Apex staged an Open House event at its Hemel Hempstead headquarters on April 1 and 2 entitled “Solutions for Profit – Workshop 4”. A key topic under discussion at the event was that of power consumption.

To draw visitors’ attention to the issue, Apex utilised a large screen display to show visitors the output from NoWatt Energy Management software, which was configured to run throughout the Hemel Hempstead plant. NoWatt, a commercially available package, requires the addition of sensors to electrical distribution boards situated around the building. The particular area being focused on by the Apex team was the demonstration suite, where separate distribution boards are in use for the main B2 presses, a Ryobi 750 Series machine and a Ryobi 780E four-colour press; a separate distribution board for the coater used on the 750 Series; and one for the two B3 presses on show, a 524HE and 525GX.

Information from the sensors is fed back through to NoWatt and Apex was able to display this data regarding the power consumption of all presses. To help provide visitors with some perspective of the numbers generated, a chart comparing the power consumption of a selection of B2 presses was also on display.

“The electricity bill is a major factor in any print company’s expenditure. The Ryobi range has many positive features contributing to reduced power consumption, and we were able to use this event to visually demonstrate this aspect to visitors,” said Joint Managing Director of Apex Digital Graphics, Bob Usher. “We are urging printers to take up the “Apex Power Challenge” to not only save themselves money during the lifetime of a press, but also make an important environmental statement to their customers.”

Full comparative numbers on all makes of presses are quite difficult to obtain, as most suppliers only publicly quote the maximum power draw, which would typically occur at start-up of the machine and completion of a print run. However, the general running power consumption would typically bear some relation to this figure, making the comparisons realistic, if not fully detailed.

Comparisons discussed included the power draw of a five-colour Ryobi 750 Series B2 press of 39Kw, and a leading German manufactured press which would consume 62Kw with the same configuration. “Such significant differences can have a huge impact on the amount of money a print company pays for its electricity,” confirmed Neil Handforth, Sales and Marketing Director at Apex Digital Graphics. “Realistic, even possibly conservative calculations suggest an annual difference in electricity bills in the region of £8,000 by running a Ryobi instead of some other B2 presses. Multiply this over the lifetime of the press and it is easy to see why this information is so important to the decision making process.