Operating at grass roots

7 April 2011



There’s no better starting point for creating a more sustainable environment than your own shop floor, says Sam Cole.


According to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Europe: ‘The sustainability issue is now a priority across boundaries: political, cultural and professional. In a business context, sustainable development means taking a triple bottom-line approach so that the business measures its success not just on financial performance but on its environmental and social performance too’.

If that just sounds like more hot air emanating from Brussels, it is a wake-up call that it would be foolish to ignore. For every business and inhabitant of the planet the transition to a low-carbon and more sustainable society is one of the single most important drivers of the present century.

The industrial revolution that has evolved into the bedrock of western prosperity was sustained by fossil fuels that drove carbon extraction and combustion, with its subsequent effect on the climate. The question now is how do we live with that legacy?

Reducing carbon footprint

Taking a long hard look at how we interact with the environment by the footprint we incur is the critical first step, says a detailed work in progress Carbon Footprint & Energy Reduction report recently published by PrintCity, the alliance of leading materials and equipment manufacturers serving the printing and packaging sectors that includes Sun Chemical (inks); M-real, Sappi (paper & board); manroland (press manufacturer); and Kurz (foiling).

Irrespective of what is actually being produced, determining the extent of the carbon footprint incurred in the process thereof shapes the tool required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and at the same time points the way towards the implementation of greater energy and manufacturing efficiencies, says the PrintCity report.

In reality, the print and packaging industries perform more sustainably than most in terms of output; particularly so in respect of paper and pulp applications: less than 0.6% of total EU emissions c/f manufacturing and construction (9%), and the production of public energy and heating itself (over 25%). In fact, while production has risen by over 12% since 1990, GHGs have dropped by 8% during the same period.

Even so, there’s plenty of benefit to be derived through continuous improvement, as long as converters have a clear understanding of what they want to achieve and why; and how to do it, says the PrintCity’s Carbon Footprint & Energy Reduction Project Leader and Sun Chemicals’ Sustainability Spokesman Michel Vanhems.

“The first thing that a converter should think about is whether his principal motivation is as a result of regulatory compliance; in response to direct customer requests; or basically born out of a fundamental desire to be more environmentally responsible,” he says.

“Whichever it is, and it may well be a combination of all three, it’s important to adopt a cradle to grave perspective and to be as collaborative as possible with external links in the overall supply chain. You can’t manage what you can’t measure. while in general, regulatory compliance is pushing to reduce internal energy consumption, a wider view will take into account a range of other factors: for example, the footprint made by transportation; the knock-on impact of having to add water to your product; the energy it will require via refrigeration and so forth.

“Prefixing all of that, of course, you first have to get performance right before looking to improve upon environmental footprint.”

Mr Vanhems estimates that simply by exercising more control over the usage of activities it should be easily possible to realise energy savings of more than 15%. while there are significant components of a cradle to grave assessment that fall outside of the converter’s direct control – not least substrates, inks and consumables: the carbon footprint inherent with all of which is consistently under review by its manufacturers - many of the ways of reducing carbon footprint and instituting a more sustainable, leaner and cost-efficient manufacturing strategy are more in the nature of better housekeeping than the quid pro quo of capital investment.

Energy consumption ascribed to building and general site management is around one-third of that incurred via production, and is a relatively easy target for applying best practice. This can be anything as straightforward as eliminating draughts or switching off the lights when not required, to planning the production workflow in such a way as to reduce unnecessary internal transport across the site.

Improvement measures can be directly achieved via technical or organisational changes; the substitution of raw materials and/or a supplier or process; and indirectly by positively influencing shop floor attitudes and behavioural patterns such as car pooling.

In optimising the running of production equipment including all ancillary systems it makes sense to select technologies with the best lifecycle costs. For example, direct drive press systems can be 95% efficient with a power loss of below 5% compared with conventional DC, providing upwards of a 25% reduction in energy cost. On top of that they can facilitate the economic viability of recovering waste heat for cooling and heating within the plant.

Heat recovery is the residual benefit underpinning the recent partnership established between UK-based Spooner Industries and the US-based Anguil Environmental Systems in supplying oxidisers for the European converting, coating and printing industries.

A recent installation carried out at the Sunderland, UK, plant of flexible packaging manufacturer Interflex, which replaced the catalytic oxidiser with a high efficiency regenerative thermal oxidiser (RTO), has not only equated to the reduction of GHGs by around 13 tonnes/week, but also lowered the company’s gas bill by more than £100,000/year.

Working in a vacuum

Vacuum technology is continually advancing and is a specific area within the production process where converters can achieve both sustainability and economic targets through effecting a reduction in energy usage and CO2 emissions, says Piab’s VP Marketing & Communications Josef Karbassi.

“Ejector technologies that utilise the energy as efficiently as possible can help maximise efficiency. For example, COAX-based vacuum ejectors can reduce energy consumption by 50% compared with traditional technology. Likewise, with no moving parts and therefore incurring no wear and tear, vacuum pumps based on COAX technology also offer ways to reduce waste. In addition, no oil is needed to keep parts running efficiently,” he says.

“Similarly, replacing metal with high-tech plastics in the construction of machines and robots means they can be reduced in size, and require less energy to operate.”

Piab is launching the market’s first modular suction cup at the upcoming Interpack show (Düsseldorf) that allows companies to choose the ideal combination of lip and bellow so packaging lines can handle products at a higher speed while realising energy savings.

The piGRIP is available with a range of independent lips, bellows and fittings in sizes from 25-77mm and can be customised for thousands of applications. It can be tailored to individual gripping, lifting and height requirements to handle a variety of products.

A variety of lip options enables manufacturers to choose the desired hardness or softness for optimum sealing and increase machine speed. For example, flexible lips provide extra sealing capability for the handling of porous materials, such as corrugated board, while foam lips are ideal for rigid food packages.

Selection of a more sustainable substrate for transportation purposes is a clear area outside of the primary production process, where carbon footprint can be further reduced.

Wrapsmart Max (WSmax), the new generation downgauged film recently introduced by pallet stretchwrap manufacturer bpi.stretchfilms, draws on advanced polymers and cutting edge production technology to offer the comparable performance of a conventional stretchwrapping film but from a far thinner film profile.

This thinner profile not only enables the converter to use less film (and less waste) by weight to wrap a pallet, but with an increased amount of substrate being wound onto a standard roll its greater length also allows for a greater number of pallets to be wrapped with fewer stoppages for reel changes, thus maximising machine and operator output. Weighing just 9.5kg compared with a typical 17kg standard machine roll, WSmax contributes to increased ease of transportation and a reduction in associated transport emissions.

Aside from reducing vehicle emissions, fewer film deliveries also reduce administrative demands such as the need to order film and to process it at goods inward, says marketing manager Louise Aplin. “We have extended the benefits offered by the Wrapsmart hand film range to an innovative machine film version, which literally goes to greater lengths to help businesses reduce their environmental impact, cut costs and improve efficiency levels – and all without any compromise on packaging performance.”


Paper and pulp converting is only responsible for 0.6% of total EU GHGs. EU GHGs Piab’s piGrip modular suction cap. PiGrip WSmax thinner profile stretchwrap film. WSmax

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PrintCity
Sun Chemical
Piab
Bpi
Spooner

PiGrip PiGrip
WSmax WSmax
EU GHGs EU GHGs


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