"Air humidity in the printing industry" white paper

Control of ambient conditions for quality printing and no machinery stoppages

The paper and printing industry requires constant and reliable control of ambient temperature and humidity conditions in order to ensure maximum efficiency throughout all stages of the process and final product quality.
Swings in humidity can cause dimensional variations, loss of substrate planarity, and increased static electricity in the environment, which in turn cause machine stoppages and printing defects.

To give an idea of the order of magnitude, an offset print run of 10,000 copies takes approximately 1.5 hours to complete in suitable ambient conditions. The same run, in uncontrolled conditions, can take up to 3 hours or even longer, due to continuous stoppage of the machinery.
Rejects due to poor quality of the finished product or interruption of the printing process, making it necessary to repeat the setup procedure and wait for the machinery to reach optimum conditions, are an important cost item that can be significantly reduced by controlling the ambient temperature-humidity conditions.

The aim of this paper is therefore to investigate how ambient temperature-humidity conditions can affect product quality, increase production volumes and reduce production and operating costs.