Heidelberg & PURe agree for more sustainable printing solution

New benchmark set for ink sustainability in offset printing

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Heidelberg and PURe
Heidelberg is determined to accompany and support customers on their way to more sustainable.

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) and PURe inks Europe GmbH (PURe) have signed a Europe-wide cooperation agreement in order to make offset printing more sustainable. Heidelberg is committed to guiding and supporting its customers to more sustainable print production. While the use of conventional offset inks or alternatively UV curing inks often makes the introduction of sustainable print production challenging, PURe inks allow packaging and commercial printers a more sustainable production.

Heidelberg will offer these inks under the PURe label, next to its own Saphira consumables that will be part of the PURe package and will offer customers an individual implementation and transition service for the application of PURe inks. Amongst others, Heidelberg can also offer job and system analysis, operator and sales training in order to enable the customer to successfully commercialize the environmental advantages of PURe inks.

Heidelberg and PURe
Heidelberg and PURe agree about Europe-wide cooperation for a more sustainable printing production. Heidelberg will offer these inks under the PURe label, next to its own Saphira consumables that will be part of the PURe package.

Hans Huyghe, head of Product Management Consumables at Heidelberg, “Heidelberg is happy to extend its portfolio with low-migration inks from PURe, which combine the advantages of conventional and UV drying inks. With our project approach, we enable our customers to integrate PURe as a system as part of their long term sustainability strategy.” Michael Berz, chief executive officer of PURe ink systems AG, “We have worked for several years to achieve the high-quality standard we now have with PURe. After joint testing, Heidelberg offers a complete PURe package, which is key to the European success of this novel technology. With the go-to-market through Heidelberg, we can now leverage the potential of the Heidelberg network and its application know-how to introduce PURe to all customers. Thus, we help our industry to reach its sustainability goals.”

Response to higher demand for more sustainability in print production

The innovative PURe ink system is a response to higher demand for more sustainability in print production. The new formulation is 100% free from mineral, palm, soy or coconut oil, metal driers, antioxidants and microplastics, is odor free and comes with excellent deinking results. It meets the highest standards for environment, health and labor safety. In addition, the majority of the ingredients are derived from renewable raw materials without further chemical modification or synthesis. PURe thus sets a new benchmark for offset ink sustainability.

PURe meets the criteria of all major eco-labels (i.e., EU ecolabel, nordic ecolabelling, Austrian ecolabel UZ24, blauer engel UZ195) and has received a c2c Certified Material Health Certificate at the platinum level. Thanks to its unique drying mechanism, the ink dries quickly and at a significantly lower temperature than usual contributing to higher energy efficiency. PURe inks are ideally suited for printing on food packaging materials as well as on commercial print products.

The way to more sustainability and reaching eco-labels however is more than just changing the ink tin. Instead, it requires a holistic customer-specific approach in the print shop environment covering job structure and value chain analysis and potential changes in equipment settings, consumables and even operator qualification.

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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