PAPRO operates within the Forest Research company and their mission is to develop value-adding
industry solutions. At present there are no good ways for mills to easily test the printing quality on newsprint
paper. There is a great need for a fast way to do this on different paper qualities; with a laboratory-
offset press this can be both a time and money saving method. At PAPRO Forest Research, New
Zealand, a laboratory offset press has been developed and designed, during the past seven years, concerning
this issue. Earlier projects were made concerning the press, e.g. to establish the optimal settings.
The mission with this project was to partly determine the present variability of the print quality and
to evaluate if the fountain solution, distilled water and 2% Diol green concentrate, used at the moment
mixed with different percentages of Isopropanol could decrease the variability and contribute to more
stabile results. Throughout the whole project the print quality showed a high variation and was even
more variable when the Isopropanol was added. All in all 50 print rounds times twelve printed paper
strips was carried out through the project divided into three parts. To analyse the print quality, a
microscope with an image capture camera has been used. Data from the taken images was analysed
and inserted into charts to see the variations.
The conclusions of the whole project are not satisfying because no final evaluations were possible to
make. Main conclusions are that the additive of Isopropanol to the ordinary fountain solution, used at
present, only contributed to more unstable results of the print quality. And it seems to be difficult to
get some stable results from the lab press as long as the room where it is placed is not fully conditioned
as required for the process of offset printing. And the fact that the airbrush which applies the
amount of fountain solution is also variable, as shown in earlier projects, whi...
