At Knepper Press we have taken many steps to reduce the environmental impact of our printing process. We have reduced the use of harsh pressroom chemicals and replaced them with environmentally friendly green products that are now on the market such as press wash, fountain solutions and other pressroom products.
All of our sheetfed inks are eco friendly vegetable based products and have no VOC content as opposed to the solvent based products of the past and all of our UV inks are Soy based
We have installed a Flo-Clear fountain solution filtration system for both our sheetfed and heat set web pressrooms. This system filters the fountain solution and recurculates it back to the press keeping the fountain solution clean at all times. We have reduced flushing our system from once a week to once a quarter thus saving time and chemistry. The system will keep the PH and conductivity of the water in balance allowing more consistent print results.
We have installed a state of the art trim removal system that automatically removes trim from all of our bindery equipment and sends it to a bailer where it is compacted and banded. The trim is then sold to various paper mills and recycled into paper products such as toilet tissues, paper towels and napkins. 100% of our aluminum printing plates are recycled also.
In February of 2009 we completed the installation of a solvent recycling system made by Maratek Environmental Inc. This system takes used press solvent and recovers it by a distillation process. The chemistry is cleaned and the solvent and water are separated.
The Solvent Saver uses a multi-stage vacuum distillation process that separates blanket wash into its components at lower-than-boiling temperatures. Any waste residues are self-contained within the unit, distilled water can be sent down the drain and the reclaimed solvent is ready to go back onto press with the addition of a recharge agent. The Solvent Saver is an off-press automated machine that once installed, needs very little attention. Switching out drums and using our touch-sensitive control screen is virtually all the labor required. It has a small footprint, taking up little expensive manufacturing space. It operates at low temperatures; it is safe for installation in the pressroom in almost every instance. Once the solvent and water are cleaned it can be used over and over in the blanket washing system of our presses. This dramatically reduces the consumption of virgin solvent and almost eliminates the need for hazardous waste removal. http://maratek.com/home/
