Jiangnan Ink Market Analysis

The regulatory requirements of the product, the three vertices of a sturdy triangle, are gradually pushing the process of China's green ink.

In 2005, some export enterprises in Yinzhou District, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province received notice from European merchants requesting them to send the export product packaging and brochures to Europe for testing. The test covers the residues of lead, heavy metals and organic solvents in the printed matter. It is understood that European merchants have paid attention to the packaging and corrugated paper in the corrugated boxes used for exporting electronic and electrical products in Ningbo. Since organic solvents such as ethanol, toluene, etc. are often used in printing inks, the dried residue will release toxic substances and pollute the air during use, and there are restrictions on the harmful substances contained in the printed matter internationally. Officials said that the issue of printing product safety will form a new trade green barrier for China. From the perspective of the production process of printed materials, ink will undoubtedly become the "protagonist" of this complete industrial chain.

Four crimes of ink

VOC

At present, the printing industry in China mainly uses solvent-based inks, and the main substances that cause inks to be environmentally unfriendly are organic volatiles. Organic volatiles are abbreviated as VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and are organic chemicals that react with nitrogen oxides in the sunlight's ozone layer. VOCs that evaporate into ozone combine with fine dust particles and other substances in the dust to form fog, stimulate the human lungs, and adversely affect the health of various organisms such as animals and plants.

Heavy metal

Some inorganic pigments in ink contain lead, chromium, copper, mercury and other heavy metals, which have certain toxicity and cannot be used in printed food packaging and children's toys.

Organic solvents

Some organic pigments in inks contain organic solvents such as biphenyl gum, which are important components of various inks, but they are also carcinogenic. In production, these organic solvents enter the body through skin contact and can damage the skin's subcutaneous fat. Long-term exposure can make the skin dry and rough. If it penetrates the skin or blood vessels, it will destroy the blood cells and hematopoietic function of the person with the blood; if it is sucked into the air It may even cause chronic poisoning in bronchopulmonary or other parts of the lymphatic vessels.

the remains

In printing inks, ethanol isopropanol butanol, butanol ethyl butanone acetate, butyl acetate, toluene, xylene and other organic solvents are frequently used. These substances are toxic and flammable. Although most of them can be removed by drying, some solvents remain, and Transferred to food, etc., harming human health. This situation is particularly common in gravure printing inks that are widely used in packaging printing. Because the ink pigment particles are small and have strong adsorption power, although the printing has been heated and dried, due to the short drying time, the drying time often cannot be completely dried. Especially in the printed matter with a larger ink area and a thicker ink layer, the residual solvent is more. These residual solvents are brought into the compounding process, and they are more difficult to escape after compounding, and will slowly migrate and infiltrate, thus directly harming human health. Previously, Nestle milk powder was contaminated for this reason.

Standing before green barriers

On February 13, 2003, the European Union announced in its Official Gazette the WEEE Directive and the Directive on the Prohibition of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (ROHS Directive). From electrical and electronic to ink, it seems that there is no connection between them. However, these two directives are aimed at maintaining protection and improving the quality of environmental protection, protecting human health and using natural resources reasonably and prudently, and require that all electrical and electronic equipment put into the EU market must achieve environmental protection. The request. Therefore, as some experts pointed out, this not only affects the entire manufacturer of electronic information products, but also involves upstream and downstream companies such as raw material chemicals and packaging materials. As it should be, the environmental protection of ink has begun to enter people's sights.

In fact, the days of determining the fate of ink have been few. The WEEE Directive was formally implemented on August 13, 2005 in various countries in the European Union. Environmental inks have been favored by many printing customers due to the consideration of the recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment and environmental management costs. In addition to "radish" and "sticks," the ROHS Directive to be implemented on July 1, 2006 requires that appliances placed on the EU market must not contain six kinds of harmful substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers. This will completely end, at least in the EU market this important end to the end of non-green ink market. It is understood that important commercial markets such as the United States and Japan are also formulating corresponding regulations to limit the use of non-environmental substances.

If there is more of an "environmentally friendly" view, our attitude toward "green barriers" should be changed from simply considering the establishment of a trade barrier to a responsible attitude toward human health and the living environment.

In fact, those countries that set "green barriers" in the use of ink have also spared no effort in promoting the use of environmentally-friendly inks. According to statistics, currently 60% of prints in the UK are printed with alcohol-free or light alcohol inks. In developed countries and regions such as Europe, America and Japan, water-based inks are gradually replacing traditional solvent-based inks except offset printing. In the United States, for example, 90% of flexographic prints, 80% of intaglio prints, are printed with water-based inks.

Corporate responsibility

Formulating laws and regulations to promote the development of green inks reflects the responsibility of a country, but their attitudes and actions are even more important for the enforcement of environmental inks. Happily, more and more companies have begun to assume their social responsibilities. SONY is undoubtedly the most representative of them. In 2001, SONY's PS 2 (Play Station 2) game machine was checked by the Dutch government for excess cadmium, the Dutch government prohibited SONY from carrying vessels to Hong Kong, and SONY lost 17 million euros. The incident attracted global attention for a time. SONY recognizes the need for green protection and has since then started to promote the establishment of the Green Partner System, which is to propose SS-00259 technical specifications that require its suppliers' product parts to meet the environmental protection requirements of their specifications. The regulations for the management of hazardous substances such as heavy metal organic chloride organic bromide are clarified to ensure that the products produced do not cause any environmental impact and harm. This includes SONY packaging and instructions for all products are printed with non-volatile environmentally friendly ink that does not contain hazardous materials. Domestic Dongguan Donghong Ink Co., Ltd. and Tianjin Toyo Ink have successfully passed this strict certification which is updated every two years. Its products have become the designated ink for SONY product packaging and other printed products.

The same Japanese company, Matsushita has applied more environmentally friendly UV ink printing on its printed products. The amount of UV ink used is quite large every year. The output value of China's UV printing is also quite high, but it is mainly used in cigarette pack printing. Its main purpose is to achieve a better decorative effect. There are very few applications of UV printing from an environmental perspective.

Why is the road long?

Check out the product descriptions of many ink manufacturers in China, and the environmentally friendly ink series is impressive. Chinese ink manufacturers have always been enthusiastic about the product's participation in various environmental certifications. ISO14001 environmental system certification and US SGS certification have no aromatics quality certification in Japan. Despite the high cost of certification, China's ink manufacturers are never too many, and the certification process is never stopped. . At this year's China International Printing Exhibition, various inks exhibited by various ink manufacturers in the Ink Zone are dazzling. It seems that China's green ink supplier market is not lacking.

However, in addition to the acceptance of external orders and UV printing, which is widely used for decorative effects, in China, there are very few environmental protection inks that actually use environmental protection inks. However, with the deepening of people's concern for food safety, environmental protection ink applications have achieved the first breakthrough in the field of food packaging and printing in China. However, in newspaper printing and commercial printing and ordinary packaging and printing, they are still in a state of "what to say": everyone is saying that no one is doing it.

According to the words of a sales manager of a well-known ink manufacturer, ink manufacturers currently introduce environmentally-friendly inks, and the significance of propagating corporate power is greater than meeting market demand. In order to ensure profit, except for some ink manufacturers that are specifically targeting overseas markets, most manufacturers have not developed a very good domestic market for environmental protection inks. In fact, they strictly control the production of environmentally friendly inks. Since then, they have been compared with ordinary inks. The production cost is naturally high.

Many printing companies face the question “Why not use environmentally friendly ink?” The most common answer is “Is it necessary?” Their reasons are very good. The country does not have relevant laws and regulations to require it. Customers of the printing business do not have special requirements. In addition, environmental protection inks do not have advantages in terms of prices, and some require the installation or repurchase of specific machines. This is indeed not necessary for a “normal person” who fully follows the laws of market economy.

Regulatory needs of products, this is indeed like a sturdy triangle of three vertices, laws and regulations do not limit and guide demand, the demand will not be able to promote the industrialization of the product through the market, and products without market competitiveness, then talk about demand and policy support it? Most ink manufacturers are still optimistic about the prospects of environmental ink. "At least more and more customers need environmentally-friendly ink. Import requirements from overseas markets come from the requirements of domestic consumers. This will make this market bigger and bigger. As for policies and regulations from the government, it's just a matter of time, just like The exhaust emission standard for automobiles is the same as the environmental protection regulations for home improvement coatings, which will eventually be formulated and strictly implemented.” The prospects of an ink factory manager for the production of environmentally friendly ink products are promising. In fact, according to the 2nd Shanghai Forum on Printing and Environmental Protection held on March 31st, 2006, the theme of “China's printing into the era of environmental protection”, Li Xinli, deputy director of the Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau, revealed that although our country is promoting printed materials, Environmental protection started late.

However, in the use of ink and matching process, water-based ink soy ink and odorless ink have been actively promoted, especially in the field of flexible printing, water-based ink coating and printing materials such as waterborne varnishes in corrugated cardboard folding cartons and other fields Has been widely used.

Link domestic environmental ink picking

Jiangmen Toyo Ink

With 8 years of research and development at its Japanese headquarters, Jiangmen Toyo Ink successfully launched a series of environmentally friendly inks such as GC-FINE benzene-free and butanone-free high-performance compound gravure inks. Danon Xu Fuji and other well-known food manufacturers have adopted this environmentally friendly ink.

Maoming Sakata ink

Maoming Sakata Ink Co., Ltd. currently produces an annual output of 6,000 tons of lithographic sheet printing four-color environmental protection soybean ink, using Japan's Sakata technology formula and detection methods, launched the C ECOPURE series of soy ink, not only printing performance is superior, but also to ensure no aromatic hydrocarbons, not Contains heavy metals and does not contain harmful substances such as VOCs.

Dongguan Dongming Ink

Dongguan Dongming Ink Co., Ltd. successfully developed a VOC-free vegetable oil based ink in 2005, which is completely environmentally friendly. Among them, TOH AFSOY
Soybean oil-based thermosetting offset printing ink has been widely praised by the market.

Tianjin Toyo Ink

Tianjin Toyo Ink Co., Ltd. developed a soybean oil-based thermosetting offset printing rotary ink to meet the requirements of environmental protection, and the pure quality effectively controlled the