REVOLUTION Heatset Inks
Impact on Greener environment

The term “Green” is best defined as the attempt made to increase use of vegetable based materials in the press room and reduce consumption of chemicals and energy. Reduction of paper wastage further adds to this effort.

Heatsetting process of print drying depends primarily on evaporating the liquid (ink Oil), which is required to formulate the inks as semi-fluid material. The printing and drying process is fast, which is achieved by using suitable ink oil that evaporates in the drier of the heatset presses. Hostmann-Steinberg will continue putting effort to formulate inks with higher amount of vegetable based raw materials and reduce the petroleum based ink oils. However, the current process and technology cannot live without the current levels of ink oils (VOC) to meet the required printing and drying speeds. Vegetable oils do not evaporate. Coldset process can use more vegetable oils or other ink oils with almost zero VOC as the ink setting is achieved by penetration of ink into paper with no evaporation involved. Sheetfed drying process is slow and based on oxidation, where large amount of suitable vegetable oils can be used. In UV process, the entire mass of semi-fluid ink solidifies under exposure to UV lamps.

The “Green” environment in heatset printing industry can be viewed through how Hostmann-Steinberg is working in this direction. Hostmann-Steinberg has introduced REVOLUTION heatset inks to have green impact from ink composition and also by influencing other factors which make the printing process greener.

REVOLUTION inks meet the requirement for Soy Seal, which allows the printers to use the green logo as a proof of “Soy Seal” compliance specified by American Soybean Association. In addition, REVOLUTION inks are rich in other types of renewable raw materials of vegetable origin. This makes these heatset inks greener on a sustainable basis. Typical composition of REVOLUTION inks is given below.

REVOLUTION inks are designed to be more tack stable than other conventional heatset inks. This helps in maintaining good ink transfer and reduces the need for blanket washes and other press clean up processes. Reduced washes reduce the consumption of cleaning materials containing chemicals and VOC.

REVOLUTION inks are designed to reach emulsification stability quickly. This helps in quicker make ready and color OK. Less paper is wasted during blanket washes, start ups and color OK. This can be directly related to less paper consumption and its impact on consumption of trees and paper making chemicals.

Special efforts have been put to make REVOLUTION inks easy to emulsify with milder fountain solutions. This helps in reducing the dosage of the fount concentrates. Hostmann-Steinberg also offers fount solution to reduce the etch consumption by 20-30%. This is another impact to make the press room greener.

REVOLUTION inks dry faster and at lower drier temperature, reducing the energy and fuel consumption. This has direct impact on environment and makes the pressroom work greener.