Page 26 - PWM2023_January

TECHNOLOGY REPORT

Nailing down the kilowatts

Wrap up and prepare, hile the government belatedly and standardised, but readers may be able to compare some of
the results with their own equipment.
reluctantly capped electricity prices to
there’s no doubt W Litho efficiencies
businesses, it’s only for six months and
we’re all facing a hard the bills will still be a lot higher than Heidelberg’s website has a sustainability page for its lat-
winter, with industry last year. est eight-unit B1 Speedmaster 106XL, which says it uses
hit as much as house- This time last year, faced with energy price rises that 8kWh per thousand sheets in its most efficient mode.
holds by the rocket- seem almost trivial now, Printweek put together a guide Given today’s trends to short runs that’s a worthwhile fig-
ing price of gas, to reducing energy use in printing factories, such as ure to know, while for longer runs at the press’ top speed
of 18,000sph, that’s in the region of 144kW per hour of
electricity and vehi- switching off anything you can when not needed, install- continuous running.
ing LED lighting and improving draft-proofing and insu-
cle fuels. lation. We looked at the economics of solar power too. The press can show its consumption continuously to
We’ve updated it a bit for 2022 and you can read it online operators on its Wallscreen display. Heidelberg also
Words by at https://bit.ly/five-ways-to-cut-fuel-bills. claims that its DryStar Combination warm air dryer can
save 27,000kWh per year (assuming 36m sheets) com-
Simon Eccles What do presses really use? pared with earlier driers. Motors, water cooling, air pump
Our original guide didn’t cover production equipment, and power supply are all optimised for lower consump-
partly because it was hard to get actual power usage fig- tion, it says. For instance the Airstar cabinet, which sup-
ures out of conventional press and finishing machinery plies the vacuum and Heidelberg’s optimised-nozzle hot
suppliers. However, printers will know what their own air drier, saves a huge 140,000kWh per year (for those
bills are, and you can buy your own measurement devices same 36m sheets) because it is twice as efficient as earlier
to test each machine on standby or load. units. Press automation such as pre-setting also cuts time,
Here we’re presenting what we’ve been able to find out waste and therefore consumption too, it says, while a new
about press consumption by reading and asking around standby mode saves yet more.
the industry. It’s necessarily incomplete and not very Sheet-for sheet, therefore, the latest litho looks quite

26 PrintWeek MENA January 2023 www.printweekmena.com