Kenji Sukeno, president Fujifilm Corporation announced that it won the 19th Green and Sustainable Chemistry (GSC) Awards, awarded by the minister of the Economy, Trade and Industry, organized by the Japan Association for Chemical Innovation, for the development of the completely process-less printing plate for the newspaper, Superia ZN-II.
The award was granted in recognition of Fujifilm’s development of the completely process-less printing plate for the newspaper, which has eliminated the use of chemicals, water, and electricity, liquid waste in the development process. At the same time, this has substantially reduced the need for packaging materials, thereby contributing to mitigating the environmental impact, one of the tasks for the newspaper printing industry. The GSC Awards are extended to businesses and individuals for their contribution to promoting green and sustainable chemistry (chemistry that is kind to people and the environment and supports the development of sustainable society).
Newspaper production involves using a laser to output electronic data onto printing plates and setting the plates on a newspaper press to print. In this procedure, CTP plates are used as printing plates. In Japan, some 50 million copies of newspapers are circulated every day, and all of them are printed on offset presses using CTP plates. Conventional CTP plates must undergo the development process using a processor, in which data is output to prepare printing plates. This process poses an environmental challenge, as it requires harsh alkaline chemicals, water, and electricity, and generates liquid waste associated with the use of chemicals. Fujifilm has worked on developing a new type of CTP plate that does not require the development process, in an effort to achieve newspaper printing with a lower environmental impact.
