Product category:
Printing Presses and Machinery (New and Used, Service and Repair)
News Release from: Heidelberg | Subject: Speedmaster 102, CD 74, 52, Quickmaster 46 presses
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 18 April 2008
Heidelberg's Award For Progressive
'Green' Effort
What has been described as Heidelberg's holistic approach to environmental protection has won it the award for the most progressive environmental process from Canadian magazine Print Action.
According to Heidelberg, the award also reflected the fact that the company takes environmental issues in to consideration at every stage, from the development and manufacture of presses to their operation In addition, printers using Heidelberg equipment, including The Lowe Martin Group and Hemlock Printers, received gold awards in the most environmentally progressive printers employing 100 or more people category
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 6 Jun 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Both companies use Heidelberg presses and it is the third year that Hemlock Printers, which uses Speedmaster SM 102's, Speedmaster CD 74, Speedmaster SM 52 and two Quickmaster 46 presses with a total of 40 printing units, has won.
Hemlock Printers also uses the Prinect Image Control colour measuring system and has been able to minimise its use of resources and the level of waste and emissions it produces.
In 2007, it generated 80 per cent less non-recyclable waste than the previous year, added Heidelberg.
Further reading
Creative Print Gets Colourful with Speedmaster
Creative Print in Leeds has made its first move into full colour and CTP production with a Heidelberg Speedmaster SM52-5L five-colour with coater and a Prosetter 74 visible light platesetter.
Heidelberg Celebtates Century of Stitchers
Heidelberg) signed over the 100th Stitchmaster ST 400 gang-stitcher to Buchdruckerei Lustenau in Austria in December 2003.
Heidelberg's New Workflows and RIP
Heidelberg will be supplying customers with the latest release of its automated prepress workflow, Prinect Printready System 1.2, with immediate effect.
The Printaction awards go to manufacturers, suppliers, print shops and print buyers with outstanding environmental credentials.
The awards cover various categories, such as the development of innovative technologies and processes for environmental protection and social commitment to the environment.
They focus on projects that extend over a number of years and have lasting benefits.
Heidelberg said that for a number of years it has been working on systems for the development, production and utilisation of presses that will limit the depletion of resources, reduce emissions and cut wastage.
The company made environmental protection a key corporate goal back in 1992 and has given this crucial issue greater strategic weight than ever before.
Dr Jurgen Rautert, Heidelberg's director of engineering and manufacturing, explained: "After all, we have a responsibility to the environment, to our customers and, in the long term, to the next generation." Last year, to push environmental factors higher up the agenda when designing and developing new presses, Heidelberg linked with 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 obtain the relevant environmental requirements from a database, added Rautert.
The developers' own environmental protection knowledge can also be fed in to the database, where it can be used in the medium term as an example of best practice.
The portal is soon to be launched and has been designed to provide the platform for 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, said the company.
In 1996, the Heidelberg foundry in Amstetten was the first site operated by a press manufacturer to be granted an eco-certificate.
Environmental management systems to ISO 14001 standard are now in place at all sheetfed offset locations.
Heidelberg sites log a range of key environmental data, including their consumption of electricity, gas and water and the volume of waste the company generates.
The data are regularly analysed by internal and external specialists.
There is also an annual management review covering all these issues to establish the potential for further improvements and savings.
Over recent years, the impact on the environment on a number of Heidelberg sites has been reduced, despite a significant growth in production.
For example, the Amstetten foundry, which is an energy-intensive plant by its nature, succeeded in reducing its consumption of natural gas for each metric ton of output by 30 per cent and cutting water consumption by 20 per cent in one year.
That philosophy also includes the suppliers for each site and they are obliged to meet similar environmental standards to those upheld by Heidelberg.
Heidelberg commented that it focuses on developing environmentally friendly presses.
For example, the new Speedmaster XL 105 has increased productivity by 30 per cent with the same energy consumption and in some cases lower.
Peripherals in the Star System also reduce the environmental impact of the printing process.
The Powderstar AP 500 is claimed to lower powder application and dust levels, meanwhile the Airstar air supply system reduces energy consumption by 30 per cent to 50 per cent and the new Drystar dryers are said to enhance performance levels with the same energy consumption.
The company added that paper consumption is the largest contributor to CO2 emissions but a Prinect software package can help cut paper waste by around 400 sheets for each job.
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