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A Comparative Study of the Environmental Aspects of Lithographic and Digital Printing by Sachin R

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A Comparative Study of the Environmental Aspects of Lithographic and Digital Printing by Sachin R A Comparative Study of the Environmental Aspects of Lithographic and Digital Printing By Sachin R. Kadam Processes Graduate Student, Enviornmental Health and Safety Management Mary Anne Evans, Ph.D. Professor, School of Print Media Sandra Rothenberg, Ph.D. Professor, College of Business A Research Monograph of the Printing Industry Center at RIT Rochester Institute of Technology No. PICRM-2005-01 A Comparative Study of the Environmental Aspects of Lithographic and Digital Printing Processes By Sachin R. Kadam Graduate Student, Environmental Health and Safety Management Mary Anne Evans, Ph.D. Professor, School of Print Media Sandra Rothenberg, Ph.D. Professor, College of Business Rochester Institute of Technology A Research Monograph of the Printing Industry Center at RIT Rochester, NY December 2005 PICRM-2005-01 © 2005 Printing Industry Center at RIT— All rights reserved. With Thanks The research agenda of the Printing Industry Center at RIT and the publication of research findings are supported by the following organizations: bc Kadam, Evans, and Rothenberg (PICRM-2005-01) Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................... 3 Background ...................................................................................... 5 Evaluation Method ........................................................................... 9 Results ........................................................................................... 15 Analysis of the Results .................................................................... 25 Conclusion ..................................................................................... 33 References ...................................................................................... 35 Appendix A .................................................................................... 37 Appendix B .................................................................................... 43 Appendix C .................................................................................... 45 Appendix D .................................................................................... 47 Appendix E .................................................................................... 49 Appendix F..................................................................................... 53 Appendix G .................................................................................... 57 A Comparatve Study of the Envronmental Aspects of Lthographc and Dgtal Prntng Processes 1 2 Kadam, Evans, and Rothenberg (PICRM-2005-01) Introduction The printing industry has been changing traditional printing processes. Moreover, digital dramatically for over 20 years. While the technology has its own demerits that restrict its majority of print volume is generated by offset use for certain circumstances. It is essential for lithography, many print operations are bring- printers to know and understand how the envi- ing in digital technologies as a complement ronmental, health, and safety aspects of their or even replacement for some offset market digital printing operations compare to tradi- segments. Amongst the advantages of these tional printing technologies. new digital technologies are the ability to produce variable data printing and economi- In this paper we compare some environmental, cally viable short-run jobs. At the same time, health, and safety issues associated with litho- societal, consumer, and regulatory pressures are graphic and digital printing processes. Two driving all areas of industry to examine closely commonly used press types, sheetfed lithograph- the effects of their operations on the environ- ic and digital electrophotographic, have been ment. With the advancement and proliferation studied to quantify material consumption, waste of digital technologies, the printing industry is generation, and certain health and safety aspects looking forward to digital printing as a panacea at each stage of document production. Since the for some significant technical and environmen- economic advantages of each technology relate tal problems that are currently associated with closely to print run-length, the experiments traditional printing methods. were constructed around a long- and short-run framework. The objectives of this study were: The two digital technologies showing the most growth potential are inkjet and electrophotog- • To identify and analyze environmen- raphy (Romano, 2003). Both technologies are tal, health, and safety (EHS) issues developing the capability to approach offset associated with lithographic and lithography in image quality. High-end elec- digital printing processes. trophotographic production presses are able to produce output at a rate which makes accessi- • To provide technical information, ble some short-run offset market segments and based on EHS observations and analy- there is significant development activity in this sis, which printing companies can use area from press manufacturers, software devel- when making technological choices. opers and consumables providers (The Print Extension, Inc., 2004) Volumes from conven- • To raise awareness within the print- tional printing technologies will probably grow ing industry about material usage and more slowly than those from digital technolo- waste generation resulting from print gies. Electrophotography is predicted to grow operations, thus creating a basis for at about 2.8% and inkjet at about 8.3% for the integrating EHS into printing busi- period 2003-2008, compared with an increase ness management. in only 0.7% over this period for offset lithog- raphy (Business Development Advisory, Inc., • To deliver a methodology by which 2003). However, issues of environment and a printing operation can perform a workplace health and safety do not disappear comparative environmental assess- merely because a facility is utilizing electro- ment of two different printing photographic digital technologies rather than technologies. A Comparatve Study of the Envronmental Aspects of Lthographc and Dgtal Prntng Processes Introduction This research report provides guidelines from will show a different utilization of resources which a print technology comparison process based on modifications, operation param- can be derived for application to specific press- eters, and the type of consumables used. The es within a print production operation. Each data generated in this study is of less signifi- print technology involves different technical cance than the methodologies used to generate, considerations for the evaluation of materials normalize and compare the data. and energy consumption and the generation of waste. Each press model based on similar tech- nology and even the same model of press oper- ated in two different production environments Kadam, Evans, and Rothenberg (PICRM-2005-01) Background The printing industry uses various printing significant environmental and health impacts, and technologies for printing books, magazines, its considerable space requirements (Cahill, n.d.). newspapers, business documents, catalogs, forms, etc. These technologies include lithog- The digital printing industry, on the other raphy, rotogravure, flexography, screen, letter- hand, is growing at a steady pace although so press, and digital technologies including inkjet far it represents just less than 10% of U.S. print and electrophotography. The use of these tech- industry revenues (Romano, 2003). The driv- nologies depends on the required quality of the ing forces for the adoption of this technology print, number of impressions to be printed, include minimal press setup time, variable data availability of required resources, cost of the customization, image quality improvements, equipment, consumables cost per print, need to sophisticated screening algorithms, lower costs use variable content, and other factors. for short run, minimal space requirements, overall reduction in hazardous materials usage, In this current environment of technologi- reduced waste production, and the ability to cal change, print volumes are migrating from transmit and collaborate on electronic print conventional offset lithographic printing files all around the world (Cahill, n.d.). to digital printing. According to the U.S. Economic Census data, lithography was still Despite these advantages, technology and cost, the most commonly used technology in 2001 disadvantages remain that will keep signifi- with a total of 15,038 firms using this technol- cant print volumes in the traditional arena; ogy (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). However, the these include generally slower throughput for number of printing companies using lithogra- digital technologies, higher cost per impres- phy is declining as new technologies become sion for longer runs, and in some cases, a available and new applications become acces- requirement for specially prepared and coated sible. Between 1999 and 2001, the number of substrates for optimal output quality (Cahill, offset presses operating in the U.S. declined by n.d.). The migration to digital technology is 21,000—a 12% decrease. The dominance of partially hindered by the limited investment lithographic printing in the industry’s recent capital available to many printing companies. history may be attributed to the efficient Also, many offset printers are small in size production of multiple and inexpensive copies, and employ fewer than 10 employees, most very high resolution and print quality, a wide
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