Baldwin Launches Combiliner E and Combiliner FC Which Offer Lower Energy Consumption and Higher Efficiency
5/28/2008
New CombiLiners meet demands for increased sustainability and conservation of resources.
Combining dampening solution preparation and ink temperature control with a central refrigeration system is at the core of Baldwin’s CombiLiner technology. Baldwin introduced the Combi refrigeration unit concept to the sheet-fed and commercial web markets with great success and even during the original concept stage, its development team aimed to create extremely economical and energy-efficient running characteristics.
At Drupa 2008, Baldwin is presenting the new CombiLiner-E and CombiLiner-FC, which link automatic preparation, changeover, refrigeration and management of the dampening solution with ink temperature control in a highly efficient way. The configuration of the refrigeration unit incorporates intelligent solutions that, depending upon the particular type of system and operation site, can result in energy savings of up to 20%. The new CombiLiners offer printers the opportunity to reduce running costs and better meet the increasing demands to conserve resources and utilise more environmentally friendly production methods.
Intelligent refrigeration design saves costs and resources
The CombiLiner-FC is a water-cooled version, where heat removal occurs through ‘free cooling’ via external heat exchangers. With this method, cooling water for ink temperature control, when the external temperatures is 20 ºC or less, is automatically transferred to free cooling. Under these operating conditions, the joint refrigeration unit works only to cool the dampening solution, ensuring that energy consumption is used extremely effectively. The CombiLiner-FC will not switch ink temperature control to the mechanical refrigeration unit until the external temperature rises above 20 ºC. In temperate climates, energy savings of up to 20% can be achieved because of this technology.
With the CombiLiner-E air-cooled version, Baldwin has achieved a reduction of energy consumption of up to 15% because of the system’s intelligent components. These employ frequency controlled drive mechanisms (compressors) and fans in the refrigeration unit. The regulator adjusts the compressor power continuously against the refrigeration capacity actually required, and the fan speed is also automatically regulated during operation at partial load. This reduces the overall amount of energy consumed.
As part of Baldwin’s environmentally friendly philosophy, finding technical solutions to lengthen the active life of dampening solutions is a major development goal. Using highly efficient filtration systems, printers can prevent unnecessary waste production and excessive use of dampening solution additives and alcohol. For this reason, Baldwin offers the option of combining its Primary, Performance and LongLife-C filtration solutions with all CombiLiner models.
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