Going With Offset Printing Is Still An Environmentally Friendly Alternative

These days digital printing presses are getting the lion’s share of attention in the print world, offset printing is still extremely common because there still remains a lot of benefits to be acquired from the offset presses that digital printing presses cannot provide.

Offset printing is a style of printing where ink is deposited from a photo-imaged plate to a rubber blanket and then onto the substrate being printed. Offset printing presses hail from as far back as the 1870s in England, while a different version was developed in the United States in the early 1900s.

Compared to other techniques of printing, offset printing happens to be very well suited for producing top quality print in large volumes in an economical manner, and with little requirement for oversight or maintenance. There are a wide variety of items typically printed using off-set printers, which include: magazines, stationery and books.

The standard for new offset printing presses utilize CTP (Computer-To-Plate) imaging technology which provides higher quality results than the older systems that use film to image the printing plates. CTP (Computer-To-Plate) allows for the imaging of the printing plates without the need for film, which then eliminates stripping, compositing and other traditional plate-making procedures. CTP (Computer-To-Plate) has been a revolution in the printing industry which has led, in turn, to faster prepress time, reduced labor costs, and higher quality of print.

Some of the advantages to offset-printing include:

-    Consistently high quality reproductions.
-    Printing plates are made quickly and easily, and the plates are more durable.
-    Cost-effective: off-set printing provides the most cost-effective print when large quantities are required.

On the negative side to offset printing is the amount of materials and the time needed to prepare for each print job, which is commonly referred to as ‘make ready’. As a result of this, smaller print jobs are typically being produced digital printing presses.

There are a number of different ways which offset printing presses can be categorized – and one such categorization can be the method by which the machine accepts paper – either Web Fed or Sheet Fed.

-    Sheet fed refers to individual sheets of paper or boardstock being fed into the press one at a time. Common examples of sheet-fed printed products are smaller run magazines, brochures and general commercial printing.
-    Web fed refers to the use of a roll of paper that is fed into the printing press. Typical products that would be produced using this method are newspapers, magazines, catalogues and books that exceed 10,000 to 20,000 impressions. Web fed presses are very well regarded for their speed, some of which are capable of pushing through 3 thousand feet per minute or faster.

To point out a noteworthy example of a more modern offset printing press is the KBA 74 Karat twenty-nine inch waterless offset press that is digitally integrated, which is well regarded as one of the most environmentally friendly printing presses on the planet while outputting very high print quality.

For a 29” printer of this type, the KBA 74 Karat has a surprisingly small outside dimension (12’-9” long, 7’-3” wide and 7’-0” tall) and everything about it is designed for efficiency and user-friendliness. As an example of this, this press contains 2 cassettes of imaging plates (sufficient to print 10 jobs) which are imaged and changed automatically within the printer.

For a job change complete with automatic plate changing, imaging and inking only takes about 15 minutes, with a maximum of just ten make-ready sheets. Featuring a maximum production speed of 10,000 sheets per hour, its waterless offset plates can accommodate print-runs of up to one hundred thousand units before changing plates is necessary.

This particular press does away with paper waste, ink sludge, toxic cleaners and chemical developers that are typically associated with offset printing. Because it uses soy based inks, completely waterless printing technology, and in-line aqueous coating, the KBA 74 Karat provides the highest quality environmentally friendly print solutions you will be able to find anywhere without sacrificing print quality one bit!



Decide on Precision Printing for professional digital printing offset printing products and services. With admin offices and printing facility located in Surrey, B.C. Canada, we deliver to customers throughout Canada and the USA each day.
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