Substitution of Organic Solvents in the Printing Industry

SUBSPRINT is a technology transfer project, supported by the EU SPRINT-programme, to promote the substitution of mineral-oil based volatile, organic solvents with vegetable agents (VCA)for cleaning purposes in the offset printing industry. The starting point was the Danish experience, that VCA can replace organic solvents in cleaning sheet-fed printing presses, based on work by Danish printers and vegetable oil suppliers. The project was extended several times and finally comprised 12 European countries. Important lessons from the project are: Technically a broad interdisciplinary knowledge is required. Due to the high integration of the elements of production, a change in one single process effects all other elements. European co-operation in such a large project requires a common set of thinking, very clear internal rules and structures to have a synergistic effect as basis of success. Concerning the dissemination the most successful strategy seems to be a combination of the innovative parts of the providers and the users side with "born promoters" being suppliers, raw material producers, and - in many cases - vocational training schools.