The Pantera perfect binder from Muller Martini, presented live at the ecology days, can also take a piece of Arnold's “eco cake.”
PURe is, of course, the most sustainable printing ink in the world and somewhat more expensive than conventional printing inks. But as Managing Director Max Arnold assured me, his customers are to a certain extent willing to dig a little deeper into their wallets for green printing products. In turn, they are increasingly confronted with end customers who are specifically demanding more ecological production methods to thereby promote their printing products accordingly.
At the Arnold printing plant, where, of course, only recyclable tableware was used and organic wine served at the birthday party, climate neutral printing is not limited exclusively to the subject of printing inks. The use of processless printing plates, for example, enables Arnold to save 135,000 liters of water, 2,000 liters of chemicals and 4,500 kilowatt hours of energy every year. And – talking of energy – since a photovoltaic system on the roof of the company building produces green electricity, Arnold avoids between 155 and 175 tons of CO2 emissions a year. Frankly, I find these numbers impressive.
“think green - print arnold” is also the name of a joint project between the ARNOLD group, consisting of the three companies Druckerei Arnold, drei m - media service and FORMAT Druck und Medienservice GmbH, and the Berlin Student Research Center at the Lisa Meitner School. This project is exploring in depth why printed products have a bad reputation in society (“Don't print so much - you're destroying the environment!”) and whether these assertions are actually true. The 2019/20 school year is not only looking at printing techniques and products, but also at what de-inking is and how printed products can be recycled. I am interested in to see what conclusions the Berlin Student Research Center will come to.
No greasing and no markings
As a representative of Muller Martini at the ecology days in Grossbeeren, I met Roger Bourquin, Head of Technology at Ast & Fischer, in addition to many other interesting visitors. During some small talk, he drew my attention to another major advantage of PURe printing ink: “There is no smearing and no marking in finishing. This means that the usual varnishing is not needed, which is used to avoid these negative effects. This leads to cost savings and shorter production times for the orders.
And here I'd like to say a few final words on the subject of “ecological processing” – as Muller Martini can also take a piece of Arnold's “eco-cake.” The fact that the Arnold printing plant invested in a Pantera perfect binder for the first time in its 30-year company history almost a year ago and can now also produce softcover products in house provides two major benefits. On the one hand, hundreds of truck kilometers are eliminated every year, which results in a smaller CO2 footprint. On the other hand, no additional tolerance editions need to be printed for production at external partners. In other words, there is less waste – and less waste also means lower raw material consumption.
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Matthias Kandt, Area Sales Manager at Muller Martini Germany