▼ Humidity Solutions provides systems for a variety of print facilities expertise for a full turnkey project.” While Barker does concur with French that energy efficiency is a key area of focus, he believes that “in some instances, a steam humidifier is more efficient than a low energy humidifier.” He describes this by saying: “The low energy humidifier will cool the air through adiabatic cooling, which is great if you require cooler temperatures. If not, then you need to reheat the air, which can be energy hungry. In this case, an isothermal steam humidifier which doesn't affect the air temperature, alongside a reverse osmosis plant to eliminate scale build-up, becomes the best solution.” Barker describes the modern humidification landscape as being highly automated and intelligent. Automation capabilities can be provided both by Humidity Solutions’ own dedicated controllers or by providing the control equipment's information to a building management system. He asserts: “Gone are the days where a maintenance engineer just turns up every six months to provide maintenance. Now we can remotely dial into the humidifier, see the hours run, any fault codes or concerns, and plan our visit accordingly as well as ensuring that if components may be required, they are sent ahead or on the van.” Describing the modern print ecosystem, Barker concludes: “With large press halls housing multi-million-pound presses, high tech finishing areas, and stores of highvalue stock, the humidity control needs to be zoned – but in a straightforward way that means installation costs are kept to a minimum. “This is possible with the latest in high pressure water humidifier technology, coupled with water treatment and excellent controls.” New Systems to Come Condair is a global specialist in humidification, with its roots stretching back to 1948 when the company was originally founded in Switzerland. Its early innovations in rotary atomisation technology laid some of the foundations for modern air humidification and the company has since developed systems across both cold water and steam humidification. Today, the company has production sites in Europe, North America, and China, as well as its own sales and service organisations in 23 countries, and representatives in 50 other locations worldwide. Condair’s UK organisation has been active in the print sector since 1980. The UK branch of the company introduced the JetSpray compressed air and water spray humidifier, designed to allow UK printers to overcome web breaks, misregister, and static issues with a hygienic humidification system. Speaking about the benefits of spray humidifiers for larger print operations, Dave Marshall-George, UK and Ireland sales director at Condair, says: “As the waste heat produced by print machines is the main energy source for this type of humidification, the energy consumed by spray humidifiers is very low. “The evaporative cooling effect enjoyed by printers who use spray humidifiers is an added benefit, alongside the productivity improvements from managing humidity. Condair manufactures both high pressure and compressed air, and water spray models, plus it can provide detailed analysis on the level of evaporative cooling that can be achieved.” For smaller print facilities such as digital print rooms, Condair provides wallmounted steam humidifier systems such as the Condair EL with a fan unit, which Marshall-George says can “provide from just a few kilos of steam per hour to around 40kg, with easy maintenance and good A properly designed and installed humidifier will provide many years of trouble-free operation A relative humidity (RH) range of 45 to 55% is considered the optimal ‘equilibrium’ zone for paper Factoid 44 Issue 359 - March | April 2026 email: editor@printmonthly.co.uk HUMIDIFICATION SYSTEMS | JONATHAN PERT
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