Performance and climate protection go hand-in-hand at established printshop

A five-colour Rapida 106 featuring coater, delivery extension and a raft of automation modules has been in operation with resounding success at Bonifatius’ print arm in Paderborn, Germany, since last May. Along with high-speed economic production and short makeready times the press provides the printing firm with opportunities to cut waste and save energy, thus improving its green credentials.

When preparing to invest in a new press Bonifatius determined three crucial criteria: high performance, innovative and customised kit. All of these key demands were met by KBA. The nearly 150-year-old printing house also had established business ties with KBA agency Heinrich Steuber from Mönchengladbach, Germany, regarding printing services and finishing. The employees at Bonifatius greatly value the user-orientated support and partnership approach of this privately managed agency.

Along with packages for board and anti-static operation, the Rapida 106 also features simultaneous plate changing (DriveTronic SPC) with plate identification and automatic preregistration (Plate Ident), parallel washing processes (CleanTronic Synchro), simultaneous coating form changing (DriveTronic SFC), kit for alcohol-free printing and energy-saving VariDryBlue dyers. The connection to a central air supply controlled at the ErgoTronic console reduces energy consumption and pressroom noise further. No IR lamps are needed for drying. According to past experiences made by plant director Wolfgang Hettlage IR lamps slowed down the drying of mineral oil-free eco inks so much so that he decided to do without them. A positive side effect is the lower pile temperature at the delivery. 

Climate neutral throughout

The Rapida 106 also met the raft of Bonifatius’ other high ecological demands. It prints in a carbon-neutral fashion which means that all of the CO2 emissions produced during operation are balanced out by the company’s support of a climate project in North Rhine-Westphalia. Along with alcohol-free printing with mineral oil-free inks, the printing powder used is starch based. Moreover, automated production with pre-registration and inline colour control, disengageable inking units and many more details all reduce paper consumption further.

Bonifatius offers its customers climate-neutral printing (Climate Partner). The printing company is also regularly certified ranging from EMAS, PEFC and FSC, environment and waste certificates to PSO, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 accredited. It publishes an environmental statement every year which reports on the use of all resources. In addition the company solely produces using energy from hydropower.

Successful in commercial printing with clever ideas

Sustainable ecological production introduced over ten years ago and sound advice has scored the firm points with EU-wide tenders, contracts from public institutions and longstanding customers. Nevertheless, this is no longer solely sufficient given the industry trend towards more eco-friendly activities. Two years ago managing director Rolf Pitsch and his team therefore created another way of differentiating themselves from the competition with the implementation of Content Management Systems (CMS). This additional service has enhanced customer loyalty and has stabilised print capacity utilisation as well as ensuring the support of its clients with the use of certain contents for digital output channels. This is particularly interesting to clients with increasingly shorter print runs who wish to use their content also for digital publications.

The staff at Bonifatius are developing special tools which allow publishing companies to tailor their workflows more individually. Freelance journalists, for example, are able to attach their work to automated processes without having their own CMS licence. This is then processed in CMS by Bonifatius. Companies with TV, radio and internet editors will be offered intensive support in the future and could become potential print customers. Past solely print clients, including technical editors, enjoy using Bonifatius’ CMS service.

Bonifatius’ print division created structures early on aimed at ensuring this established company’s future in the print market. The yearly increase in the consumption of paper is proof of this. All this within the heavily competitive commercial printing segment. Along with a printing plant featuring web, sheetfed offset and digital presses, a book publishing division, a magazine office, the IT support firm Competo Media Service and a book shop including the supplier borro medien in Bonn all belong to the company. 145 employees (108 of which in the printing plant) at Bonifatius generate sales of €25m ($26.5m) on a production space measuring nearly 9,000m²(96,875ft2).

The Bonifatius printing division founded in 1869 as an independent company is closed tied to the history of the Catholic Bonifatiuswerk and the German city of Paderborn. At the end of the 1990s it moved away from the city centre to a nearly business park and ceased its gravure printing activities.