Articles

Auto Paper Stretch Compensation might not sound desperately exciting, but it can save a lot of waste and cost, especially for packaging production. This new technology from Heidelberg will be shown at drupa next year and although Auto Paper Stretch Compensation isn’t positioned in ecological terms it should be. It cuts paper waste, plates, makereadies…

An ongoing European initiative linked to the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) directive could spell the end of gravure printing in Europe. REACH requires that manufacturers and importers collect data on the characteristics of the chemicals they use, to be sure they can be safely handled. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), based…

There are many ways printers and publishers can improve staff productivity, some more expensive than others. But if you’ve already exhausted the possibilities of dress down Fridays and booze-it-up Wednesdays, try opening the windows and see if it makes a difference to how well people do their jobs. According to a study in the US,…

One of the biggest threats to the spread of digital printing methods is concern for the print’s recyclability. In part this is due to scaremongering by vested interests, but printed matter must be deinked if it is to be recycled and some digital printing methods produce prints that are hard to deink. Hard but not…

Printers and publishers and everyone in their supply chains have a new version of ISO14001 to grapple with. This is one of the world’s leading standard for Environmental Management Systems and it’s being adopted by all types of organisations. The rationale for going ISO 14001-2015 is simple: control over the environmental impact of your business.…

We have been much occupied of late with a project to ensure that printed matter can be effectively recycled. It has to be said that standards work, and this work in particular, can be tedious beyond words. Other so very much more tempting options beckon. There’s the temptation to straighten ones speaker wires or rearrange…

There are many approaches to paper recycling, but as a rule printing industry associations rarely get involved. The Japanese Federation of Printing Industries (JFPI) is an outstanding exception to this rule. One of the biggest difficulties for recycling supply chain efficiency is sorting. The JFPI has developed a ranking system to classify paper and other…

The Greek government’s antics and dissemblings to the upper echelons of the European Commission have been astonishing. They’ve been played out on a public stage that one way or another has involved everyone. But life goes on beyond the bounds of Greek high drama, even for the European Union (EU). The new circular economy strategy…

At its site in Beckton, East London Britvic produces some 30 million units per month, packaged exclusively in PET bottles which are blown onsite within the production line. Products include Britvic brands plus PepsiCo brands produced under license. This is a large business with a comprehensive and robustly managed commitment to environmental management. And yet…

One of the things that standards compliance and process automation helps companies achieve is cost efficiency and improved margins. Too many business owners bleat about the cost of standards compliance or of workflow and process management technologies. The bleaters take what is really a very short term view, mostly based on ignorance. They misguidedly believe…

The work of ISO is often seen as being grindingly slow and not always effective. But that’s the way of consensus building. It takes time and it’s a process that allows documents to mature as they evolve, taking everyone’s input into account and ideally reflecting it in the work. Often the end result is very…

Progress is being made to spend the $10 billion that has been committed to the Green Climate Fund (GCF). This fund is an investment fund set up by 194 governments and it’s goal is to provide a global investment vehicle to fund growth that also aids climate change mitigation. The GCF is funding public and…