WüRZBURG, GERMANY—  The latest HighEcon and EcoTNV systems from Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint are designed for highly efficient operation and already enable gas consumption to be reduced by up to 70 percent compared to older installations without integrated exhaust air purification. If the gas is replaced with green hydrogen, however, further significant reduction in the carbon emissions of the overall production process is possible. Conventional metal printing and/or coating lines incorporate thermal ovens heated with fossil fuels such as natural gas for drying of the typically used coatings. Ralf Hipp, CEO of Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint, explains: “To minimise future carbon emissions and at the same time enable our customers to achieve essentially carbon-neutral production, we want both newly installed lines and existing Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint installations to be capable of operation with green hydrogen as their primary fuel in the future.”