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Waterless Printing

We do all of our CMYK (Full Color) Offset Commercial Printing on waterless presses manufactured by Presstek™. Download the same brochure we read before buying our beautiful press.

We were the first pioneers in North Jersey to buy this press. It was the best decision we ever made for the health of our employees, for the reduction of our carbon footprint on the environment and for the benefit of our customers who want to do what they can as part of thier corporate responsibility agenda.

We have received many comments from customers as to why printing responsibly is personal for them, to let us know your thoughts, you can email our founder directly.
There are many advantages to waterless printing.

The advantages start with the inks and extend throughout the entire waterless printing process.

Chemistry-free Imaging
DI presses eliminate the need for:
• chemical processing
• production steps associated with film-based platemaking
• separate imaging of plates using an offline CTP system Presstek DI presses achieve this efficiency
by automatically imaging the printing plates and printing the job directly on press.
The digital file is sent to the DI press where all four plates are simultaneously imaged
in precise register. Plates are imaged via thermal process; the heat from the
lasers removes the top layers of the plate aterial, exposing the ink receptive layer.
The laser and digital plate comprise an optimized system that eliminates the use
of chemistry in the platemaking process. 50 sheets to 25 sheets) after
the DI was installed. From an ecological perspective,
this waste saving gains importance when you consider
that one tree is equivalent to only two hundred thirty-six 11″ x 17″
brochures printed on 100 lb. cover stock. Paper waste reduction is achieved through
the DI presses’ control over major variables in the printing process, such as ink/water
by up to 90 percent.

Water Conservation
Conventional offset printing requires water for plate
processing and for the press dampening system. DI printing
does not use water. The chemically tainted wastewater from traditional offset
printing is eliminated. The August 2006 United Nations-Water Thematic Issues
report, Coping with the Scarcity of Water, “We believe companies that take advantage of environmental opportunities can gain a competitive advantage over their peers through cost reductions,
quality improvements, increased profitability, and access to new and growing markets.” -Jackson W. Robinson
President of the Winslow Management Company
(Winslow Environmental News, Volume 14, Number 2)

The following article is published by the Waterless Printing Association:

Waterless logo

Waterless and the Environment

Environmental Stature Strengthens International Appeal of Waterless Printing Waterless printing devotees from eight different countries gathered at Galleria Marchetti in Chicago on October 6th to celebrate “Waterless Roads Ahead.” The principal topics of discussion at the event were new plates, improved ink technology and environmental performance. When the evening ended, the participants left with a renewed sense of purpose and enthusiasm.

A progress report by Mr. Yukinobu Uchida on the recently created Japanese Waterless Printing Association (JWPA) was first on the agenda at the informal roundtable discussion following dinner. The JWPA currently has 36 printer members, all of whom are also members of the Waterless Printing Association, as required.

The printing industry in Japan represents an almost US$65 billion industry, just shy of the computer industry’s annual volume, and slightly more than the integrated circuit market.

A full 10% of the printers in Japan operate waterless. The vast majority (89%) of those waterless printers have fewer than 20 employees, many of which are DI (direct imaging) printers.

The advantages of waterless printing from Japan’s perspective are its higher resolution capability, increased productivity, ease of registration on perfecting presses and, when combined with CtP, ease of color matching and reduced ink consumption. In addition, there is the lure of the Butterfly Logo to represent the environmentally friendly nature of the waterless process.

The JWPA was organized partly in response to the growing trend toward “Green Purchase” of environmentally-friendly products, resulting from governmental regulation and environmental law. The waterless printing process complements the increased use of recycled paper and non-VOC SOY ink in Japan.

Here are just a few of our Japanese printer members and their very special clients:

Bunseikaku (Tokyo) operates 34 of its 48 color printing units waterless. IBM Japan was Japan’s 1st Prize winner for Environmental Management, and chose Bunseikaku’s waterless printing for its Environmental Annual Report (”Decision in 7 seconds”).

Sasatku Printing (Nagoya) is a leading regional print shop specializing in high-quality printing of motor car brochures. Toyota, which is very enthusiastic regarding environmental issues, chose Sasatku’s waterless printing for its car brochures as well as its Environmental Report.

Sonobe Printing (Sendai) is a mid-sized regional printer which used the Butterfly Logo on 60 printing jobs in a two month period. The Sendai City Government, especially dedicated to Green Purchase, uses Sonobe’s waterless printing for its public offices.

The enthusiasm of our Japanese members is truly inspiring and, we hope, contagious.

Arthur Lefebvre reported that seven members of the Waterless Printing Association have received ISO 14001 certification, more than any other printing trade organization. He recognized two of them in attendance: Henrik Molgaard from Stibo Graphic (Denmark), which was certified two years ago, and Roy Williams from Seacourt Ltd. (UK), certified four years ago.

The discussion of environmental concerns continued. Henrik Molgaard acknowledged that in Denmark companies must reduce their use of isopropyl alcohol by 20% each year beginning in 2005.

Roy Williams noted that Seacourt is getting more and more customers coming to them because of the environment, and credits their participation in EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) for the increased interest. EMAS is a management tool for companies operating in the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA) to evaluate, report and improve their environmental performance. A requirement of EMAS is that each year member companies must post and make available to the public the company’s environmental statistics, including use of electricity and natural resources. This “report card” is an effective marketing device.

Roy related a study which reported that the average commercial printer in the UK, printing conventionally, puts 20 tons of VOCs into the atmosphere annually. In addition to damaging the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, VOCs mix with automobile emissions to create smog in the lower atmosphere. In Britain, over the last two years, there has been an astonishing 50% increase in the appearance of asthma. Now 1 in 7 children in Britain have asthma. While the increased incidents of asthma have not been absolutely proven to be directly linked to VOCs, as a father of two children, Roy could not possibly condone printing conventionally when there is a perfectly reasonable alternative in waterless printing.

He recounted the irony of having a government which stressed the importance of operating “green,” yet Seacourt lost a government printing job by only 1% difference in price. The job went to a conventional printer who printed on recycled paper and was apparently considered to be “green” enough. This, despite the fact that a UK government task force was going to recommend that all government jobs be printed waterless. When they discovered there are only a handful of printers in the UK that would be capable of printing government jobs, their recommendation was tabled.

Rounding out the discussion of environmental issues was a progress report on Sun Chemical’s DriLith W2 water-washable inks, which virtually eliminate all remaining VOCs from a waterless pressroom.

Glenn Thore reported that L&E Packaging (Greensboro, North Carolina) has been using DriLith W2 process colors for the past six months, and Sun Chemical is just getting to the point where they are starting to blend some PMS colors for them. While L&E has had good success with DriLith W2, he feels that there is a quality level beyond which their standard waterless inks perform better, but was quick to point out that he was talking about extremely critical, ultra-quality jobs. The kind where the customer uses a telescopic lens to examine the print. He expressed his confidence that the ink would get better as they continue to use it, and as Sun continues to develop it.

L&E Packaging got into waterless printing in 1991 for the quality aspects of the process, specifically the color consistency. Glenn acknowledged that they are also now enjoying reduced costs and looking forward to a 95% reduction in L&E’s VOCs.

L&E’s customers appreciate the environmental benefits of waterless. For years, Glenn was under pressure to run SOY inks because they were perceived as being the most environmentally sound, but Glenn feels that water-washable inks can have a far bigger impact on the environment, potentially reducing VOCs by 95%.

Training was another topic of discussion. Bill Mathews, Senior Research Pressman at Appleton Coated, part of the Fine, Specialty and Coated Papers division of Arjo Wiggins, raised the question. As a research pressman, he tries to stay on top of industry trends, and asked how printers interested in waterless are trained in the process. Specifically, how do waterless printers train new pressmen?

Glenn Thore and Danny Isley, Plant Manager of L&E Packaging, cited several instances when they have made their facilities and staff available to train printers who were interested in the waterless process but had no experience printing without water. They also make themselves available for telephone support, and have even shared plates and blankets when other waterless printers were in trouble.

Waterless printers are among the most generous people on the planet!

The highlight of the evening, and the topic that drew most of the people to the event, was the waterless plate update.

Toray reported it has added a “primer” layer to its latest “RG” waterless CtP plate, with a dual purpose. The primer layer, located between the heat-sensitive polymer layer and the aluminum base of the plate, acts as a cushion to improve durability and scratch resistance, and enables non-burning (baking) UV printing.

The new primer layer also prevents reflection of the aluminum surface, enabling plate measurement using a densitometer. Many printers had been struggling with that limitation of Toray’s earlier digital plate.

A new developing solution is also available from Toray, which has greater latitude and enables development of both analog and digital plates in the same processor.

Finally, it was KPG’s turn to talk about its new Scorpion thermal waterless plate.

Filmore Craver, Product Manager at Kodak Polychrome Graphics, stated the reason KPG is getting into the thermal waterless plate business has nothing to do with the environment, although that’s a nice benefit. They got into waterless CtP because they are always looking for the next “home run.” Thanks to the persistence of Richard Goodman, Fil and Richard are among a group of individuals at KPG that feel waterless CtP can be the next home run if it’s nurtured. Fil recognizes the combination of computer-to-plate and waterless is extraordinarily complementary. It has potential, he said, and KPG has the resources to support the growth of waterless printing.

Fil reminded us that KPG’s parents are Sun Chemical, a leader in ink manufacturing and Eastman Kodak, a great research company. They have over 500 service people on the street that can repair products, over 100 plate specialists on the street that can assist the printer in using the products, and a parts company in Atlanta that can ship parts overnight. There is a processor under development that is more like KPG’s other plate processors, and uses the same parts. The chemicals will be manufactured by Kodak.

Fil’s earliest experience with waterless printing was watching special inks from Sun Chemical run in a packaging environment. Ice cream cartons came up to color so much faster when printed waterless. There were also significantly fewer gluing problems in the finishing operation, and suddenly folks started realizing there was a definite economic advantage to removing water from the printing process.

At the outset, KPG intends to focus on the packaging industry because it seems to be less effected by a slower economy.

“We’re not going to treat this business any differently than our conventional litho business, ” Fil said, “but what we’re going to do is make it grow. We’re going to spread the word, starting with the prominence of the Scorpion display at Graph Expo, trying to put some pizzazz behind it.” He speculated that perhaps KPG would run a live waterless job in its booth at Graph Expo next year.

Fil vowed that Kodak Polychrome Graphics will “wake the sleeping giant” and get people to understand the benefits of waterless printing.

That’s one wake up call we would all like to see.

Filed under: Chemistry-free, Low VOC Printing, Soy Ink, Waterless Printing on January 12th, 2008