs cause photochemical smog which brings serious pollution for big cities.
Our association made actual VOCs measurement at various press-rooms in which sheet fed-presses run in production. Amazingly, most popular German-made presses with so called Al????? showed 200ppms of VOCs value constantly in between units. On the contrary waterless version press showed 30-40ppms.
Recently, we developed so called automatic carbon-footprint calculation tool for printing under the authorization of JEMAI (Japan Environmental Management Association For Industries). The spread sheet can be freely available for our members.
When we studied printing LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), we noticed that existing presses are developed from the point of productivity and efficiency, neglecting from environmental factor. Therefore, we are challenging how to fit our printing process to more environmental direction.
We could achieve 10micron dots FM screening printing by waterless for differentiated high quality. We found we could make 40% ink saving by this method. Conventional offset process could not achieve it in stable condition due to plate grain and water.
We should develop our technology how to fit our printing technology to environmental needs and LCA needs.

By peter booth on Sep 23, 2009 | Reply

hi,
I am a waterless printer in Australia and read the above comments with interest. I’ve been printing for 27 years. Six years ago we installed a new KBA 74, 5 col. it came with overall cooling. after running it conventionally for a year or so, we decided to put some waterless plates on and were blown away after about 15 sheets came through the delivery. we’ve been waterless ever since. Initially for the quality, but now for the environment and cost savings. we save money and the environment because we turned our fountain chiller unit off. we also hardly ever run our I.R. dryer and when we have to, at much lower settings than when we ran the same press conventionally. nearly all 20, 26, 28, 40, 44 inch presses come as standard with overall temp. control these days. we manage operating this way, by using 3 different tacks.
we also run our GTO waterless with no cooling at all. we have no damper roller servicing costs or downtime on any press. our ink rollers nearly never ‘glaze’. we require less start up and running waste. our print quality is second to none. we dump plate processor chemistry every 6 months! a huge saving in chemistry, downtime and disposal costs.
we have just installed a KBA Genius 52 UV, 5 col. I have a friend who has a Heidelberg Anicolor 52, 5 col and he uses more power, has to wash up every day and has more start up and running waste.
waterless does work for those who are really serious about giving it a go. sure there are many headaches at the start, but well and truly worth it in the long run.

By Wim Maes on Sep 23, 2009 | Reply

Since 24/3/2006 we are producing every night our newspaper De Morgen (100.000 revolutions) on waterless Cortina Presses and since 21/1/2008 we started the next 3 sections on our Cortina press for Het Laatste Nieuws (400.000 revolutions).
At the start of our project it wasn’t easy because the inks were not at an industrial level, but after 3 years of development and close partnership with our Cortina user club and KBA we succeeded to an amazing stable printing process for our newspapers. We reached a much higher standard for the newspapers compared to our competitors in conventional coldset. On top the global cost of our newspaper production became cheaper due to the fact that waterless is a much cleaner process (f.i.: we only needs less then 50% cleaning clothes compared to conventional = 50% less cleaning time!). On start up at 30 revolutions there is a sellable copie available (conventional at least you need 500 revolutions!).
We invite the ‘now believers of waterless print’ to visit our company and to show yoy the real benefits!

Grtz,

Wim MAes (technical director EPC NV)

By Erik Nikkanen on Sep 24, 2009 | Reply

Wim, I am glad you are happy with your Cortina press. There is no argument that the Waterless process works and can work well. My argument is that it is not the process for the future.

It has been mentioned that both waterless and water lithographic presses can have very short make-readies, as with Anicolor and Karat, Genius etc. All this means is that the ability to have very short make-readies is a function of press design and not of whether it is waterless or conventional.

I am very interested in press design issues that affect performance. I understand how to analyze presses with respect to their performance potential. In many ways, the problem with consistency and predictability is the same for large or small presses or for web or sheetfed presses. What I don’t like to see is press manufacturers designing presses that have limited potential for success.

Cortina is an interesting press and I have analyzed it many years ago. For a keyless newspaper press, it is quite good but it is IMO limited to the newspaper production. It has its problems. From the analysis, the Cortina is not capable of printing an even density across the web when there are variations in coverage. Very low coverage will be printed with about 20% more ink than very high coverage on the same form. With weaker newspaper inks, this probably is not such a problem but the design of the Cortina press would certainly not be good for commercial or packaging web presses that would have stronger inks.

The fact that it took three years to get the inks right says a lot.

In the end, you have a press that works for you and that is very good but all during that time you struggled with the Cortina, KBA could have modified your other presses to perform as well with conventional offset, but KBA had no interest in presenting a solution to the density control problem in conventional presses. Somebody else will some day.

By Wim Maes on Sep 29, 2009 | Reply

Moment moment please, the problem for the waterless inks in Newspaper at 2006 was a leak of quantity and consumption … (our company used 7,5 tons/month, today we are using 60 tons/Month). Due to that reason there was no experience at to manufacturer the waterless ink by the ink suppliers.
In that time we raised from 3-4 Cortina users at the beginning of 2006 to 12-15 users at this moment (and new newspaper consumers are starting in the next months!)
We were the first in europe to import (september 2006) Japanese waterless inks to proove that waterless could function ok.
We detected that a contamination of waterless with conventional ink was not ok for the stability. Today we have reached an industrial level and very good quality with total waste figures below 3,2%!! Impossible in conventional newspaper print.
During day we reached also a level to print our own supplements (also in heatset quality, with one and the same coldset ink).
This year we will have a paper consumption of about 35.000 ton of paper, printed in waterless on a more than high quality ever before for a newspaper press on a speed of 40.000 rev./hour!
You are invited to come and see at EPC, Brandstraat 30, 9160 Lokeren in Belgium.

grtz,

Wim Maes
Technical Director

By Erik Nikkanen on Sep 29, 2009 | Reply

Wim,

You said, “Today we have reached an industrial level and very good quality with total waste figures below 3,2%!! Impossible in conventional newspaper print.”

I can see you are happy with your Cortina. That’s good. But you say that getting to that level of waste is impossible with conventional newspaper print. Lots of people have said things were impossible but were eventually proven wrong. Man can fly etc.

I have a question for you. If a conventional newspaper press operation could do the impossible and obtain the same level of waste (3.2% or less) would your company have bought the Cortina press?

By Wim Maes on Oct 9, 2009 | Reply

Erik,

There are other reasons for the choise of Waterless Cortina:
* Clean process, which allows an automatic plate change reliable up to a level less then 0,2% faults.
Also less then 50% cleaning clothes necessary (and also the cleaning time reduced!) for a same production as conventional.
* Quality in waterless print is much better then standard coldset print.
Today we are capable to switch customers from heatset to our coldset quality. Price/copy is lower for the customer. No need of expensive gas dryer …
* environmental aspect is quite important. f.i.: ‘Green organisations’ are new customers which we can take from our competitors.

Grtz,

Wim

By Wim Maes on Oct 21, 2009 | Reply

Hello Eric,

I see you doesn’t answer anymore, this means you are convinced of the waterless benefits I suppose?

grtz,

Wim