The green upgrade of the printing industry is moving towards a new future for health and environmental protection

Foreword: In the history of the development of the human civilization of thousands of years, the invention of printing has opened an epochal chapter in the spread of culture. Since the invention of printing technology more than a thousand years ago and the digital printing of today, the rapid development of science and technology has caused a drastic change in the printing industry. In the future, China's printing industry will also develop toward energy conservation and environmental protection. It will also spare no effort to protect humanity while spreading human culture.

Shady little workshops, messy workshops, unkempt workers—the traditional printing industry has always left people with the impression that for hundreds of years, with the use of raw materials containing harmful substances in the printing process, the printing industry has been People are regarded as polluting and hazardous industries.

However, in the past 20 years, driven by hi-tech, the printing technology has grown by leaps and bounds. The reporter learned from the “Seminar on Future Development of the Printing Industry” organized by the China Printing Technology Association recently that the printing industry is improving overall. At the same time as raw materials and production processes, they actively respond to the requirements of the times of “protecting the environment and green industry”. The modern printing industry has stepped into a new era of high-tech, energy-saving, and environmental protection.

Green raw materials

When you mention a traditional printing workshop, people first think of the ubiquitous ink in the workshop, the ink on the machine, the ink on the printer's body, and the smell of ink in the air. Various inks and waste fluids not only pollute the environment, It also seriously affects the health of printing professionals. As these printing workshops have been replaced by large-scale printing plants in recent years, and the improvement in the raw materials of the printing industry is changing with each passing day, modern printing materials are from prepress platemaking waste, to printing inks, to printing. The processing of organic volatiles in the post-processing steps can be easily recycled, environmentally friendly and free from contamination.

Platemaking waste

The plate-making effluent produced in the pre-printing process is generally considered to be the most polluting liquid in the printing process. Because of the heavy metal elements contained, the metal resources are wasted and the human body is also harmed. Through the technological improvements in recent years, the widespread use of non-silver film and computer-to-plate technology with no-rinsing and no-handling has reduced waste liquid emissions by 96% to 99%. At the same time, the small amount of liquid produced does not contain toxic substances. And no pollution.

Printing ink

In the printing process, the volatiles of traditional inks are harmful to the human body and affect the health of printing workers. In recent years, many domestic and foreign ink manufacturers and printing companies have invested a lot of energy to develop various types of environmentally friendly inks, such as vegetable inks, water-based inks, bio-inks, etc., using recycled plants, food crops, etc. As a raw material for production, renewable materials remove harmful substances from traditional inks and are widely used in various printing methods.

Lamination

Film is a layer of plastic film after printing by heating, pressure and paper prints together to form a paper-plastic one, is currently a common post-printing process of paper prints, through the cover The film prints have a thin and transparent plastic film on the surface. The surface of the film is more smooth and bright, and it also provides protection against water and dirt.

In order to ensure environmental protection, easy recycling, and non-pollution, water-based coating and pre-coating processes have replaced traditional coatings in recent years to solve the problem of organic emissions. At the same time, in the hot stamping process, cold press plate making is faster. The production cycle is short, energy is saved, the chemical corrosion process is eliminated, and the environmental pollution is reduced.

Green printing equipment

Germany, Japan, and the United States are the developed regions of the printing equipment manufacturing industry. The first-rate printing equipment such as Heidelberg, Roland, and Mitsubishi, which have a high market share in the Chinese market, all come from these developed regions. It is well-known that many developed countries had realized the importance of environmental protection and energy conservation many years ago. In the manufacture of printing equipment, energy consumption and environmental pollution must be taken into consideration, and energy saving and environmental protection design schemes should be adopted as much as possible. The various types of new printing presses are highly automated, greatly reducing boot preparation time and saving a large amount of school machine materials. At the same time, large-format printing equipment also has the effect of energy saving. By replacing the 16-page printer with a 64-page printer, the production power loss can be reduced by about 1/3, the amount of compressed air loss, and the amount of air used for each sheet can also be reduced. Now. Commercial rotary machines can save more than 90% energy by recycling the heat of the drying device or cooling system. In addition, equipment such as digital printers, waterless UV printers, and computer-to-plate printers (CTPs) virtually eliminate contamination during production.

The energy-saving and environmentally-friendly printing equipment, the widespread promotion of paper made from renewable forests, the recycling of waste paper, and the combination of green printing production lines constitute a high-tech green printing industrial chain.

Green Printing and Economy

The world's four major printing centers - Germany, the United States, Japan and China Hong Kong's printing industry flourishes, especially in the most economically developed cities and regions where printing companies are intensive and assist social and economic development. In the modern era, the high-tech leading printing industry plays an indispensable role in the urban economic growth stage with the characteristics of low pollution and environmentally friendly production. The characteristics of sustainable development make it a “urban industry” that survives in the metropolis. . At present, China's three major printing centers are the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Bohai Rim, all of which are centered on China's most economically developed cities. The phenomenon of simultaneous synchronization between the printing industry and regional economic development has also become increasingly evident.

The new era of high-tech green printing brings people not only a healthy living environment, but also the convenience and variety brought by prints to life. Driven by high technology, the economy continues to thrive, green printing applications will be more in-depth and extensive, and the new world of health and environmental protection is in sight.