When I heard a speaker at a recent seminar that the “green movement†in the design field was only popular in the West Coast region of the United States, I was surprised that I almost didn’t fall from my chair.
Most of the designers I know are choosing eco-friendly paper, printing on the back of proofs, using fluorescent lights, energy-saving photocopiers, computers, and thermostats—and they are always looking for new ways to protect the environment.
What can ink do?
What designers can do is ensure that the inks they choose are as green as their paper. To achieve this goal, we must first understand the three main components of sheetfed offset inks: pigments, binders, and additives.
Pigments can provide color to the ink; the binder is a moist substance that can evenly disperse the pigment, such as oil, water, soy, or other vegetable oils; and additives such as paraffins and petroleum fractions can help dilute and increase the ink in printing. Onboard performance.
The problem of oil
Petroleum based inks have been widely used more than 50 years ago because of their advantages of fast drying and high cost efficiency. But in the ointment is the drying process of this ink will cause damage to the environment. Petroleum-based inks not only use non-renewable resources, but also generate VOCs (volatile organic compounds) during the drying process.{It is the culprit that causes environmental pollution and global warming.
Plant and Soy Ink
The current law stipulates that the VOC emissions of petroleum-based inks must not exceed 30%. Under such circumstances, new vegetable inks have become an ideal substitute for petroleum-based inks. Plant inks with VOC contents between 2% and 15% are made from a variety of renewable raw materials such as soybeans, flax, canola and safflower, and each plant can give its products a unique advantage.
When many industries relying on petroleum products are seriously threatened by the shortage of imported oil, soy ink has emerged. Although soybeans have become the biggest selling point in the market for a new generation of green printing inks, this ink is not entirely made from soybeans. Combining soybean oil with linseed oil and tung oil according to a certain ratio can make the ink have a better drying speed.
Dan Malley, sales manager at Sun Chemicals, the world's largest and most advanced ink manufacturer, said that soybean oil alone does not meet the needs of today's ink market, and as long as the refined soybean oil content in ink reaches 20%, it can be called " Soybean ink."
Control VOC
All inks—including plants and soy inks—will produce certain VOCs during the drying process because they contain more or less oil or oil-spray pigments. If there is no oil component, the ink will have to be dried at a higher temperature, and the printing plant will consume more energy for this purpose.
According to the American Soybean Association's regulations, ink manufacturers must use the soybean logo in their own products to meet certain standards for the content of soybean oil in the ink, and this minimum standard will change with the change of printing methods. .
A vibrant ink alternative
Although some people have questioned the performance of plant ink on printing presses, Dan Malley is full of confidence in the ink. He said: "Although petroleum-based inks can print clear dots, vegetable inks have better ink properties and brighter colors than the former. In addition, if you can improve the dot enlargement rate during prepress processing, , then it will be able to get the ideal copy effect."
Whether printing on coated or uncoated paper, people have now found a technology that can quickly solve the problem of vegetable ink quality.
Developing more environmentally friendly alternatives
While designing low-VOC inks, designers can also protect the environment in another way. According to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, the Los Angeles Times has succeeded in reducing its annual VOC emissions by 200 tons after it was switched to soybean ink, and it has won the air from South Coast. Air Quality Award from the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Of course, there are many newer and better inks worth looking forward to. Sun Chemicals recently released a new ink brand. According to Malley, this patented Liberty Ink is an ink that can Dry within one hour after printing, and VOC is not emitted at all. If the printing quality of this new type of ink can reach the standard, then it can make environmental protection designers become more environmentally friendly.