Objective
In the printing industry large quantities of ink are required with corresponding evaporation of solvents, waste water contamination and difficulty of cleaning equipment. A typical printing machine may evaporate 50 tonnes of solvent per year, or as much as 400 tons per year in a typical printing shop. The objectives of this project are to reduce the cost of printing machines by as much as 10 % by eliminating one or more ink rollers and to reduce solvent emissions by at least 90 %. As a result of these achievements working conditions will be improved with the microenvironment benefiting from lower solvent emissions and decreased effluent discharge. To reach these objectives the ink transfer roller(s) will be replaced by a precision spray system applying ink only to the areas to be printed, and excess ink will be recovered in a closed system immediately after printing. The ink roller(s) will be eliminated, and the shorter ink transfer path will substantially reduce solvent evaporation. Due to the closed system, less solvent will be required for maintenance of the ink viscosity. Ink spray and recovery components will be developed in the early stage of the project and tested in the laboratory. New ink formulations will be developed, and clichés will be treated by anti-adhesion coating to maximise ink recovery. Components will be designed and built for trial on a small industrial printing machine using solvent- and water-based inks, for printing on paper, plastic and carton. Finally, a concept will be developed for retrofitting of existing printing equipment. On completion of the project it is estimated that 1 - 2 years will be needed for further development, industrialisation and demonstration of the ink system in order to introduce the technology on a broad industrial scale. However, it is expected that the core SME proposers will benefit directly in a shorter term through offering new machines or new inks, and by the end-users applying the new developments at an early stage in their own printing business. In the later stages of the project an active exploitation and dissemination policy is planned in order to introduce the technology to other potential users, but the consortium members will benefit from immediate access, and from the industrial property rights resulting from the project. The proposed project complies with the scope and objectives of area 1.2 of the BRITE Programme, in particular task 1.2.1. S reduction of hazardous solvent emissions; 1.2.2. S reducing waste and reusing materials; 1.2.3. S incorporations of new technologies for significant abatement of pollution and waste; 1.2.2.M development of environment friendly production techniques; and 1.2.4. M; process recycling of materials to improve environmental impacts
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecycling
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processeswastewater treatment processes
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencespollution
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Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CRS - Cooperative research contractsCoordinator
49076 Osnabrück
Germany