Important to know

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Climate control: what is important to know?

Have you ever dealt with a warp of the covers or wave of the book blocks? Please find below some things to cover it with.

Climate affects your publications

The worst thing that can happen to freshly printed and bound publications – is temperature and humidity shock. This can cause irreversible deformations of books, such as warping of the covers and waving of the book blocks. Humidity needs to be released and absorbed slowly and gently.

The heating season usually has the most significant impact on hardcover warping effect, due to very low air humidity inside heated facilities. The book drying process (starting from the open side of the book, continuing towards the spine) creates a tension which causes covers to warp. Due to inevitability of such a process cover warping that does not exceed 5 mm. is not considered a production defect. Deformation can be caused by UV rays – the pages of a book or book cover can turn yellow and lose their true colour.

Our technologists advise to store goods in a storage environment with temperatures ranging from +10°C to +25°C and a relative humidity of 50%. A minimum acclimatization time of 24 hours before opening the package is recommended to allow the materials to adapt to the existing environment.

How to control climate effects?

Climate control plays a key role in various industrial and manufacturing applications, affecting the efficiency of production processes. To ensure the production of high-quality printed materials, printing houses require the right environment – a climate control system to keep it always running smoothly. Climate control management aims to create the optimum indoor temperature, humidity levels, and oxygen levels in enclosed spaces.

One particularly important aspect of the efficiency of technological processes and materials is relative humidity in the printing house. It should be about 50% and the temperature should be about 20°C – 22°C degrees. Here are some observations on what can happen if printing houses do not comply with these aspects:

  • Electrostatics may be an issue in too dry of an environment. Paper might be harder to control during all the press and post-press processes;

  • Inks in printing machines might change consistency because of the temperature changes (slight changes, even + - 5 degrees);

  • Paper is a sensitive material that can easily absorb and release humidity. That causes paper to stretch, warp, or wave – to deform.

Climate control, what is it?

Climate control management aims to create the optimum indoor temperature, humidity levels, and oxygen levels in enclosed spaces. Printing houses and paper processing industries can control the properties of their most important material. Paper is hygroscopic – it is an exchange of humidity with the surrounding air. Whether humidity is gained when the air is too wet or lost when the air is too dry. This leads to ridging, loss, and fitting issues. The climate control system always measures humidity and temperature in the manufacturing site. By the way, if the humidity is too low, the sensors react to the changed environmental conditions and the system activates the water jets.

Printing houses and paper manufacturers take care of product quality and climate control. So, one of the most important things to keep in mind is to carefully follow the instructions provided by your printing house when receiving publications.