Printing and Packaging Goes Green

If the firms following the rules of market development and changing into a green production method, they can lead the industry and control the market. There are some ideas, we can share here,
1. Correctly understanding of the green production process of packaging and printing
Green is the most common color in nature, and green is also a symbol of hope. Green symbolizes strong vitality. Perhaps because of this, green has become the representative color of the logo of the International Association of Environmental Protection Organizations. I think green is synonymous with environmental protection, health, hygiene, pollution-free, energy-saving and material saving. Then, according to the author’s understanding and understanding, the green production of packaging and printing technology should be the use of new technologies, new equipment, new materials, new processes, new methods and new management methods and means to achieve better use and saving of raw materials. Reduce production materials and energy consumption, promote the simultaneous improvement of production efficiency and product quality, and protect the ecological environment and reduce environmental pollution, and better protect the health of the human body. In this sense, the green production process of packaging and printing is a systematic project, which involves a wide range of aspects, including not only technological innovation, transformation and rational design of equipment, plant and related facilities, but also paper, ink and glazing. Improvement and expansion of performance and adaptability of printing consumables such as oil, car wash water, blankets, rubber rollers, fountain solutions and additives. In addition, the application of scientific methods and management methods, the traditional operation methods and production process technology innovation and transformation, to reduce production costs, improve production efficiency and product quality, which is also an important way to achieve green printing technology. Therefore, packaging and printing enterprises are shifting to the green production process. The most important thing is to change the concept of production management and production management, and change the traditional backward production methods and processes. For example, equipment that needs to be preheated during production and needs to be washed out. It is best to arrange it in the form of continuous work. There are also high-energy-consuming equipment that can be used to avoid production during peak hours, which can better achieve rational use of energy and reduce production costs.

2.Realize Green Production through Scientific and Rational Design
In the years of work practice, the author found that scientifically and rationally designing the printing layout can not only reduce the fearless waste of the production materials, but also improve the production efficiency and product quality. For example, some color printing products only need to output 2 or 3 plates according to the spot color printing. If you press the four-color plate, you have to output 4 plates, the layout of the flat net structure, and several kinds of printed colors. The color is equivalent to the effect of several spot colors, and the printed layout of the color is most prone to quality defects such as bar marks, spots and chromatic aberrations, and the rate of unqualified products is also high. Therefore, for multi-color overprinted layouts, if the effect of coloring is the effect of spot color, it is best to plate and print according to the spot color, which can save the plate material and facilitate the control of printing quality. For another example, if the printing material is thin and soft, the precision of the printing machine is not high, and the customer designs the layout of the printed product into a precise overprinting structure. To this end, it is necessary to consider designing the layout of the overprint as a trapping structure, that is, The light-colored layout outline is appropriately enlarged or reduced in a small amount, so that if the overprinting is not accurate, the edge of the dark layout is less likely to appear white defects, and the rate of defective printing will be better controlled. In addition, the printing products using the flexographic printing process should take into account the softness of the flexographic plate and the tendency of deformation during the imprinting process. From the technical point of view of improving the definition of the printing layout, the printing layout should avoid designing small lines, Text or pattern, so as to avoid the printing loss caused by the quality problems such as paste and dirty. When designing, the text and line layout can be designed to be larger, which can make the visual sense of eyesight, improve the use effect of the product, and better guarantee the printing quality of the product.

3. Pay Attention to Choosing the Right Raw Materials
Choose the right paper and the right printing process. Paper is the main component of packaging printing production costs. The difference in paper types and quality grades is the main factor affecting production consumption and quality of products. Reasonable selection of the appropriate paper type and quality according to the use of the product is an important measure to achieve rational use of valuable natural resources. Therefore, according to the price and complexity of the goods, as well as the characteristics of the goods and the basic requirements of packaging protection, it is a crucial control link to select the appropriate paper type and quality level for printing production. The author believes that through the reasonable adjustment and control of process technology, improve the packaging quality of the original paper to avoid waste of resources caused by excessive packaging and luxury packaging. In addition, according to the characteristics of the base paper, the corresponding process can be selected to better improve the printing quality of the product. For example, if the paper or paperboard with bright surface and poor gloss performance is printed on a relatively large amount of ink, if the offset printing process is used for printing, the quality effect will be unsatisfactory, and according to the number of printing and the structural characteristics of the layout, it may be used as appropriate. Printing by flexo, gravure or silk screen printing, the quality effect will be better balanced, and the non-conforming products will be greatly reduced.
Choose environmentally friendly inks for printing. Ink is one of the main materials that affect the printing quality and production consumption of products. From the environmental protection and sustainable development of the production process, the ink should be non-toxic, odorless, free of lead, chromium, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, antimony, Harmful substances such as fluorescent substances, and other harmful solvents. Therefore, it is a social responsibility of printing companies to select inks that do not contain harmful substances or harmful substances below the relevant standards. Especially for printed products involving food packaging, it is necessary to use environmentally friendly inks for printing. Since the water-based ink is water and ethanol, it is a non-toxic solvent, and the safety relative coefficient is high, so that the packaging can be better avoided. The ink on the stain contaminates the food by migration or the like. Therefore, the gravure or flexo printing process should select environmentally friendly water-based ink for printing. The embossing and offset printing can also be printed by UV ink, and the drying speed is fast, and the pollution problem caused by the use of the powder anti-sticking can be avoided. In addition, the offset printing process can also be printed with soybean environmentally friendly inks, because it uses soybean oil to replace the mineral oil in the ink, and the soy oil-based ink produced by the company replaces the common petroleum-based ink, which can better avoid the pollution of the product.
    
4. Reasonable Use of Large Format Printing to Reduce Production Costs
In fact, according to the characteristics of packaging and printing products, the advantage of using large-format printing machines is also the choice to achieve green printing. Some printing factories believe that large-format printing machines are used to print long-line printing products without considering the structure of the products. The result is counterproductive, not only does not improve production efficiency and product quality, but also greatly increases production consumption. Therefore, large format printers are best suited for printing carton products and other large format printing products. If you do not consider the characteristics and structure of the product, and only consider the large number of printing, you will need to cut the small size carton, paper bag or other small size trademarks that need to be cut and die-cut, as well as the precision of the layout overprinting. Products with high materials and thin materials are also printed in large format for printing. Therefore, such a blind printing process method not only easily affects the production efficiency and quality of die cutting, cutting or punching, but also causes The increase in the consumption of base paper may even cause some of the products of the layout to be scrapped because the quality does not meet the standard requirements. Therefore, the author believes that large-format printing presses are suitable for printing production batches, and should have the characteristics of large finished products, no precise overprinting on the layout, and products printed with thick paper or cardboard to maximize the equipment. The effectiveness of printing reduces the cost of printing production.

In summary, the transformation of packaging and printing products into green production processes is the general trend. We must have a forward-looking awareness, look at the impact and pressure of social development and progress on the enterprise from a strategic perspective, constantly change our ideological concepts and management concepts, and focus on continuous innovation from the aspects of production methods, production processes and production management. To improve production efficiency and product quality, and to reduce production costs, this is the most urgent goal of every printing firms.

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