Can Waterless Ink Rev Up Waterless Printing?
The printing process that requires no fountain solution could benefit from teaming up with water-washable ink.
By Mary Reinholz, Associate Editor -- graphic arts online, 3/1/2001
Waterless printing has been touted for years as a means of both producing brilliant, high-quality images and reducing toxic materials in the atmosphere-and that's just for starters. But while it may be aesthetically and environmentally correct, the process has been slow to be accepted (though it has ardent supporters).
Printers have not found it easy nor inexpensive to implement printing plates that use silicone instead of fountain solution (which usually contains isopropyl alcohol) to keep image and nonimage areas separated. Then there was the question of the supply of waterless plates (Toray is the sole supplier), the added expense of on-press multizone temperature controls (or the cost of retrofitting older equipment), and additional operator training.
Now, proponents of waterless printing are hopeful that the introduction of a waterless offset ink-one that can be washed up with water and detergent, rather than solvents-will serve as a catalyst for growth and put the process back in the news.
Field trials get underway
DriLith W2, developed by Sun Chemical, which is called the largest ink supplier in the world, is a top-secret product that contains a special wash-up ingredient. The product was set to be released in late February after trials with U.S. printers.
The ink system, developed specifically for use with waterless plates, could have a major environmental impact on waterless printing and printing in general, according to Sun Chemical officials and advocates for waterless printing.
"It's quite possible that conventional lithographic printers will look at this system and adopt it to eliminate VOCs [volatile organic compounds] in the pressroom," says Dick Drong, Sun Chemical's sheetfed ink marketing manager, who notes that some conventional press washes are flammable and have caused fires in pressrooms.
Drong says that the press wash solution consists of water and a surfactant similar to soap "instead of VOC-laden solvents." He claims that the amount of VOCs in the ink is miniscule, representing less than 1%, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Method 24 testing procedure.
Development of DriLith W2 was initiated at Sun Chemical's research laboratory in Carlstadt, N.J. about two years ago.
Association support
The finished product gets an enthusiastic thumbs-up from the Waterless Printing Association (WPA), Chicago, which noted in a recent issue of "Waterless Currents," its newsletter, that tests at L & E Packaging and Sun Chemical revealed that the ink has worked with Toray plates, Presstek's PearlDry waterless plates, and Kodak Polychrome Graphics plates now in field testing.
"It's a huge innovation," says Arthur W. LeFebvre, newsletter editor and executive director of the association, who describes DriLith W2 as a conventional waterless ink system modified to be soluble in water.
He explains, "The development eliminates the workplace hazards associated with [toxic] chemicals and eliminates the VOCs that escape into the atmosphere. But whether the industry takes advantage of the opportunity to reduce the environmental liabilities in conventional inks is anybody's guess."
Question of impact
Frank J. Romano, chairman of the School of Printing at the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology, has his doubts about whether the Sun Chemical product can catapult waterless printing, which he calls a "great idea," into the mainstream.
"Sun has created an ink that can be washed on press, which makes it more environmentally friendly. Whether it advances waterless printing, I don't know," says Romano.
He adds that a product called SFI (single-fluid ink) developed by Flint Ink, which the company introduced at the Drupa 2000 show in Germany, "may move printers to a quasi-waterless environment rather than to pure waterless presses because it's more convenient. It can be used in any printing press without the use of fountain solutions. True waterless requires that the press be modified with temperature-controlled ink rollers."
Rita Conrad, a Flint spokesperson, reports that SFI, which is not a traditional waterless ink, is undergoing field testing prior to its commercial launch, possibly this year.
Report from the field
Mark Hoover, president and chief executive of Bayshore Press, a waterless printer in Scotts Valley, Calif., began using the new Sun Chemical ink as part of a trial run in January. After a week, he put in an order, noting that the ink system requires no retrofitting of his machines.
Hoover, who says his pressroom has not used fountain solution for seven years, cites three main elements of success in waterless printing: proper ink, a proper plate, and temperature control on the press.
He acknowledges that, for the majority of conventional printers, changing to waterless "is a big deal. Either they must order their presses fitted with multizone temperature controls or they have to retrofit an existing machine, which is not cheap."
But Hoover, recently elected president of the Waterless Printing Association, suggests that "higher powers" may force printers to go waterless in states like California where there is aggressive monitoring of printing establishments, especially in Los Angeles, by governmental agencies concerned about pollutants.
Temperature control is crucial
When printers began exploring waterless printing in a serious way in the early 1990s, says LeFebvre, most presses didn't have a means to control the temperature of the ink, which, as it turned out, was "the heart of the waterless printing system."
But when, in response, manufacturers began outfitting their presses with such controls, ironically the waterless movement took a downturn. As LeFebvre explains, "All of a sudden, manufacturers realized, these controls could really enhance press performance on conventional printing."
Today, LeFebvre adds, most new sheetfed presses are equipped with some form of temperature control-but they're usually not designed for waterless printing.
Ineffective marketing also may have turned some printers off because, he explains, waterless was billed as a high-quality process that could deliver high ink densities and ultra-fine screen rulings; printers assumed that this required a much higher level of press skills.
LeFebvre says, "Interested printers imagined that laboratory-level cleanliness and pressroom organization were necessities, but not all printers maintain that kind of environment."
Origins of the process
Waterless printing, by most accounts, dates to the early 1970s, when 3M, at the time a major plate producer, debuted a "Driography" plate that used a silicone rubber emulsion and a principle of selective viscosity applied to special inks to keep the image and nonimage plate areas separate without need for fountain solution.
Later, Toray, a Japanese company, reached a licensing agreement for the silicone plate technology.
Adopter and believer
Harold Amos, owner of Amos Communications, Beloit, Ohio, became an early adopter of waterless printing and a true believer in the process in 1971. He regretfully abandoned the process a year or so later when he says the plate supply disappeared and he didn't have the means to purchase a new press.
In 1995 Amos resumed waterless printing, using plates from Toray.
Today, Amos has a 28"-wide seven-color Mitsubishi press, which he calls "completely waterless," that he used for a recent test of Sun Chemical's new ink system. Amos and his press operators are now using it on press runs.
"I'm not polluting the atmosphere with VOCs and our press operators aren't putting their hands into solvents," he says. "They put on rubber gloves, but they're not working with something that could seep into their skin."
He says his high-end commercial printing business, which has 16 full-time employees, commands several million dollars in annual sales. Has waterless printing improved his business?
"I don't know how to answer that," responds Amos. "But it's kept me in business and allowed me to compete on quality with the big guys."
