As Mehgro in Urbach in the German state of Thuringia inaugurated a new production hall where a ROLAND 700 HiPrint is installed, it created good ergonomic conditions for the employees and a higher level of resource conservation.

At the end of September, Mehgro Werbung GmbH celebrated the opening of its production hall, which houses a new ROLAND 700 HiPrint with five printing units and a coating module, along with new postpress machines. These investments further improve Mehgro's ecological balance sheet. Power, water, heat, and cooling requirements are all integrated in a comprehensive, resource-conserving energy concept. As Mehgro Managing Director Rainer Große reports: "Ecological orientation is absolutely essential. When buying food we expect that we can rely on the declaration that it is produced without spray. There should be no cutting corners with print products either. We are committed to doing all we can to produce in an environment-friendly manner."

Production hall with a totally ecological concept
As the new production hall was built, Mehgro seized the opportunity to optimize print production both economically and ecologically. With the aid of energy specialists, the power, water, and air supply for the machinery and the building was integrated in a total concept. The centralized compressed air supply and decentralized ejectors provide all production equipment with suction or blast air. A well cooling system, heat exchangers and heat recovery significantly reduce energy consumption. Oil or gas heating is not required. The building design permits waste heat to be carried off into heat exchangers. The heat circuit supplies the warmth needed by the underfloor heating system for the entire hall, which provides a pleasant room temperature and reduces energy requirements. The benefits of Mehgro's own well have already been proven: it feeds the cold water flow which reduced the temperature in the hot month of July 2010 by an average of ten degrees without any appreciable energy costs. This kept the temperature at a constant level, kept product quality stable, and benefited the employees.

Experienced in green production
Mehgro mostly prints alcohol-reduced and, when customers wish, uses mineral oil-free printing inks, water-based, low-emission coatings, and recycled papers or papers with the FSC or PEFC seal. Paper accounts for a considerable amount of the carbon footprint of a print product. With the ROLAND 700 HiPrint and automation features such as ink slide presetting, Mehgro significantly reduces the number of waste sheets, as Rainer Große confirms: "These days we print many jobs with only around 100 waste sheets. Fewer waste sheets mean less carbon dioxide pollution." With the ROLAND 700 HiPrint in 3B format, the company can now also print high-grammage paper, as well as thick carton for folders and packaging – a line of business that Mehgro is looking to grow. Especially interesting for customers with long runs is the fast finishing process with various die-cutting possibilities, either inline directly after the last printing unit or offline after the stitching or folding operations. With its EcoLogic printing technology, the ROLAND 700 HiPrint contributes to environment-friendly production. This is confirmed by the environment certificate "Low-emission Offset Printing" that the ROLAND 700 HiPrint has. A high level of quality is also confirmed by the SID (Sächsisches Institut für die Druckindustrie) with the PSO (Process Standard Offset) certificate for all presses at the Mehgro printing company.