Why is humidity important for printing facility?
Low humidity level (below 50%RH) during printing at lithography press or web offset will cause the following problems:
- Tight edges, curl and creasing leading to machine down time
- Electrostatic build up, leading to paper sticking together and not feeding or stacking correctly.
- Web breaks increasing machine downtime.
Recommended humidity level for your printing facility
The recommended humidity level for printing facility is 45 to 50% RH.
(Reference: ASHRAE Handbooks)
How can you bring humidity to your printing facility?
Most of the humidifier technologies can be applied to humidify Printing plant.
Selection of the proper humidification solution should be based on the following:
- What is the required maximum humidification capacity (load) required?
- What sources of energy are available on site?
- How is the ventilation system installed and how is the air distributed?
- Which humidification system will require the least amount of energy – calculated for the overall HVAC system?
It is common for this application to require humidification directly in the space, which is usually a large warehouse with high ceiling.
AEM evaporative humidifier and cooler from steamOvap is an efficient solution to raised humidity level in packaging facility.
ACA compressed air & water is another good choice for packaging facility since nozzles can be installed closed to the packaging machines or presses raising humidity level locally where it is critical for the processes.
Contact us to locate our local steamOvap representative.