Green Product Lifecycle
Environment
- The Konica Minolta Group places great emphasis on environmental considerations from the planning & development phases, including “resource-saving design” of products which use fewer raw materials.
Resource conservation through the designing of products which use fewer materials
Resource conservation through the designing of products which use fewer materials is effective in reducing the volume of raw materials and waste, as well as energy consumption during production and distribution. Under the Design for Environment (DfE) approach, the Konica Minolta Group is promoting resource conservation through product design. One example is the MFP magicolor printer 1600 series. The series, the smallest and lightest of its kind in Japan, significantly contributes to conserving part resources whilst also reducing CO2 emissions during all phases from production to distribution.
* As of February 1, 2009; among (A4 size) colour laser printers in Japan
Leading the world in acquiring environmental labels such as “Blue Angel” and “EcoLogo”
Established by the Canadian
Government in 1988, EcoLogo is
the most respected environmental
standard and certification mark in
North America.
The Konica Minolta group has been active in acquiring I Type environmental labels (a third party certification), as proof of the low environmental impact of our products. We acquired Germany’s “Blue Angel” certification, the world’s first I Type environmental label, ahead of our competitors. In April 2009, we were the first MFP manufacturer/sales company to acquire “EcoLogo” certification, a Canadian environmental conservation label. It is our principle to acquire “Eco-Mark”, Japan’s leading I Type environmental label. Our products also comply with requirements of other environmental labels such as “International ENERGY STAR Program” and “EcoLeaf” (Type III: disclosure of environmental information on products).
Acoustic test laboratory which meets requirements for blue angel mark applications
Figure: Inside of the Acoustic
Test Laboratory
Germany’s eco-label “Blue Angel” requires applicants to submit test results of noise measurements during operation. In fiscal 2008, Konica Minolta Business Technologies established an “Acoustic Test Laboratory” with world-class acoustic characteristics, which is ISO/IEC 17025(*) accredited by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States. Noise measurements necessary for obtaining Blue Angel certification can be conducted by the in-house test laboratory thus shortening the time required for obtaining Blue Angel certification.
* General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories
“Simitri HD Toner” enables fusing at lower temperatures
Figure: Using toner with uniform shaped/sized particles
The Simitri Toner is our proprietary polymerized toner. Compared to pulverized toner, the polymerized toner successfully reduces CO2 emissions during production by more than 30%, and reduces toner consumption during usage by more than 30%. Since the polymerization method can produce smaller and more uniformly shaped toner particles, fixing to paper at low temperature is possible thus reducing power consumption during the fusing process. “Simitri HD (High Definition) Toner” is an upgraded version of the Simitri toner. Through the use of “core-shell configuration” technology, whereby toner particles are soft on the inside and hard on the outside, Simitri HD toner can be fused at a temperature 20℃ lower than conventional polymerized toner, thus reducing power consumption during copying by approximately 30%.
“IH fusing technology” significantly reduces power consumption in standby mode
MFPs apply heat to toners for fusing to paper. In order to be able to print quickly at any time, fusing units needed to be continuously heated, even in standby mode, resulting in non-negligible power consumption. To address this issue, we turned to induction heating (IH) technology, which is already used in cooking heaters. Taking advantage of IH’s efficient energy conversion from electric power to heat, energy loss can be minimized by heating only the surface of the fusing roller. Power consumption in standby mode has been significantly reduced compared to conventional fusing units which uses halogen lamps.
Achieving double-sided printing productivity equal to one-sided printing
In terms of forest resource conservation, double-sided printing is an effective solution to reducing paper use in offices. The “bizhub C652” prints at a high-speed of 50 pages per minute when printing either one-sided or double-sided colour pages (A4 landscape) through the adoption of a reversing roller 3 sheets alternately double-sided paper conveyance control. Productivity equal to one-sided printing encourages bizhub C652 customers to select double-sided printing and consequently reduces paper consumption in offices.
