Jiangnan ink market analysis
regulations need to be cleaned, reviewed and repaired. The three vertices of a solid triangle are gradually promoting the process of green ink in China
in 2005, some export enterprises in Yinzhou District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province received a notice from European merchants, asking them to send the packaging and instructions of export products to Europe for testing, which covers the residues of heavy metals such as lead and organic solvents in printed materials. It is understood that European merchants have paid more attention to the inner packaging of corrugated boxes and the ink on the instructions used in Ningbo for the packaging of electronic and electrical products for export. Because organic solvents such as ethanol and toluene are often used in printing inks, the residue after drying will release toxic substances to pollute the air in use, and the harmful substances contained in printing materials are limited internationally. Relevant officials said that the safety of printed products will form a new green trade barrier for China. From the perspective of the production process of printed matter, ink has undoubtedly become the "protagonist" of this complete industrial chain
four crimes of ink
voc
at present, solvent based inks are mainly used in China's printing industry, and the main substance that causes the ink to be environmentally unprotected is organic volatiles. VOC (volatile organic compounds) is an organic chemical that can react with nitrogen oxide in the ozone layer of sunlight. VOC volatilized into ozone will combine with fine dust particles and other substances in dust to form fog, stimulate human lungs, and cause adverse effects on the health of animals and plants and other organisms
heavy metals
some inorganic pigments in ink contain heavy metal elements such as lead, chromium, copper and mercury, which have certain toxicity and cannot be used for printing food packaging and children's toys
organic solvents
some organic pigments in ink contain organic solvents such as biphenyl gum, which are important components of various inks, but also carcinogens. In production, these organic solvents enter the body through skin contact, which will damage the subcutaneous fat of the human body, and long-term contact will make the skin dry and rough; If it penetrates into the skin or blood vessels, it will destroy human blood cells and hematopoietic function with the blood; If it is sucked into the trachea, bronchi and lungs, or transmitted to other parts through blood vessels and lymphatic vessels, it may even cause chronic poisoning
residue
organic solvents such as ethanol, isopropanol butanol, propanol butanone, ethyl acetate, butyl acetate, toluene xylene are often used in printing inks. These substances are toxic and combustible. Although most of them can be removed by drying, some solvents will still remain and be transferred to food, which is harmful to human health. This situation is particularly common in gravure printing inks widely used in packaging and printing. Due to small pigment particles and strong adsorption, although they have been heated and dried during printing, they often cannot be completely dried due to short drying time and high speed. Especially in printing materials with larger inking area and thicker ink layer, there are more residual solvents. These residual solvents are brought into the compounding process, which is more difficult to run away after compounding, and will slowly migrate and penetrate, thus directly endangering human health. Previously, Nestle milk powder was contaminated due to packaging for this reason
standing in front of the green barrier
on February 13, 2003, the European adhesive alliance published in its official gazette the directive on scrapped electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE Directive) and the directive on the prohibition of the use of certain hazardous substances in electronic and electrical equipment (RoHS directive). It seems that there is no connection between electronics and ink, However, these two directives aim to maintain and improve the quality of environmental protection, protect human health and use natural resources reasonably and carefully. They require all electronic and electrical equipment put on the EU market to meet the requirements of environmental protection. Therefore, as some experts pointed out, this not only affects the manufacturers of electronic information products, but also widely involves upstream and downstream enterprises such as raw materials, chemicals and packaging materials. Naturally, the environmental protection of ink began to enter people's attention
in fact, the days that determine the fate of ink are numbered. WEEE Directive has been officially implemented in EU countries since August 13, 2005. Considering the recycling of waste electronic and electrical equipment and the cost of environmental treatment, environmental friendly inks have been favored by many printing customers to strive to create a new situation of high-quality transformation and development in Huaibei. In addition to the "Radish", there is also the "stick". The RoHS directive, which will be implemented on July 1st, 2006, requires that electrical appliances put into the EU market should not contain six harmful substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, which will completely end, at least in the important market of the EU, the market life of non environmental friendly inks. It is understood that the United States, Japan and other important commercial markets are also formulating corresponding regulations to restrict the use of non environmental protection substances
if there is more "environmental protection" in our eyes, our attitude towards "green barriers" should be changed from simply thinking of setting up trade barriers to a real negative attitude towards human health and living environment
in fact, those countries that set up "green barriers" in the use of ink have also spared no effort in promoting their own environmentally friendly ink. According to statistics, at present, 60% of British printing materials are printed with alcohol free or alcohol less inks. In developed countries and regions such as Europe, America and Japan, in addition to offset printing, water-based inks are gradually replacing traditional solvent based inks. In the United States, for example, 95% of flexographic printing and 80% of intaglio printing are printed with water-based ink
the formulation of laws and regulations by enterprises to promote the development of green ink reflects that of a country, but their attitudes and actions are more important for the executors of environmental friendly ink. Happily, more and more manufacturers have begun to undertake their social responsibilities, and Sony is undoubtedly the most representative. In 2001, Sony's PS 2 (play station 2) game console was found to contain excessive cadmium by the Dutch government. The Dutch government banned Sony's ships from berthing at the port, resulting in a loss of 17million euros. This event attracted global attention for a time. Aware of the necessity of green environmental protection, Sony began to promote the establishment of a green partner system, that is, to put forward the SS-00259 technical specification, requiring the product components of its suppliers to meet the environmental protection requirements of its specifications, and to clarify the management regulations on harmful substances such as heavy metal organochlorine compounds and organobromide, so as to ensure that the products produced will not affect and harm the environment. This includes that the packaging and instructions of all Sony products are printed with non-volatile and environmentally friendly inks that do not contain harmful materials. Dongguan Donghong Ink Co., Ltd. and Tianjin Dongyang ink have successfully passed the strict certification renewed every two years, and their products have become the designated inks for Sony product packaging and other printing products
also a Japanese enterprise, Panasonic has widely used more environmentally friendly UV ink printing on its printing products, and the amount of UV ink is quite large every year. The output value of UV printing in China is also quite high, but it is mainly used in cigarette bag printing. Its main purpose is to achieve better decorative effect. Few people really apply UV printing from the perspective of environmental protection
why is the road long?
looking up the product introductions of many ink manufacturers in China, environmental friendly series inks are striking. The enthusiasm of Chinese ink manufacturers for their products to participate in various environmental protection certifications has also been rising. ISO14001 environmental system certification, American SGS certification, Japanese aromatic hydrocarbon free quality certification, etc. Although the certification cost is not cheap, Chinese ink manufacturers will never be too many, and they will never be tired of certification. At the China International all printing exhibition held this year, the ink manufacturers in the ink zone exhibited a wide range of environmentally friendly inks. It seems that there is no shortage of supplier markets for environmentally friendly inks in China
however, apart from the external orders undertaken and the UV printing widely used due to decorative effects, few printing materials in China really use environmental friendly inks from the perspective of environmental protection. However, with the deepening of public attention to food safety, the application of environmental friendly ink has made the first breakthrough in the field of food packaging and printing in China, where the humidity is too high to weaken the grinding effect of polishing. However, in the printing of newspapers, books, commercial printing and ordinary packaging printing, it is still in the state of "giving up if you want to say": everyone is talking, but no one is doing it
according to the words of a sales person in charge of a well-known ink manufacturer, the ink manufacturers currently launch environmental friendly inks, and the significance of publicizing the strength of the enterprise is greater than meeting the market demand. In order to ensure profits, except for some ink manufacturers specializing in overseas markets, most manufacturers have not developed a good domestic market for environmental friendly inks at present, and in fact strictly control the output of environmental friendly inks. Thus, compared with ordinary inks, their production costs are naturally high
facing the question of "why not use environmental friendly ink", many printing enterprises mostly answer "is it necessary?" Their reasons are very sufficient. The state has no relevant laws and regulations to require it to be used, and there are no special requirements from customers of printing business. Environmental friendly inks not only have no advantage in price, but also need to install or re purchase specific machines to achieve it. This is really unnecessary for a "normal person" who completely acts in accordance with the laws of market economy
regulations demand products, which is indeed like the three vertices of a solid triangle. Without regulations to limit and guide demand, demand cannot promote the industrialization of products through the market, and what about demand and policy support for products without market competitiveness? However, most ink manufacturers are optimistic about the prospect of environmentally friendly ink. "At least there are more and more customers who need environmental friendly ink. The import requirements from overseas markets and the requirements from domestic consumers will make this market larger and larger. As for the policies and regulations from the government, it is only a matter of time, just like the environmental protection regulations of automobile exhaust emission standards and home decoration coatings, they will eventually be formulated and strictly implemented." The manager of an ink factory is optimistic about the prospect of environmental friendly ink products produced by the factory. In fact, according to the "second Shanghai Forum on printing and environmental protection" with the theme of "China's printing enters the era of environmental protection" held on March 31, 2006, Li Xinli, deputy director of the Shanghai Publishing Bureau, revealed that although China started late in improving the environmental protection of printed materials
however, in terms of the use and matching process of inks, water-based inks, soybean inks and odorless inks have been actively promoted, especially in the field of flexible printing. Packaging and printing materials such as water-based oil ink based varnish have been widely used in corrugated cardboard folding cartons and other fields
link domestic environmental protection ink pickup
Jiangmen Toyo ink
Jiangmen Toyo ink has successfully launched a series of environmental protection inks, such as gc-fine benzene free and butanone free one liquid high-performance composite gravure printing ink, with the help of its Japanese headquarters for 8 years of research and development. Danone xufuji and other well-known food manufacturers have adopted this environmentally friendly ink
Maoming Sakata ink
at present, Maoming Sakata Ink Co., Ltd. has an annual output of 6000 tons of four-color environmental friendly soybean ink for lithographic sheet fed printing. Using Japan's Sakata technical formula and testing method, the C ecosure series soybean ink is launched, which not only has superior printing performance, but also ensures that it is free of aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals and VOC
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