Lithographic Printing
Lithographic printing generates a lot of heat as the inks are dried, but care must be taken to avoid air flow across the ink wells on top of the presses, for fear of changing the consistency and reliability of the ink. As well as the need to remove heat, the paper used is often very sensitive to low humidity conditions, which can cause distortion as well as static build up, which in turn can result in paper jams. Read on below to discover how we solved the problem for one client.
What do we do
Lithographic printing generates a lot of heat as the inks are dried, but care must be taken to avoid air flow across the ink wells on top of the presses, for fear of changing the consistency and reliability of the ink. As well as the need to remove heat, the paper used is often very sensitive to low humidity conditions, which can cause distortion as well as static build up, which in turn can result in paper jams. Read on below to discover how we solved the problem for one client.
Temperature
Temperature in print halls can be controlled using either traditional air conditioning or evaporative cooling, but AC is very expensive to run in these large spaces, and requires the room to be closed at all times, which is not practical normally. Evaporative cooling was therefore selected as it meets the heavy cooling load, while using very little energy.
Humidity
Dry conditions can allow paper to distort in the stack, as it dries out unevenly, and can also cause paper jams due to static adhesion between sheets. The traditional solution is to instal humidifiers to offset the drying caused by traditional air conditioning, but the use of evaporative coolers cools without any drying effect, and so is perfect in this application.
Airflow
Airflow across the tops of lithographic presses will dry the ink in the wells. Conventional air conditioning struggles to cope with this issue, because directed airflow creates very uncomfortable draughts. Evaporative cooling operates at higher supply air temperatures, which feel comfortable if directed across operatives. This allows the air to be directed only where it’s needed; to the press operators, and not over the wells
Who we have worked with
