Cleaner atmosphere, improved quality and "less grumpy printers" is the claim Kent Art Printers, the Chatham commercial colour spe-cialist, is a company steadily forging a name for itself as one of the most environmentally involved businesses in the country. KAP has just been shortlisted for a Kent Business Environment Award following a detailed sub-mission to the Kent County Council Economic Unit. The KAP green credentials are impeccable with over 11 years of alcohol-free operation. At the heart of KAP’s commitment to alcohol free production of quality colour print is a KBA Rapida 74 five colour press fitted with a Densitronic control system, extended delivery and anilox coater. The press, commissioned at the 32,000 sq ft Chatham complex at the beginning of 2001, has performed 100% to the solvent free specification demanded by KAP at the ordering stage. "KBA and the Rapida 74 have proved worthy partners." says KAP sales and marketing director Paul Anderson. "We believe we have a duty to protect the environment and our staff at the same time." This sentiment is fully shared by KBA, a leading press manufacturer which has pan-European ecological accreditation for its entire range of Rapida presses. Anderson continues "We have proved with KBA’s help and Varn International’s hard water alcohol-free fount solution that a non-VOC environment is compatible with producing quality print at negligible extra cost. And, fur-thermore, we think alcohol-free operation has sharpened us up because it quickly shows up any deficiencies in both the press and its operator." He is on record with a more lighthearted benefit for his 38 staff. " I think the cleaner air in the pressroom means happier printers – since we went alcohol free I am sure they are all less grumpy in the mornings!" He continues: "At KAP we are not adopting green policies without thought for our customers and our bottom line. We are a hard-nosed commercial organisation competing in a tough market for top quality sales brochures and cata-logues We simply believe we must be environmentally concerned and we are proving that we can achieve this without affecting our competitiveness – indeed the oppo-site seems to be true." Architect of the firm’s day to day printing operation is KAP’s Technical Manager, Dave Witherden who claims his alcohol-free Rapida gives him sharper and brighter colours and that the anilox coater gives a high level of gloss approaching that of oil based film lamination. It is his responsibility to see that the pressroom housekeeping is of the highest order with press chemistry maintained bang up to date week in week out. Witherden comes up with a startling statistic. He says "We calculate that if we had not gone alcohol-free eleven years we would, by now, have emitted over 8 tonnes of VOC’s into the atmosphere." The KBA Rapida 74 press at KAP is fitted with special alcohol-free rollers and KBA also provided specialist training in the new printing techniques required.