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1. Need to cut trees when making paper;
2. Solvents used in inks and glossing materials, containing VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) can seriously affect human health and destroy nature.
Some people think that green ink is soy ink, some people think it is VOC-free, and some people think that water-free ink is the most environmentally friendly. What are the most environmentally friendly inks mentioned above? How is it different from traditional ink? Is there a difference in performance? Will the price be very different? Which is the most popular and developable in the market?
An ink
Ink composition
General Offset inks include ingredients such as pigments, greases, solvents, resins, and additives. No matter how other ingredients are blended, the pigments and solvent components may be oil by-products. Therefore, any type of ink, no matter how environmentally friendly, cannot Contains petroleum ingredients. Oils and resins are plant products and have a low impact on the environment. Grease accounts for about 40 to 60% of the ink composition, most of which use soybean oil, linseed oil, and a small amount of tung oil, castor oil, etc. The other important component is solid resin, which is made from rosin. In addition, about 25-30% of the solvent is included, which is the least environmentally friendly ink composition. In the early ink raw materials, up to 60-70% of the ingredients were refined from petroleum.
In the past few years, many people believe that the use of soy ink (according to the definition of soybean oil by the American Soybean Association, the general offset printing ink must contain more than 20% of the soybean oil component before it can be called “soybean inkâ€) is equivalent to environmental protection However, the fats and oils that are realized in most inks are vegetable oils. The only difference is the ratio of various vegetable oils. The rise of soy ink in that year was due to the American Soybean Association’s desire to consume the remaining soybean in the industry. After many years of promotion, the soybean marking in printing has generally been accepted by users. However, due to the public's understanding of the composition of inks, the ink industry in Japan has been using the trademark of vegetable oil ink since 2009. “In fact, even non-soybean inks are made from vegetable oil. In recent years, customers have asked for information on soy inks. We will explain to customers that even if we don’t use soy inks,†said Sao Jinshu, managing director of Donghua (Guangzhou) Ink Co., Ltd., This does not mean that it is not environmentally friendly. Therefore, the Japan Soybean Ink Association was dissolved in 2009, and the concept of a more environmentally friendly ink containing soy components is no longer emphasized. For Donghua, traditional ink sales are better than soy inks." And remind everyone that soy inks contain oil and other ingredients that are not edible.
Green ink definition
When asked about the definition of eco-friendly inks, Wu Shengyang, general manager of Sakon and Daxing Ink & Chemicals (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., spoke in unison, "What ink is environmentally friendly depends on the definition of environmental protection." Refers to soybean oil, zero VOC, UV or waterless ink. As mentioned above, soy inks are not more environmentally friendly than other inks, and the remaining inks, more or less, are reduced emission VOCs. Wu Shengyang said, “(The most important environmental issue for ink now is VOC, and the other is heavy metal.)
VOC refers to any carbon-containing volatile compounds that have serious effects on the human body and the environment. According to Xuan Long Chemical Wang Qihua, VOC will enter the human body through the skin or respiratory tract of the human body during use. When used improperly, such as the operator's workshop is sealed, poor ventilation, and the operator did not wear protective masks, rubber gloves When protective equipment is used, VOC can stimulate the respiratory tract and infiltrate into the skin surface directly. It can cause breathing difficulties, conjunctival and pharyngeal hyperemia, dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, chest tightness, weakness in the extremities, gait, confusion, and other symptoms. Severe persons may experience seizures, convulsions, and coma. Long-term exposure to VOCs can cause neurasthenia, hepatomegaly, women's menstrual abnormalities, dry skin, and even epidermitis. In the sun, VOCs chemically react with nitrogen oxides in automobiles, power plants, and industrial activities to form ozone, which in turn forms particles. The accumulation of ozone, particulates, and other pollutants in the air is the cause of smog, which reduces visibility.
In addition to VOCs, heavy metals are another important point for eco-friendly inks. To ensure the standard of heavy metal content, Wu Shengyang stated, “For those raw materials that are more easily exceeded the standards, we will examine each batch; those that are less dangerous (such as rosin) will be tested during the meeting. Now we must pay attention to heavy metals in the ink composition. There are 8 types, and most manufacturers will commission authoritative organizations such as SGS to test PBBS (8 substances) and PBDEs (8 substances).†Donghua is one of the designated suppliers of Mattel, To ensure quality, Donghua Hangzhou Branch will send the raw materials it bought to Shanghai SGS for testing.
Environmental ink types and characteristics
Reducing emissions VOCs is the ultimate goal of environmentally friendly inks. Saho Kinoshita said, “If the definition of environmental protection is to reduce the emission of VOCs, then zero-VOC ink is the most environmentally friendly, but if the definition of environmental protection is to reduce water, it is water-free ink. In fact, the most VOC emission is the printing process, and Instead of simply using the ink itself, to reduce the maximum VOC, a waterless printing process is used." An anhydrous offset plate includes an oleophilic resin layer and an oil repellent silicone layer, with non-graphical portions printed by water. Water is discharged from the ink, and the anhydrous version is discharged with a uniform silicone layer. The ink does not come into contact with water and emulsification is avoided. The biggest difference between water-free inks and traditional inks is the difference between resins and binders. The principle of waterless printing is that the surface energy of the silicone in the non-image area of ​​the printing plate is relatively low. If the viscosity of the ink is strong, the force that the molecules themselves attract each other will be higher than the affinity with the silicone resin. The material will have a strong ink repellency. The advantage of waterless printing is that it does not use water in buckets during printing, and it does not require alcohol buckets, which can save costs. There is no special printing solution for printing, and only ordinary water printing can be used. It is more environmentally friendly and can be used in large quantities. Reduce the discharge of sewage and VOC; also avoid too much water so that the ink is not dry, and can save paper, reduce registration time.
In addition, the use of zero-VOC inks and UV inks can also reduce emissions of VOCs. The VOC content in zero-VOC ink is actually not zero, but less than 1%. Wu Shengyang said, “The drying time of (zero VOC inks) will be somewhat slower than that of VOCs, or there will be some back-side sticking (bottom over). Because there is no solvent, there will be many difficulties in producing inks. The production time is also longer, and the water resistance of the printing press is lower than that of general inks.†Sachin also noted that “the use of VOCs in inks is to make the inks dry faster. If inks do not have such ingredients, they will slow down the inks. The drying time, but also for this reason, the ink layer will be thicker (the original 20-30% of the solvent component will be replaced by other components.) After the ink containing the VOC is dry, VOC volatilizes, the ink layer will be thinner), more ink means that the gloss and abrasion resistance of the ink will be enhanced, and because there is no volatilization of VOC, even if plastics such as PVC are sandwiched in printed matter, the surface will not wavy. â€
Another kind of environmental protection is UV ink. Sato said that there is no VOC in its composition. However, in addition to considering VOCs, environmental protection, recycling inks and ink-related power consumption are also one of the key points. "Ordinary offset inks require solvents to achieve drying, but also use dusting to help cure and dry them. UV inks do not need to be sprayed. UV inks dry immediately, so UV inks are completely solvent-free. This is the most environmentally friendly. However, UV inks also have a disadvantage, that is, after printing, if paper is recycled, it is difficult to dissolve UV inks, UV inks are difficult to dissolve once cured, and UV lamps consume large amounts of electricity and need to be air-conditioned. Reduce the temperature of the workshop due to the use of UV lamps and increase the power consumption, these are not environmentally friendly, the other is the use of UV inks in addition to UV lamps, but also equipped with a dedicated roller, tape, UV ink It is already 4-5 times more expensive than usual, and the cost of materials is very high. With the electricity fee just mentioned, the cost will increase a lot.†Donghua is one of the products UV HY-BD ​​4-color HS in order to balance speed and environmental protection. -2 Environmental UV ink, after the recovery of the dissolved temperature is similar to ordinary ink, the price is not far from ordinary ink, the disadvantage is that the drying time is slightly longer than the general UV ink.
What is the most environmentally friendly ink? Sasuke Hoki added: “The most environmentally friendly thing is zero-VOC water-free ink, which Japan has already adopted. This is the future direction of development. However, it is still difficult to control the printing process.†In addition to the various environmental protection inks, Sasaki It also mentioned the "rice oil ink" and the "concept of self-sufficiency in raw materials" that have recently been promoted in Japan - using domestic materials to produce ink and reducing carbon dioxide emissions during transportation. Taking the Japanese as an example, they use rice as a staple food and can use rice bran for industrial purposes, causing ink. Markets such as Japan and South Korea have gradually adopted this product. According to this concept, it is not necessary to use rice bran to make ink from self-produced materials in China. Others such as barley, corn, sunflower, etc. can also make oil.
The Current Situation of Printing Industry in China Using Environmental Printing Inks
Although the use of environmentally friendly ink is a global trend, it is still difficult to promote environmental protection inks in China. Wu Shengyang said, “For print products exported to Europe, the United States, Japan, etc., there will be more customers using environmentally-friendly inks than domestic products. Because the price of environmentally-friendly ink is relatively high, generally speaking, if it is not a print customer’s request, the printing factory The use of environmentally friendly inks will not be adopted, and domestic advancement of environmentally friendly inks will be slow.†Saeki also said, “Taking East China as an example, it is difficult to promote zero-VOC inks in China. Even big companies do not pay much attention to this point. Therefore, the focus of our promotion is not on environmental protection, but on the impact of printed products.For companies purchasing environmentally friendly inks from Donghua, especially in Guangdong, most of them are due to the need to meet export requirements, and domestic production requirements are not so high. The concept of using environmentally friendly inks for domestically produced products is not yet universally available.
Two coating materials
On the topic of environmental protection glazing materials, Xuan Long Chemicals Wang Xiaohua has the following explanation:
Conventional varnish and coating adhesives are generally composed of organic solvents or film-forming resins. Because the coating adhesive contains a large amount of organic solvents, a large amount of organic substances need to be volatilized in the film formation process for curing. Therefore, it is a highly volatile organic compound. . The volatile organic compounds of the environment-friendly varnish have low volatility or no volatility. To achieve the above indicators, the paint should not contain too much volatile solvent, and some are completely solvent-free. New environmental protection varnish or film adhesives are produced using emulsion synthesis technology. Emulsion synthesis is based on water as the medium through a special reaction synthesis process. Since water is an inorganic substance, it is non-toxic, odorless, and does not contain volatile gases when used or operated. It is harmless to human health and does not pollute. atmosphere. The systems of emulsion type and solvent type coatings are different, and there will be some differences in the use and operation. Emulsion paints use water as the medium, and the water content (higher than the hot melt) is higher, so the requirements for the drying equipment of the operating machinery will be higher.
Emulsion varnish or film adhesive has been developed so far, performance indicators in all aspects can be basically the same with solvent-based varnish or plastic film, but the ease of use still needs time to improve. The main problem of traditional crude oil is the harmful substances. If we want to reduce these harmful factors, we must strengthen all kinds of environmental protection facilities, such as improving the ventilation while adding harmful organic gas collection and disposal equipment to reduce the impact on people and the environment. . The media that cause environmental pollution in the processing process should be handed over to the relevant media company for processing and increase the cost of the plant in terms of equipment and environment, but the use of emulsion-based varnish can avoid this situation.
We think that Hong Kong has a deeper understanding of environmental protection varnish or coated plastics and it is also easier to accept. However, with the introduction of the corresponding environmental protection laws in China and the increasing awareness of environmental protection among the general public, Xuan Long has not encountered much difficulty in promoting products in China. As the environmental laws and regulations in foreign countries have become increasingly stringent, the demand for environmentally-friendly varnish and coated plastics has increased. We will invest more resources in product development. In addition, we will provide our customers with the most basic ROHS and REACH Environmental Quality Certificates. When designing environmental protection varnishes, we strictly follow the above two standards and do not use the listed hazardous substances at all. Unfortunately, there is a chemical industry in China. The factory still uses banned raw material production.
In recent years, there has been a large amount of environmental protection varnishes and environmentally friendly film adhesives used in food packaging, gift packaging, and book publishing. For the safety of food packaging, manufacturers will abandon the original solvent-based coating oil and use environmentally friendly water-based coating oil. The packaging used in books is also for safety reasons. The book is the object of long-term contact in life. If the package contains harmful substances, it will infiltrate into the body through the skin and affect health. Our advice to the industry is that when purchasing environmental protection varnish and environmental protection coatings, we must obtain environmental protection quality certificate from the manufacturer and prove that the products used are in full compliance with environmental protection quality standards.
The printing industry has always been viewed by the outside world as not environmentally friendly for two reasons: