Gintzler Finds UV Cure That Increases Productivity and Quality

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Gintzler Finds UV Cure That Increases Productivity and Quality
Gintzler Graphics: Substitution of water based inks with UV cured inks
Company Information

Name: Gintzler Graphics, Inc.
Location: Buffalo, NY
Contact: Robert Strach
Production Manager
roberts@ gintzler.com
Employees: 60
Sector: Labels, lithographic (offset) printing, on a job-order basis
Description: Flexible packaging and label printing.
Website: www.gintzler.com
Project Summary
Project Opportunity: The use of water-based inks meant that Gintzler's staff were spending a significant time each day for presses to be shut down and cleaned with solvents to prevent the inks from hardening. Also, the water-based inks did not allow the best quality printing on some high-end jobs.
Project Goals:
Improve print quality
Increase run time
Reduce labor time
Reduce waste ink
Reduce solvent use
Reduce hazardous waste generation
Project Activity: Phase 1 was to convert one water-based press to uv-cured and Phase 2 was to purchase several uv-cured presses.
Project Benefits:
Less ink purchased since no uv-cured ink lost due to evaporation or daily cleaning
Significant labor saved
Presses are in use a greater amount of time
Eliminated the VOCs associated with water-based ink evaporation/drying and daily cleaning solvents
Additional high-end, high-quality jobs possible
Environmental Benefits
Air Emission Reductions
10% reduction in alcohol-based solvent (VOC emissions) cleaning solvent used annually
Energy Efficiency
UV-curing bulbs require more energy than air dryers.
Hazardous Waste Minimization
Eliminated hazardous waste generation - reduced the amount of used cleaning solvent (which was recaptured, reused and then disposed of as hazardous waste) by eliminating daily press cleaning required on water-based ink presses.
Reduction in Toxic and Persistent Materials
UV-cured inks contain no VOCs and in general contain less toxic chemicals than other types of inks.
Resource Reduction
Alcohol-based cleaning solvent purchases were reduced by 30% annually.
UV-cured inks do not evaporate therefore 15% less ink was purchased annually.
Financial Benefits
Increased Sales:
Due to increased press capacity
Other Benefits
Productivity Increases:
Gained more than 300 press hours per year.
Runtime increased 8% over one year.
Product Quality Improvements:
UV-cured inks resulted in improved quality leading to high quality, high-end jobs.
Employee Benefits:
UV-cured inks have allowed the elimination of the ammonia odor associated with water-based inks.
Process Changes
Before: After:
Water-based ink presses in place.
Initially converted one water-based ink press to uv-cured ink press, and then purchased several uv-cured ink presses over several years.

Water based inks have an amonia smell and require maintenance during the course of production due to evaporation.
UV-cured ink has no odor and does not evaporate, so no ink maintenance is required during production.

Small amounts of VOCs are emitted during water-based ink drying process.
No VOCs are emitted during uv-curing, but the uv lamps require more energy than air dryers.

Solvent containing VOCs are used for clean up - required at the end of each shift.
The need for cleaning with solvents is reduced. Run-time and productivity is increased by eliminating the daily cleaning.

Cleaning solvent was captured, re-used and then disposed of as hazardous waste.
Hazardous waste generation eliminated.

Key Enablers
Implementing uv-cured inks was part of an industry-wide change in technology
Top management support
Vendors and partners provided good technical support for the new technologies
Barriers / Challenges / Regulatory Issues
Increased ink costs: pound for pound uv-cured ink costs twice as much as water-based ink. However, it is difficult to project the quantity and cost of ink needed when switching from water-based to uv-cured, and generally unused ink can not be returned.
Unused ink: there is research underway that would give formulas to remix specific colors from existing ink stock for the immediate need rather than ordering new colors.
Hazardous Waste Generator Status: Recently a waste assessment showed that the facility no longer generates hazardous waste. The facility attained their self-imposed goal to reduce shipments of hazardous waste to the unregulated level.
Alternative Strategies
The alternate was continuing with status quo.
Awards / Environmental Programs
The Gintzler building and site comply to the Town of Amherst's more progressive building codes requiring protection of greenspace, preservation of trees and management of stormwater. www.amherst.ny.us

Applicability to Your Business
UV-cured inks can be used in other types of printing such as flexographic and screen-printing.
Lessons Learned
RGBN Program Director Interpretation
Gintzler is a progressive company and wanted to move with the times and improved technology. This led them to replace water-based inks with uv-cured inks which in turn benefited employee health, the environment and the business by significantly increasing productivity, capacity and quality.
Environmental Background Info
Printing Industry and the Environment
Printing involves the transfer of ink onto a particular substrate. Historically, inks and solvents used in printing contain significant proportions of volatile organic compounds (which can contribute to photochemical smog formation) and hazardous air pollutants (which can be harmful to both employees and, if emitted, to the surrounding community). The use of solvents and hazardous materials leads to generation of hazardous waste. Over the last decade, the printing industry has made signficant efforts to change operations in order to reduce solvent use. In addition, new technology, such as, digital and uv-cured ink systems, has enabled printers to reduce their overall environmental impact. (See Related Links section for further pollution prevention and environmental information on printers).