Baldwin Technology has signed a cooperative agreement with Falk GmbH, Westerburg, Germany, concerning worldwide sales of Falk technologies for the graphic arts market. The new agreement, which gives Baldwin exclusive sales rights outside Europe, covers Falk offset dampening solution equipment and dampening solution filtration systems. This latest alliance further strengthens Baldwinís global market position as a supplier of press accessories and controls for sheet-fed offset, commercial web offset and newspaper printing. "The partnership with Falk allows Baldwin to offer customers in all segments of the offset printing market a comprehensive portfolio of system solutions for fountain solution management, representing the latest state-of-the-art in process water technology and fountain solution recycling," explains Martin Buttlar, managing director of Baldwin Germany GmbH, Friedberg, Germany. "This partnership reflects Baldwinís strategy of providing automated systems that enable high-quality, profitable production while being environmentally friendly." Peter Leyendecker, joint managing director of Falk with Erhard Burggraf, comments: "We are delighted thatBaldwin has decided to integrate our process water and water treatment equipment into its product offering for all offset printing segments and agreed to provide marketing and support through its worldwide sales and service organization. This partnership will help Falkís innovative technologies break into printing sector in all corners of the globe." The first outcome of the new cooperative venture was presented by Baldwin at the recent Ifra Expo and Graph Expo exhibitions with the launch of the low-maintenance Long-life filtration Cleaning Management system (LCM), which cleans the circulating solution with unprecedented efficiency. LCM fills the gap between the systems Performance Filtration and Long-life filtration Cleaning and Disposal Management (LCDM) inBaldwinís portfolio of filtration products. These complement the functionality of Baldwinís fountain solution mixing and cooling units for sheet-fed offset, newspaper, and heatset web offset presses. In the first stage LCDM cleans the dirty solution and returns it to the fountain solution circuit, while in the second stage the highly concentrated dirty liquid is further treated so that only an easily disposable, solid residue is left. Future enhancements to Falk filtration systems will be directly integrated into Baldwin's fountain solution management systems.