A Summary of Research Efforts by the Printing Machine Research Association of Germany.

In industrial countries the printing industry has to face a growing competition from new techniques of related fields. As far as the production of printed matter is concerned, a certain substitution of conventional printing technologies by other technologies is already to be observed. In addition to this challenge, more and more sociopolitical demands regarding the construction of printing machines have to be complied with which have an impact on the design of these machines, as for example job humanization, creation of better ergonomic conditions at workplaces as well as abatement of harmful influences, such as noise, air pollution, hazardous refuse, etc. These problems can only be solved by joint research work pursuing this target.