ARNOLD group delights customers of ecological printing with PURe®

A Media house takes a stand.

Thirty years ago in 1989, Andreas Arnold realised his dream and founded his own printing house. At that time it was a one-man-show in a basement in Potsdam, but it grew quickly and developed itself through several stations, to become todays Media Company. The headquarters of the printing house was moved to Großbeeren south of Berlin, in 1999. Today the ARNOLD group consists of the Arnold printing house, the Format Print and Media service and three m - media service. Three of the Arnold family manage the group: Founder Andreas Arnold, wife Kerstin Arnold and son Max Arnold.

Has sustainability always been a fixed component of your Company strategy?

Max Arnold: My father was already ahead of the competition with his printing house in ecological orientation, in 1993; and nothing has changed in this respect to this day. The use of 100 % green energy and our own solar power, the changeover to process-free printing plates or the exclusive deployment of organic printing inks: All of this has made our company a trailblazer. And where others are already satisfied, we always want to take that extra step.

Are customers strongly demanding ecological printing solutions?

In general our customers are interested in sustainable printing, however there remains huge potential. We will increase our communication in order to enthuse our customers even more for ecological printing solutions. There has only been positive response to PURe® in the project phase.

Max Arnold
Managing Director of the ARNOLD group

“We want to achieve greatness and to bring highest form of sustainability to our branch. We have found a partner in Epple that has the same thought orientation as ourselves.”


Why was it important to you to deploy PURe®?

I have to pass the baton here. Our Head of Production, Felix Berndt, is responsible for the PURe® project and he reported this new ink system to me a long time ago. The sustainability and above all the lack of odour development had excited him. PURe® was however not yet market-ready at the time and not an option for us at that time.

But later PURe® became a current topic?

Correct. My managing employees came back to me with the PURe® project. The additional expenditure meant that it didn't gain a foothold then but the otherfacts had impressed us greatly: largely bio-degradable, better deinking properties than all conventional ink systems, free of hazardous labelling, fast drying and thereby odour-free. That fits our ecological footprint perfectly.

Print experts from the ARNOLD group and the application technicians from Epple at work during the product introduction; committed and cooperative.

 

How did implementing the product go?

Like any project it wasn't one hundred per cent according to plan but the commitment was extraordinary from all sides. We were already having intensive team talks at the decision-making period with the responsible people, the printers and the prepress people. The entire team is behind the project, has been amazingly committed and have even sacrificed well-earned leisure time to ensure no phase of the introduction was missed.

Were there problems?

Of course we had to instruct our specialists about the expected difficulties. I would count here the changeover of the cleaning routine on the printing press, because PURe® inks and their additives are not compatible with conventional consumables circulating in the press. It must be very correctly and thoroughly cleaned.

The new sustainability flyer “think green – PRINT ARNOLD” has been printed with the purest, odour free PURe® ink.

 

How was the support you received from Epple's team?

The support worked very smoothly. We want to start with the Premium PSO certification for the new ink shortly. The team feels they are ready for certification and that can be taken as endorsement for the excellent cooperation between the Epple technicians and our printing experts.

Mr. Arnold, thank you for the interview.

 

More on the ARNOLD group's ecological orientation can be found on: green.arnoldgroup.de

 


Ökologietage

23./24.10.2019 in Großbeeren (Berlin)

What is Green Printing and what does the ARNOLD group do for the environment? Experts from Epple Druckfarben AG will lead clarifying conversations on the purest ink PURe®, in the framework of the event.

More info and registration on www.ökologietage.de