Stand 1520 -- Baldwin Technology is using IFRA EXPO 2006 to launch several major additions to its product line-up. The company is already the world's leading supplier of press accessory and control equipment and the newspaper sector has always been one of its most important markets. The company's Swedish subsidiary – Baldwin Jimek AB – is dedicated to developing and manufacturing technology to make newspaper presses more productive and cost effective, while at the same time achieving higher print quality with less impact on the environment. NEW SPRAYLINER A new concept in fountain solution control is now available following the introduction of the SprayLiner, a revolutionary version of Baldwin's highly successful DailyLiner. This new ‘closed loop' fountain solution circulation and cooling unit incorporates a new circulator and filter concept, which continuously cleans and recycles solution within the system, resulting in an environmentally-friendly waste disposal. Features of the easily integrated system include constant pressure of the fount solution, which overcomes the difficulty of maintaining consistent pressure on a four-high tower unit. The new unit requires much less energy than previous systems and offers greater cost efficiency plus reduced maintenance. The SprayLiner unit can be used with any of Baldwin's newspaper spray dampening systems. NEW LONG LIFE FILTRATION Baldwin has been working on ‘life-of-press' technology for some time and visitors to its stand at IFRA will be able to hear about two new systems for maintaining fountain solution effectiveness, a long life filtration cleaning management unit (LCM) and a long life filtration cleaning and disposal management unit (LCDM). The LCM unit can be connected to fountain solution systems for web and newspaper presses and is designed to free completely the contaminated dampening solution of residue ink and paper waste, organic impurities and detergent elements. The dampening solution is then fed automatically back into the circuit. LCM is a low-maintenance ceramic filter system based upon well proven cross-flow filtration technology and offers a wide range of benefits to the user. These include minimal disposal costs for contaminated dampening solution, a reduction in consumable materials such as additives, water, alcohol (where applicable) and minimising of algae growth. A more stable dampening solution process results in higher print quality, while the LCM system eliminates contamination in the dampening solution and ensures there are no changes in pH or conductivity values. Baldwin's new LCDM product is a long life filtration cleaning and disposal management system that combines mechanical and chemical filtration technology. All dampening solutions become contaminated during production and this can impair functionality, with a subsequent decline in printing quality. The LCDM unit removes used solution from the cooling unit and filters it through a specially designed cross-flow-membrane, which extracts impurities without affecting the IPA or IPA substitute values. Cleaned fountain solution is fed back into the cooling system and the concentrated waste from the filtration is treated with a special additive, resulting in an easily disposable solid waste. Benefits offered by the LCDM unit include an enhanced long term functionality of the solution, a reduction in fountain solution consumption and build-up on blanket cylinders with a subsequent decrease in wash cycles, plus a significant reduction in the consumption of IPA. Productivity on the press is increased because there are fewer impurities in the dampening solution. The system is easy to retrofit to existing dampening solution conditioning systems either from Baldwin or other suppliers. MAXIMA SPRAY DAMPENING Baldwin's Maxima unit is the first spray dampening system that has been designed for both heatset commercial and high performance newspaper printing applications. Maxima incorporates Baldwin's maintenance-friendly Constant C air curtain technology and a range of control and valve speed options. The system offers proprietary control algorithms, which makes it an ideal partner technology for faster pre-setting of ink and water. “The difference between newspaper and commercial quality standards are becoming smaller and with more newspaper production sites being multi-title, 24/7 operations, the technical and reliability expectations have increased dramatically,” says Peter Hultberg, managing director of Baldwin Jimek. “The technology behind Maxima enables this generation of systems to meet the dampening requirements of all customers. In addition, it can do this with the lowest waste and labour possible and without compromising on print quality, which makes Maxima a life-of-press dampening technology.” IMPACT GLOBAL AUTOMATIC BLANKET CLEANING The IMPACT Global automatic blanket cleaning system utilises PREPAC cloth that is impregnated with a cleaning agent. This eliminates the need for storing and handling liquid solvents to clean blankets and reduces costs because less chemistry is required. PREPAC contains the exact amount of cleaning agent and so there is no need for pumps or containers, while the VOC-free PREPAC cloth makes IMPACT an environmentally-friendly cleaning system. Once a set of blankets have been cleaned the PREPAC cloth is automatically moved on so each blanket is presented with fresh cloth, ensuring a high level of cleaning. The system is very easy to install and maintain, while changing a used roll takes only minutes. Baldwin has developed IMPACT Global Flex Technology to give customers the choice of dry cloth with a cleaning agent or PREPAC. Both systems enable quick press makeready and low material waste. All PREPAC versions are FOGRA approved, which ensures an excellent performance and compatibility. NEW PREPAC PLUS At IFRA Baldwin is announcing the launch of PREPAC Plus, which provides increased cleaning in normal newspaper production situations, where the customer is looking for the ultimate usage of cloth. PREPAC Plus is stronger and more efficient than competitor products on the market and Baldwin believes its improved performance and faster cleaning capability will make it very attractive to newspaper printers operating IMPACT or in the process of investing in blanket cleaning technology. The cloth has very high absorption, encapsulation and abrasion features, which make it the perfect solution for applications where heavy linting is a problem. The high release factor and absorption rate make it suitable for the removal of heavy ink build-up. JETSTREAM Visitors to Baldwin's stand will be able to hear about a range of products, technologies and services that offer newspaper printers the potential to operate their presses with the greatest possible efficiency and print quality, while ensuring the least impact on the environment. Baldwin has a strict philosophy of developing systems that have increasingly less impact on the environment but greater influence on the press's ability to produce profitable print. “Baldwin leads the field in terms of environmentally-friendly press accessories. Take a product like Jetstream, which removes paper dust and loose fibres from the web before it enters the first set of press cylinders. By doing this a printer can reduce drastically the number of blanket washes required. Obviously, it's important to look at the whole issue of blanket cleaning, which is why we developed the industry-leading IMPACT system, but if you can reduce the total number of blanket washes needed, then you've made the press more efficient with less effect on the environment,” says Mr Hultberg. Jetstream is a revolutionary approach to improving print quality, productivity and profitability on a web offset press, whether for commercial or newspaper applications. The special aerodynamic nozzle, positioned close to the web surface, works via a combination of vacuum in the cleaning module and a high velocity air flow, which moves along the web surface and into the cleaning module. The airflow breaks the boundary layer on the paper and forces the particles that were trapped in this layer into the cleaning module. The compact system requires little space, maintenance is minimal and one module will clean both sides of the paper web. NEW SLITVAC 1000 Baldwin is using IFRA to announce a new patented knife enclosure that has a totally fresh approach to removing dust generated in the slitting process. The SlitVac 1000, which can be used as a stand alone unit or placed directly after the Jetstream unit, uses a high velocity air stream, parallel to the knife and flowing against the web direction in the knife enclosure. This enables the SlitVac 1000 to remove more than 99 per cent of all dust particles that are larger than 25 microns in size. During tests the system has proved to be much more efficient than conventional knife enclosure methods. By installing a SlitVac 1000 the problem of dust around the slitting area can be avoided, the end product will be dust free and the work environment improved.