“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”
Green Printing & Quality Department
Unit - 1
If you are a company that needs to print materials for marketing purposes, to create restaurant menus or to fulfill other print needs, green printing practices are the best options!
How can eco-friendly printing benefit your company?
For one, sustainable printing practices can be more cost-effective than traditional practices. In addition, green printing practices deliver the same high-quality products that you expect from conventional printing. Secondly, green printing reduces waste, eliminates harmful chemicals, and protects the environment from further harm.
In the end, partnering with a printing company that uses green practices like using recycled printing paper and eco-friendly inks can benefit your company! Read on to learn more about how you can do your part to conserve the environment by printing with an eco-friendly printing company.
Green Printing: Green printing is the practice of using renewable energy resources, reducing the use of energy and greenhouse emissions, and using recycled materials.
For example, a printing service may use recycled paper to print their products.
Continue reading to learn about green printing processes and eco-friendly paper practices that are conserving the environment.
Green Printing Processes
Over time, printing companies have taken a look at their production processes to implement more sustainable practices.
As mentioned before, they might limit the use of unnecessary chemicals or use recycled materials!
In addition, progressive printing companies have opted for digital printing presses that use less power, require fewer chemicals and use biodegradable toner.
After all, changing press and other chemicals makes good sense if effective and environmentally friendly substitutes can be found!
In the end, reducing waste lowers cost and makes the operation more efficient and profitable.
These forward-thinking practices are great examples of how printing companies are evolving with the times. Nonetheless, there is more to be done when it comes to eco-friendly printing! In the next section, we’ll look at sustainable paper practices.
Eco-Friendly Paper Practices
The benefits of recycling paper are known widely. Nonetheless, it hasn’t become an industry-standard until recently. In truth, recycled printing paper is both more accessible and more affordable than ever before. Not to mention, some eco-friendly papers today are touted as carbon neutral!
To explain, this may mean that a paper company supports environmentally friendly projects that offset the carbon impact of producing the paper.
Other types of eco-friendly paper are produced using renewable energy, such as wind power.
An even more unusual green printing technique includes using tree-free paper. This unique paper alternative is derived from vegetable products such as bamboo, jute, wheat, straw or agricultural waste.
Whichever eco-friendly paper alternative that you choose, it will print with the same quality that you expect from traditional printer paper. It is also important to note the percentage of post-consumer waste in any recycled paper you choose. There are more options than ever available now including paper which is made with 100% post-consumer waste.
Eco-Friendly Print On-Demand at The Print Authority
Although the idea has been around for some time, transforming printing to make the printing process greener has come into its own over the last decade.
As a result, The Print Authority has taken a firm stance for eco-friendly printing!
In recent years, The Print Authority has transitioned to environmentally-friendly printing materials, such as soy ink. Soy ink provides more accurate colors and makes it easier to recycle paper because the ink is biodegradable. This means you get better quality prints while helping the environment!
Even more, we’ve updated our offset printing plate system to a more eco-friendly ‘chemistry-free’ process. With this change, we now recycle 100% of our printing plates and our plate machine produces only nontoxic by-products.
Another area where we have had success in helping the environment is in promoting our digital department for short-run documents.
This is environmentally conscious on several fronts. First, short-run documents tend to be more up to date; this reduces obsolescence. Second, digital printing has dramatically less setup than offset printing; we have found digital printing reduces waste by 10% or more. Third, our state-of-the-art digital printing equipment uses a low amount of power and uses biodegradable toner.
In addition to modernizing our services and production processes, The Print Authority has taken steps to improve eco-friendly practices behind the scenes. For example, we eliminated unnecessary paperwork used to process our printing projects—instead, we use electronic forms for purchase orders! We also do our best to group shipments going to the same location into fewer boxes. This reduces the shipping cost and the environmental footprint of the shipment.
All in all, The Print Authority is proud to offer eco-friendly print on-demand that exceeds the client’s expectations and protects the environment.
You’ve read about the impact that The Print Authority has had on the environment. Now, discover the results that clients have seen using out eco-friendly print on-demand services in the next section.
Is Printing Bad for the Environment?
To start, we must analyze whether printing is a green practice or not!
Many traditional printing companies use chlorine-based bleaches for certain types of printing. Toxic chemicals are released into the water, soil, and air when these bleached papers are thrown away. To elaborate, the paper emits methane gas as it decomposes—that’s 25 times more toxic than CO2!
In addition to harmful bleaching practices, many printing companies use technology that emits potentially dangerous amounts of ozone. For reference, ozone (O3) is a highly unstable and reactive form of oxygen that can cause debilitating side effects on the human body.
In reaction, several printing companies have introduced sustainable printing processes. Keep reading to learn more about green printing and how The Print Authority is setting an example of optimal green printing practices.
Waste Material and its type: Waste is defined as unwanted and unusable materials and is regarded as a substance which is of no use. Waste that we see in our surroundings is also known as garbage. Garbage is mainly considered as a solid waste that includes wastes from our houses (domestic waste), wastes from schools, offices, etc (municipal wastes) and wastes from industries and factories (industrial wastes).
Sources of waste can be broadly classified into four types: Industrial, Commercial, Domestic, and Agricultural.
These are the wastes created in factories and industries. Most industries dump their wastes in rivers and seas which cause a lot of pollution.
Example: plastic, glass, etc.
Commercial wastes are produced in schools, colleges, shops, and offices.
Example: plastic, paper, etc.
The different household wastes which are collected during household activities like cooking, cleaning, etc. are known as domestic wastes.
Example: leaves, vegetable peels, excreta, etc.
Various wastes produced in the agricultural field are known as agricultural wastes.
Example: cattle waste, weed, husk, etc.
Commonly waste is classified into two types: Biodegradable and Non-biodegradable waste. These two kinds of wastes are explained below:
These are the wastes that come from our kitchen and it includes food remains, garden waste, etc. Biodegradable waste is also known as moist waste. This can be composted to obtain manure. Biodegradable wastes decompose themselves over a period of time depending on the material.
These are the wastes which include old newspapers, broken glass pieces, plastics, etc. Non-biodegradable waste is known as dry waste. Dry wastes can be recycled and can be reused. Non-biodegradable wastes do not decompose by themselves and hence are major pollutants.
Recycling of waste product is very important as this process helps in processing waste or used products into useful or new products. Recycling helps in controlling air, water, and land pollution. It also uses less energy. There are a number of items that can be recycled like paper, plastic, glass, etc. Recycling helps in conserving natural resources and also helps in conserving energy. Recycling helps in protecting the environment as it helps in reducing air, water, and soil pollution.
Biodegradable waste can be decomposed and converted into organic matter with the help of different processes.
This is the method in which waste can be decomposed and converted into organic matter by burying them in the compost pits. The wastes are composed by the action of bacteria and fungi.
This method involves decomposition of organic matter into fertile manure with the help of red worms. This manure is known as vermicompost.
Chemical wastes are wastes that are made from harmful chemicals which are mostly produced in large factories. Chemical wastes may or may not be hazardous. A chemical waste which is hazardous can be solid, liquid or gaseous and will show hazardous characteristics like toxicity, corrosivity, ignitability, and reactivity.
Waste sorting is the process by which waste is separated into different elements.[1] Waste sorting can occur manually at the household and collected through curbside collection schemes, or automatically separated in materials recovery facilities or mechanical biological treatment systems. Hand sorting was the first method used in the history of waste sorting.[2] Waste can also be sorted in a civic amenity site.
Waste segregation is the division of waste into dry and wet. Dry waste includes wood and related products, metals and glass. Wet waste typically refers to organic waste usually generated by eating establishments and are heavy in weight due to dampness. With segregation, each form of waste goes into its category at the point of dumping or collection, but sorting happens after dumping or collection. Segregation of waste ensures pure, quality material. Sorting on the other hand will end up producing impure materials with less quality.
These days, automatic waste segregators are gaining popularity and are already being used in many parts of the world like Australia.
Methods: Waste is collected at its source in each area and separated. The way that waste is sorted must reflect local disposal systems. The following categories are common:[3]
Organic waste can also be segregated for disposal:
Toxic Compounds: Common Substances
Chemical Hazards: any forms of chemicals including medications, solutions, gases, vapors, aerosols, and particulate matter that are potentially toxic or irritating to the body system.
VOC Source and Emission:
Solvents may be defined as complicated chemical mixtures containing several different types of hydrocarbon such as small aerosolisable aromatic molecules and vaporizing as VOCs and as alkanes, alcohols, ketones, aldehydes, esters, ethers (Viegas, 2011). In almost every production industry the solvent is used in the processes such as degreasing, cleaning and etc. There are two different types of solvents as halogenated and halogen-free. They may have the characteristic of a ‘hazardous chemical’ according to the feature of the chemical materials they contain and may also have the feature of hazardous waste at the end of its use. Halogen-free solvents are aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon compounds. Methyl-chloride, ethyl chloride, trichloroethanol, chloroform, chloroethane compounds, chlorinated benzines and chlorinated phenol compounds could be given as examples of halogenated solvents. The chemical compounds containing at least one carbon and a hydrogen atom are called “organic compounds”. Organic compounds are examined under three main groups (Table 1) as very volatile organic compounds (VVOCs) volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile inorganic compounds (SVOCs). These compounds cause soil pollution, underground water pollution, environment pollution and air pollution (US EPA, 2018).
Table 1 Classification of Organic Pollutants (Okubo & Kuwahara, 2020)
VOCs released to the environment from solids and liquids in gas form (Khan & Ghoshal, 2000). Vapourphase organic compounds are very important for the control in air pollution due to the direct and secondary environmental effects. VOCs are of concern as both indoor air pollutants and as outdoor air pollutants. However, the emphasis of that concern outdoors is different from indoors. The main concern indoors is the potential for VOCs to adversely impact the health of people that are exposed (US EPA, 2018). Some of these compounds contain several chemicals which may have short-term and long-term negative health effects, and their impact on human health becomes much more severe in indoor spaces (Rösch et al., 2014). The existence of these indoor air pollutants increases the risk of people with breathing problems, such as asthma sufferers, and with compromised or underdeveloped immune systems (Leung, 2015).
Ink always comes to mind as the latest when the health of living things and the environment are considered. In fact, printed products surround people in every stage of life. We come across with printed products everywhere as daily newspapers, books and packaged products. The printing of the materials such as newspapers, magazines, books, catalogues, packages, prospectus, leaflets, advertising supplements, flyers, calendars, company directives, posters and publicity posters has been increasing every passing day. There is a need for energy, paper and ink in order to produce these materials (Blue Angel, 2020). Printing inks, overprint varnishes and lacquers, additives, diluting solvents, cleaning solutions and wash-up materials, dampening solvents, glues and adhesives used in packaging systems may have a potential effect on the environment at certain points during their own usage cycle (Khan & Ghoshal, 2000; Svendsen & Rognes, 2000) have stated that most important factor of solvent material exposure in offset printing is the humidifier used in printing machines. VOCs should be addressed at this point. VOCs cause greenhouse effect and ozone in the sub-atmosphere (US EPA, 2018). For this reason, it is associated with global warming (Aydemir, Yenidoğan & Özsoy, 2020).
Organic solvent-based flexo including organic solutions, gravure, digital and screen-printing inks, oilbased heat-set web offset inks and solvent compounds used in printing surface coating and solvents added for dilution are the sources of VOC emissions. VOC emissions can occur in any processes of ink mixing, printing, surface coating and storing (IFC, 2007). In other words, it means the organic solvents and diluents are released to the atmosphere during printing process (Figure 1). Moreover, printing inks, solvent based cleansers used in machine cleansing process also cause the release of ozone and volatile organic compounds contributing to the air pollution (Blue Angel, 2020).
» Figure 1: VOC input and output during the printing process
As the environmental awareness increased globally, the demand for the ink made of renewable resources with low carbon footprint has also been increasing (Aydemir et al., 2018). In the ink systems, water began to replace the solvent and vegetable began to replace mineral oil (Robert, 2015). Using water and vegetable oil instead of evaporative chemical solvents in the ink systems, enables the VOCs to be reduced during printing process (Sensorex, 2017). Replacing water with the solvent in the ink, seems environmentally beneficial. However, four times more power is required in order to evaporate the same amount of water in the ink (Aydemir & Özakhun, 2014). This situation may cause high carbon footprint (EuPIA, 2013). Thus, substrates with high absorbing capacity requiring low drying energy should be preferred for the prints performed with water-based ink. The absorption, wettability and surface energy of the substrate should be well-known (Aydemir et al., 2019). During the industrial printing processes, optimization of energy use is extremely important in terms of environment. In order to evaluate the environmental impact of each ink and printing technique, it is necessary to make a Life Cycle Assessment that considers the raw material, manufacturing, distribution, use, and final disposal (Hermann, 2014).
In recent years, the number of studies focusing on the reduction of VOCs content produced by inks has boosted due to increased environmental awareness (Aydemir, Yenidoğan & Özsoy, 2020). In this study, the effects of inks and solvents on the environment have been evaluated and recommendations for the elimination of such effects have been given.
Solvent Emissions Directive and the Control of VOC Emissions
The emissions result from evaporation of VOC and HAP contained in the inks during the printing process. The fact that vaporized solvents damages the ozone layer seriously according to the studies, leads the countries to take measures. Thus, it is inevitable for printing industry to carry out regulations about VOC and HAP having negative effects on the environment (Khan & Ghoshal, 2000). The Environmental Protection Agencies in US, Europe, Canada, and many other countries have restricted the amount of solvent that can be released into the air to reduce the pollutants released to the environment by the printing industry (Saad, 2007).
The emissions of VOCs should be controlled within the limits under the EU Solvent Emissions Directive (EuPIA, 2013). The purpose of this directive is to limit the total content of VOC in certain dyes, inks and varnishes in order to reduce and prevent the air and environment pollution (US EPA, 2018). Emission is controlled by recovery such as adsorption (scrubbing), desorption, condensation and traditional systems of abatement such as catalytic thermal oxidation, thermal oxidation and biological scrubbing (Inglezakis & Poulopoulos, 2006). In large-scale flexographic and gravure printing processes, thermal oxidation is the most common (EuPIA, 2013).
The Environmental Impacts of Pre-Press Processes
Although no significant VOC emissions are generated from the prepress / imaging process, developers and fixers may generate emissions of sulphur compounds, acetic acid, and ammonia from blueprint, as well as odours, particularly in older processes (IFC, 2007).
Computer-to-plate technology (CTP) increased the efficiency of pre-press processes in all printing systems and reduced the use of water significantly. Moreover, other chemicals such as photographic film and photographic developer containing silver and print developer were not used. Thus, the factors having negative effect on the environment due to the waste film, waste developer and water consumption and causing waste formation were eliminated. Using metal by engraving instead of using acid in preparation print developer for gravure printing, is one of the important measures minimizing the environmental impact of pre-press processes.
Solvent Impacts in Printing Environment
Printing environment is usually the major source of emission due to the storage, usage and final disposal of chemicals and liquid waste. Most common emissions caused by printing process are gases and emissions of VOC caused by process chemicals and cleaning solvents. VOCs such as xylenes, ketones, alcohols and aliphatic are available in printing inks, dampening water solutions and cleaning solvents. The solvents used in cleansing of printing plates, blankets, rubber rollers and metal cylinders are traditionally petroleum-based products including naphtha, mineral content alcohols, methanol and toluene, xylene, methanol, MEK (methyl ethyl ketone), glycol ether, TCA (trichloroethane), etc. (NSW, 2006).
VOC and HAP Emissions in Printing Performed with Water and Solvent Based Inks
Pigments and binders are non-volatile solid components of the ink mixture. However, solvent-based inks include alcohols and esters as volatile organic components that have the concentration ranging from 50% and 70% (US EPA, 1980; Saad, 2007). The amount of solvent retained by flexo, gravure and screen-printed products is 3-4% of total ink solvent used. The solvent in the printed ink content, except for the one held by the printed material evaporates in its own environment after the printing process (Hettige, Mahanama, & Dissanyake, 2001). While the majority of this solvent is released to the air, the remaining part continues to blend into the environment for a long time right after the application albeit at a diminishing pace (Özçelik, 2006). VOCs contribute to atmospheric photochemical reactions. VOCs mean organic solvents and diluters releasing to the atmosphere during the printing process in practice. Around 75-90% of the emissions of volatile organic compounds releasing from ink dryers exhaust into the nature, depend upon the printing speed, frequency of printing hesitation, ink solvent compound, printed product, design and efficiency of drying systems. Most of the emissions in the production environments are caused by solvent evaporation in the ink tank and the solvent evaporation on printed product in the drying systems between uncontrolled printing units. The amount of leakage evaporation depends on volatility of the solvent, temperature in ink tank and in the environment, design and efficiency of dryer, the time and frequency of printing machine’s pause and restart (Jones, 2004). The amounts of potential VOC or the air-pollutant emissions are equal to the amount of solvent used during the printing process (US EPA, 1982).
The solvents widely used in printing industry are ethanol, toluene, ethyl acetate, isopropanol, n-propanol, hexane, toluene-xylene-naphtha mixture, methyl ethyl ketone, isopropyl acetate, n-propyl acetate, glycols, glycol ethers and water (Özçelik, 2006; Rösch et al., 2014). Organic solvent-contain heat-set web offset, flexographic, gravure, non-impact (digital) and screen printing inks are all possible sources of VOCs. While solvent based inks are widely used in flexo, gravure and screen-printing systems, the use of water-based inks is limited (Özçelik, 2006). Liquid inks used in flexo and gravure printing have pretty volatile solvents. (e.g. aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, ketones and esters) and they can dry rapidly due to their volatility; these inks put VOCs into the air during the printing process (Saad, 2007). The use of water-based inks as emission reduction alternative is limited, because some non-absorbent substrate surfaces with high surface energy are not printable due to the difficulty of adhesion and evaporation (Jones, 2004; Sensorex, 2017). Nevertheless, use of water-based inks is encouraged due to some environmental concerns (Aydemir, 2016).
During the flexo and gravure printing process, the raw ink is diluted with solvent. In these systems, the ink mixture is transferred constantly to the printing material surface through the plate cylinders. After the first colour is printed, the printing material moves across the heat-set air dryer to evaporate the volatile solvent in the ink. Thus, it is provided that the first printed colour be dried by vaporizing the volatile organic compounds in the ink. This process is repeated for all other colour printing units (US EPA, 1980). As a result of the drying process, VOCs recirculating in dryer are released into the air without any processing (filter or afterburner) and they become an important source of environmental pollution (Saad, 2007).
VOC and HAP Emissions in Printing Performed with Oil-Based Ink
Production of printing ink releases pigment extenders and potential VOC emissions into the atmosphere. The materials containing VOC and HAP used in sheet-fed offset printing method are isopropyl alcohol or dampening solutions, ink, upper varnish, lacquer and cleaners of other printing compounds, blanket and roller washers, ink oils and coatings.
Isopropyl alcohol (IPA) is traditionally used to control the physical features of dampening solution. The use of flammable and toxic isopropyl alcohol in offset printing dampening solution at the rate of 8-10 percent is the primary cause of VOC emissions polluting the working environment (Rossitza, 2015; Government of Canada, 2016).
No retention or release factor for VOC and HAP in other materials used in dampening solutions, blanket washers, coatings or sheet-fed offset printing processes has been introduced. Thus, emissions of these materials are considered to be released into the atmosphere (US EPA, 1982). Changing to waterless offset (dry offset) eliminates the VOC emissions caused by IPA. However, this requires a large initial investment.
The inks used in heat-set web offset printing contain high boiling mineral oils. During the process where these inks are dried in coated paper surface, solvent oils are evaporated at the temperature of 120-150°C. However, the gases formed during the process of evaporating the mineral oils are released into the nature and increases air pollution.
In UV curing, printing stability and printing quality are at a good level. The reason is that the chemical reaction does not start until the energy is applied during the drying process. Therefore, there is no VOC problem (Argent, 2008). The lack of solvent in UV ink, turns the UV curing into an attractive option in cases where the solvent emissions should be reduced (Brilliant Universal Limited, 2020).
VOC and HAP Emissions in Post-Press Processes
Materials containing VOC and HAP used in postpress processes are adhesives, binding and finishing equipment and glues. Using water-based adhesives for binding and self-adhesive labels will reduce the negative impact on the environment.
The Use and Storage of the Solvents
National and international legislations impose obligations on both producers and the users of a solvent.
Solvents should be labelled in accordance with the provisions of the regulations. The adhesive should include producer information, name and formula of the chemical, trade name of the product, intended usage area and hazard symbols.
Solvents should be sealed-packaged where there will not be any leakage, spreading, etc. during normal storage and transportation processes. The shape and label of the package should not look like the packages of foodstuffs in terms of general view and scope.
Solvents should be stored in a manner that they will not damage the environment and human health. Necessary measures should be taken so that these materials will not be misused by irresponsible individuals.
Issues to be considered during the Use of Solvent and Material Containing Solvent
Solvents may have the feature of ‘hazardous chemical’ according to the feature of chemical materials they contain, and they may also have the feature of hazardous waste as a result of its usage. While a specific part of the solvents expired in printing is released to the atmosphere as air emissions through ventilation and process pipes, other specific part evaporates and vanishes into the air. As in other industrial facilities, precautions that will ensure an ideal working environment in accordance with Occupational Health and Safety Legislation should be taken by measuring the degree of solvent in the environment. The employees having health problems due to the working in the printing companies with solvents should be prevented. For this purpose, the following risk control measures should be taken in printing facilities:
• Personal protective equipment should be used in accordance with Occupational Health and Safety Legislation.
•Unnecessary use of halogenated solvent should be avoided.
•Water based product without solvent should be preferred.
•Multipurpose solvent use should be preferred rather than using separate solvent for each process.
• Solvents or products containing solvent should be used in well-ventilated zones.
•Attention should be paid to warning information and safety recommendation on the labels.
• Solvents or products containing solvent should not be thrown away into the sewer.
•Contact of solvents or any product containing solvent with the skin should be avoided and protective equipment should be used when necessary.
• Solvent should never be used to remove the materials such as paint, oil, etc. on the skin.
• Solvents should be preserved in closed areas and the leak-proof containers should be used for the wastes of solvent.
•Unless necessary and suitable ventilation is available in closed areas, materials containing solvents should not be used and appropriate masks should be used in these areas when necessary.
Conclusion
Printing ink manufacture results in the potential emissions of VOCs and pigment/extender dusts to atmosphere. Therefore, it is a technical imperative to reduce VOCs in petroleum-based printing inks to meet environmental regulations without sacrificing functional properties. Reducing VOC’s is a technical obligation. In this context, mineral oils and hydrocarbon solvents used in production of cold-set, heat-set and sheet-fed ink should be minimized or they should be replaced with the solvents with low aromatic content (linseed–soybean oil-based, etc), if possible. The emissions of volatile solvents used in production of flexo and gravure printing inks, should be kept at minimum by using fully enclosed systems. Emissions of volatile solvents used in the manufacture of flexographic and gravure inks are kept to a minimum by use of fully enclosed or covered systems. Non-recyclable liquid wastes produced by ink manufacturers and printing companies should not be discharged to the drainage, they should be moved away from the environment by accredited waste management companies. Process water should be purified and recycled, and the precious chemicals and compounds should be regained.
Since not any ink technology or printing process offer a universal environmental solution, most appropriate production and ink option should be identified by taking the factors such as substrate absorptivity, source of energy, energy consumption and carbon footprint into consideration. Excessive ink consumption will certainly have adverse effects on the environment, because of higher consumption of energy resources. Therefore, environmental sustainability of printing can be achieved by keeping ink consumption at an optimum level in the printing production process.
There are many ways to prevent the VOC emissions. Usually, these require changes in raw material types or production process. When selecting the raw material, the requirements of special environmental protection legislation such as Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and Restrictions on Hazardous Substances Directive for the printed materials and products should be taken into consideration. Disposal/Replacement and process modification is a control step that should be considered in each workflow if there is a solvent risk. Closed loops that does not produce any waste and preserves precious raw materials should be designed. VOC containing chemicals can in many cases be substituted with other agents that have lower environmentally and health effects. The option of not using solvent or replacing it with harmless or less harmful solvent should be considered. Water and plant-based systems should be preferred to a certain extent if possible. Thus, the amount of VOC released into the atmosphere and hazardous waste will be less.
Various emission control equipment and techniques can be used to control VOC vapours. For a modern printing facility, air pollution control system consists of two categories: recovery of evaporative solvent or disposal of the solvent. The solvents should be disposed according to the waste management hierarchy. Solvent recovery is the only available method controlling VOC emissions coming from printing machines. Solvent recovered with the recycling system should be directly reused in printing process. For instance, in gravure inks, solvents can be subjected to recovery phase above 98 percent and recovered solvent can be reused in ink production.
European REACH Regulation (EC) regarding the use of certain chemicals and volatile organic solvents should be taken into consideration in terms of human health and environmental effects. Certain activities that may damage the environment and human health in printing companies, should be controlled. The employees of printing house should be trained about keeping the use of solvents at minimum and producing without causing pollution or problems in the environment.
In production line, the equipment reducing ink, dampening water solvents, cleansing solvents and other contaminant emissions or applicable regulations should be taken into consideration.
There are two ways of reducing VOC emissions from the dampening systems: IPA can be replaced with alcohol substitutes, or the degree of evaporation can be reduced. Changing IPA to glycol- or glycol-ether based alternatives can reduce VOC emissions. In addition, the evaporation of IPA can be reduced by refrigerating the dampening solution. Similarly, solvent evaporation can be slowed down by using cooling systems in flexo and gravure printing ink tanks.
Planning should be carried out in order to keep washing needs at minimum and efficient blanket washing systems that use the least amount of blanket washing solvent should be preferred. An important retention factor in determination of VOC and HAP emissions are low vapour pressure cleaning solutions used with swabs. Swabs should be preserved in a closed container when not in use. They should be disposed by a licensed effluent treatment plant after they are used.
Unit – 2
Science and technology play an important role in the development of human life on earth. This fast development results from significant environmental damage due to industrial development and other anthropogenic activities. Pollution results from resource production and consumption, which in their current state are rather wasteful. Most waste cannot be reintegrated into the environment either effectively or inexpensively. To reduce the impact of environmental pollution due to human activities, it is crucial to create environmentally friendly products and establish management practices for environmentally friendly workplaces. Therefore, there is an urgent need for cleaner and sustainable production and management of the already polluted environment. This requires to innovate to develop products characterized by high effectiveness in terms of energy consumption and to provide better tools to monitor and evaluate both short- and long-term trends affecting eco-friendly and sustainable products. Therefore, this proposed special issue addresses the general treatment technologies for controlling the environmental pollution of water, air, and soils using eco-friendly materials derived from waste resources, to rationalize the consumption of available resources and to try to substitute the traditional systems and products with other environmentally friendly ones.
The special issue welcomes short reports, full-length research articles, as well as review articles focused on the following topics but not limited to:
* Cleaner production and responsible consumption of wastes;
* Eco-friendly compounds and applications, including water treatment, gas purification, corrosion protection, gas sensor and antimicrobial resistance;
* Biotechnological approaches to degrade plastic/micro-plastic, pharmaceuticals and other emerging pollutants;
* Bioremediation and Phyto-remediation of contaminated water, air, and soils;
* Environmental challenges: adsorbents, catalysts, nano-composites, metal-organic frameworks, and nano-carbon materials;
* Eco-friendly membranes for separation processes for pollution control technologies.
Bio chemical cleaning solvent: Cleaning is an essential part of manufacturing. Tools and equipment are cleaned to maintain their condition and keep them functioning properly. Manufactured goods must be cleaned to insure their proper operation, prior to painting and bonding, and to improve visual appearance. But there is an environmental price for cleaning practices. The petrochemical solvents used in many cleaning operations have a negative impact on the environment and worker health and safety. Petrochemical solvents are effective cleaners, and their use has become ingrained in industry practices. As a result, members of industry are often reluctant to make changes in cleaning practices. Consequently, the main driving forces behind transitions are environmental regulations.
Several regulations have motivated manufacturers to search for new cleaning methods. The Montreal Protocol has implemented a scheduled phase-out of chemicals that deplete the ozone layer (ozone depleting chemicals or ODCs). Two common cleaning solvents affected by this protocol are Freon 113, a solvent used extensively in cleaning electronics, and 1,1,1- Trichloroethane (or TCA) which is widely used in removing greases and oils. In the United States, all production and shipments of these solvents will be eliminated in 1996 [1]. The Clean Air Act has identified 189 chemicals as hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), which are now subject to National Emission Standards. Manufacturers who exceed emission standards may be subject to maximum available control technology, meaning the manufacturer must implement the most extensive emission control technology available [2]. The Clean Air Act also established local air quality standards which regulate the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which include any organic (carbon-containing) chemical which evaporates and can undergo chemical reactions in the lower atmosphere. These chemical reactions cause the formation of ground-level ozone, which contributes to smog [3].
One of the chief difficulties of alternative cleaning solvents is that, in general, a petrochemical which has a wide variety of applications must be replaced with an alternative solvent which is more application specific. Petrochemical solvents have excellent cleaning properties: they are powerful solvents which can dissolve a wide variety of contaminants.
Inland Technology Inc., a research and development company based in Tacoma, WA, specializes in finding alternatives for clients faced with the need to replace highly regulated cleaning solvents. Inland focuses on nine particularly common and problematic cleaning solvents: methylene chloride, trichloroethylene, Freon 113, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), 1,1,1 trichloroethane (TCA), stoddard solvent, acetone, perchloroethylene, and toluene. These are all ODCs, HAPs or VOCs. They represent a disposal problem and a safety and liability hazard. In replacing these problem solvents, Inland has found that biochemicals, chemicals which are derived from plant matter, often play an important role in the development of environmentally benign solvent alternatives. Inland has a number of successful solvent alternatives which are derived wholly or in part from biochemicals. These alternatives have proven effective in cleaning applications demanding stringent quality standards, and have received specification approval for cleaning applications from organizations such as Lockheed-Martin, NASA, and Rocketdyne.
Biochemicals can be effective replacements for petrochemicals, but their use tends to be more knowledge intensive than the use of petrochemical solvents. Manufacturers must learn how to apply a biochemical cleaning solvent in each individual cleaning situation. Implementation of alternative cleaning methods requires that workers be trained in new cleaning techniques and educated in the handling of unfamiliar solvents. Biochemicals can be effective replacements for petrochemicals, but their use tends to be more knowledge intensive than the use of petrochemical solvents. Manufacturers must learn how to apply a biochemical cleaning solvent in each individual cleaning situation. Implementation of alternative cleaning methods requires that workers be trained in new cleaning techniques and educated in the handling of unfamiliar solvents.
Case Study: The Boeing Aerospace Corporation used a significant amount of MEK as a surface preparation solvent for airplane parts, prior to painting and sealant application. They were seeking to eliminate this solvent, a source of VOC and HAP emissions. The application was very sensitive: cleaning requirements are stringent because of the need for very high quality binding of sealants on aircraft. The criteria this new cleaning technology had to meet included: compatibility with the sensitivity of metal substrates, sealants and paints used in aircraft; the ability to clean the same variety of contaminants as MEK; lower toxicity than MEK, so as to not trade a regulatory burden for health and safety hazards; reasonable economic competitiveness; and cleaning performance at least equal to MEK.
After extensive testing the solvent chosen as the best alternative was a highly refined terpene, a biochemical derived from the peels of citrus fruits. Inland named this solvent CitraSafe�. This solvent was approved by Boeing. The comparative costs of the cleaning solvents are around $4 per gallon for MEK as compared to $20 per gallon for CitraSafe�. Nevertheless, Boeing deemed CitraSafe� to be cost-effective. Why? Its use allowed Boeing to avoid complex regulatory demands, representing savings in administrative time and in investments in control technology, as well as a decreased potential for future liability concerns. Because CitraSafe� evaporates more slowly than MEK, it is consumed at a much slower rate than MEK. Annual use for CitraSafe� is about one fourth of the use of MEK. Third, because of the low toxicity of the Citrasafe� product, Boeing found that it could launder and reuse the wipe rags used in cleaning. Boeing had been disposing of these rags as hazardous waste. The reuse of these rags resulted in annual savings of $750,000, itself more than enough to cover the cost of Boeing's annual use of CitraSafe�.
Case Study: Another solvent replacement project addressed the cleaning of paint application equipment. A manufacturer was searching for alternative cleaning technology for paint application equipment used with the Atlas satellite launching vehicle. It hoped to eliminate the use of ozone depleting chemicals and hazardous materials as cleaning solvents. Inland decided to develop a cleaning solvent which would satisfy the most stringent regulations which they could foresee. The result was EP 921, a hybrid cleaning solvent (one containing biochemicals and petrochemicals) which contains the citrus terpene d-limonene and closely mimics the cleaning capacity of MEK in paint applications. The difference in emissions for EP 921 was shown with a test of the most environmentally compliant paint gun washer available. Inland estimated the daily operation of this washer and found that 55 gallons of MEK would be emitted due to evaporation each year. Using the same washer with EP 921 would result in losses due to evaporation of less than one tenth gallon. This solvent has proven to be very effective and has received specifications from the Air Force for satellite maintenance, from General Dynamics and from Boeing. Killion Industries (Vista, CA), a manufacturer of store fixtures, was searching for a solvent to replace TCA in cleaning overspray from paints, adhesives and felt-tip markers. They found that EP 921 performed the cleaning functions of TCA, and was also a suitable replacement for MEK in cleaning paint equipment. Killion found that the use of EP 921 resulted in an 88 per cent reduction in solvent use, which resulted in a 77 per cent reduction in costs for cleaning chemical use.
The challenge of replacing a familiar petrochemical solvent with a more environmentally benign solvent requires that manufacturers be willing to carefully evaluate their current cleaning practices and determine their needs and goals for alternative practices. Alternative solvents may behave differently than the solvents they replace, and manufacturers must be prepared for a transitional period while they learn the proper application of an alternative cleaning method. But as the given examples demonstrate, the rewards for replacing environmentally harmful petrochemicals can be significant. Biochemical solvents can provide manufacturers with a cost effective method to achieve regulatory compliance.
Workers’ safety: Organizations with employees who are at high risk of getting injured often have structured and well-designed workplace safety strategies in place. As they are aware of the consequences of neglecting workplace safety, they understand that having a good plan can significantly improve employees’ health, safety and wellbeing.
Identifying those safety hazards and issues is the first step in protecting employees in the workplace. Some of the most common hazards often include ergonomics, hazardous chemicals, mechanical problems, noise pollution, restricted visibility, dangers of falling and weather-related hazards.
However, creating such materials is not enough if your employees don’t consume and follow them. It is the employers’ job to continuously remind employees of the importance of following safety guidelines. Moreover, under OSHA regulations, employees are required to comply with the standards, rules, and regulations put in place by the employer.
Besides just having a clear plan and safety trainings, organizations need to find ways to embed new employee behaviors by delivering inspiring safety stories, communicating new safety programs and sharing the company’s successes.
In order to build a strong culture of safety in the workplace, organizations need to build safety communication plans. In other words, your workplace safety strategy will be as successful as you manage to communicate it properly.
The safety communication plan should consist of a set of materials, important company updates, messages and other internal campaigns that need to be communicated to the right employees at the right time.
Besides timeliness, creating engaging and relevant content is crucial here. When creating your safety communications plan, always ask yourself these questions:
Senior leadership must set the communication standard by providing an open and transparent environment. Such environments facilitate and drive discussions that allow employees to offer suggestions, report concerns and feel empowered to contribute to the workplace safety programs.
By doing so, employees can confidently and discreetly discuss their concerns with the representatives who act as a trusted intermediary between managers and employees.
However, employers are responsible for enabling these representatives to always be connected with employees, and making sure that they can reach out to them in a timely manner. Yet, many companies still don’t have access to the right technology that enables them to do so.
However, this type of employee behavior doesn’t happen over time, and a successful transition to an employee-centric workplace culture takes time to build. Honest, consistent and transparent workplace communication, as well as constant check-ins with employees, are the key.
In fact, 74% of respondents (from the SPS Safety Culture Survey) confirm they welcome peer observations for the purposes of receiving safety-related feedback. Yet, only 28% believe other employees feel the same way.
Encouraging employees’ engagement, upward feedback, compliance and participation are key prerequisites in promoting and growing a positive safety culture in your workplace. Instead of leaving your employees out and just delivering safety guidelines one-way, consider involving your employees to directly participate in shaping a safer, risk-free working environment.
Here are a few tips for driving your employees engagement:
These, hard to reach employees, need to have instant access to all important safety materials and documentation available on their mobile phones. On the other hand, employers need to eliminate information overload.
Moreover, these employees should have access to personalized employee news feeds where they can consume content relevant to their job roles and potential hazards specific to their functions.
On the other hand, managers and safety representatives need to have a way to send instant updates, safety push notifications and the ability to automatically share content from credible safety sources such as OSHA.
Similarly, when employees notice a potential hazard in the workplace, they should be able to instantly reach their fellow coworkers to inform and alarm them about the hazard.
This culture of appreciation goes a long way when you want others to understand and support your plan. Share your employees successes and amplify positive examples, give public recognition and enable others in your organization to join the conversations.
Luckily, employee communication solutions like Haiilo, enable internal communicators to connect their communication efforts with specific business goals. Robust, AI-powered technology, helps employers understand the real impact of communication on employees’ safety and also suggests some actionable insights and tips for improvement.
Recycled and Reuse: Recycling is when you take an item's materials and reprocess them to be used elsewhere. This cuts down waste and ensures useful resources are converted into new products, rather than being wasted after a single use. Reusing, on the other hand, is about repurposing items and products for extended use.
Pollution Prevention: Pollution prevention means reducing or eliminating sources of pollution to prevent damage to the environment while also eliminating the need for costly controls and cleanup, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Some may also know pollution prevention by its other name, source reduction. No matter the name it goes by, it is fundamentally different and more desirable than recycling, treatment and disposal.
Pollution prevention is any practice that reduces, eliminates, or prevents pollution at its source. Reducing the amount of pollution produced means less waste to control, treat, or dispose of. Preventing pollution before it is created is preferable to trying to manage, treat, or dispose of it after the fact.
We can all apply pollution prevention in our daily lives. Whether in the home and garden, at the supermarket or on the road, we can make pollution prevention choices every day in order to protect the environment, save money, and conserve natural resources. Additionally, there are significant opportunities for industry to reduce or prevent pollution at the source through cost-effective changes in production, operation, and raw materials use.
Pollution prevention reduces both financial costs (waste management and cleanup) and environmental costs (health problems and environmental damage). Pollution prevention protects the environment by conserving and protecting natural resources while strengthening economic growth through more efficient production in industry and less need for households, businesses and communities to handle waste.
Pollution prevention (P2) is any practice that reduces, eliminates, or prevents pollution at its source before it is created. As shown by the EPA Waste Management Hierarchy, P2, also known as "source reduction," is fundamentally different and, where feasible, more desirable than recycling, treatment or disposal. It is often more cost effective to prevent pollution from being created at its source than to pay for control, treatment and disposal of waste products. When less pollution is created, there are fewer impacts to human health and the environment.
Pollution prevention approaches can be applied to all potential and actual pollution-generating activities, including those found in the energy, agriculture, federal, consumer and industrial sectors. Prevention practices are essential for preserving wetlands, groundwater sources and other critical ecosystems - areas in which we especially want to stop pollution before it begins.
In the energy sector, pollution prevention can reduce environmental damages from extraction, processing, transport and combustion of fuels. Pollution prevention approaches include:
In the agricultural sector, pollution prevention approaches include:
In the industrial sector, examples of P2 practices include:
In homes and schools examples of P2 practices include:
Cleaner Production: Cleaner production is a preventive, company-specific environmental protection initiative. It is intended to minimize waste and emissions and maximize product output. By analysing the flow of materials and energy in a company, one tries to identify options to minimize waste and emissions out of industrial processes through source reduction strategies. Improvements of organisation and technology help to reduce or suggest better choices in use of materials and energy, and to avoid waste, waste water generation, and gaseous emissions, and also waste heat and noise.
Overview: The concept was developed during the preparation of the Rio Summit as a programme of UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme) and UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) under the leadership of Jacqueline Aloisi de Larderel, the former Assistant Executive Director of UNEP. The programme was meant to reduce the environmental impact of industry. It built on ideas used by the company 3M in its 3P programme (pollution prevention pays). It has found more international support than all other comparable programmes. The programme idea was described "...to assist developing nations in leapfrogging from pollution to less pollution, using available technologies". Starting from the simple idea to produce with less waste Cleaner Production was developed into a concept to increase the resource efficiency of production in general. UNIDO has been operating National Cleaner Production Centers and Programmes (NCPCs/NCPPs) with centres in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Cleaner production is endorsed by UNEP's International Declaration on Cleaner Production, "a voluntary and public statement of commitment to the practice and promotion of Cleaner Production". Implementing guidelines for cleaner production were published by UNEP in 2001.
In the US, the term pollution prevention is more commonly used for cleaner production.
Particular Matter-Reduction, Removal, Collection: Controlling and reducing particulate matter pollution from industrial operations is a key environmental and human health objective. In chemical process industries (CPI) facilities, airborne particulate matter can result from combustion of fuels, or from process operations, such as dust from solids handling. Coal- and wood-fired boilers, and cement kilns are some examples of applications with high particulate levels upstream of the air-pollution control systems. This one-page reference outlines equipment and operational considerations for capturing particulate matter from industrial sources.
Particle loading in the fluegas from any industrial process is measured in grains/dry std. ft3 (grains/dscf) or mg/dry std. m3 (mg/dscm) or mg/normal m3. The particle loading in the gas will vary widely depending upon a number of factors, including the gas velocity, particle size, particle density and the nature of the upstream process and feedstock. The smaller the particle, the more easily it is carried by the fluegas, even at relatively low gas velocity. As the gas velocity increases, larger particles can be carried by the fluegas stream, and the number of particles of all sizes that can be carried increases.
Several operational approaches can remove solid particulate material from gases. Due to more stringent and complex regulations for multiple pollutants, different air-pollution control systems are frequently used in series.
Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs). ESPs use static electricity to remove soot (carbon from incomplete combustion) and ash from exhaust gas. Dirty gas is passed between two sets of electrodes in the form of metal plates, wires or bars. One electrode is charged with a negative voltage, which imparts a negative charge to solid particles being carried in the exhaust. A second set of electrodes is positively charged, and attracts the negatively charged pollutant particles, separating them from the exhaust gas stream. In a dry ESP, the removed particulate matter builds up on a collector surface, and is removed by mechanical vibration. In a wet ESP, the collecting electrodes are sprayed with water to remove the solid pollutants.
Wet scrubber. Wet scrubbers remove pollutants primarily through the impaction, diffusion, interception or absorption of the pollutant (either particulate matter or acid gases) onto droplets of liquid. The liquid containing the pollutant is then collected for disposal. An ionizing wet scrubber (IWS) combines the concepts of the ESP and the wet scrubber.
Venturi scrubbers. Venturi scrubbers are a type of wet scrubber that uses high-velocity streams of exhaust gas and water to atomize the liquid into fine droplets, which capture small particulate matter. Intensive mixing of the gas and liquid occurs in the throat of the venturi tube. The solid pollutant material is collected along with the liquid, while the cleaned gas escapes. With regard to particulate emissions, venturis tend to have limited ability to remove fine particles, and they experience exponentially higher pressure drops when forced to remove particulate matter. In recent years, with tighter U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) limits, the use of venturis as a standalone particulate-removal device has fallen out of favor.
Cyclones. Cyclone separators operate by creating a spiraling vortex of dirty gas inside a chamber. Solid particles carried by the gas are forced outward by centrifugal force as they travel around the chamber in a spiral pattern. Particles contact the walls of the cyclone and are collected at the bottom of the chamber, while cleaned gas leaves out of the top of the cyclone chamber.
Fabric filter baghouses. Woven cloth material captures particulate matter as gas flows through.
Each pollution-control device has its own characteristic operating curve. Figure 1 provides a comparison for an ionizing wet scrubber, filter baghouse and dry ESP. Note that the collection efficiency for all of these devices begins to fall off for smaller particles, with the ionizing wet scrubber having the least-rapid decay of its efficiency curve. Ionizing wet scrubbers are frequently used in series with two or three in a row, in part, to maintain removal efficiency during their required periodic wash cycle (a downstream unit operates while the upstream unit is being washed down).
Environmental protection from various printing process-Offset, Gravure, Flexography, Screen printing.
As the manufacturing industry moves toward more environmentally friendly practices, it’s critical to consider whether you’re using sustainable printing methods. You want to not only use environmentally friendly materials like recyclable substrates and low-VOC inks, but you also want to optimize your pressroom to reduce waste. Therefore, the question arises, “Which printing technique is the most eco-friendly?” Is it flexographic printing or something else? Lets compare flexo vs screen gravure litho and offset.
Manufacturers have a wide range of printing methods to choose from in the printing world, but not all of them are ideal for a sustainable pressroom. Some of the most popular printing methods are also among the least environmentally friendly. Consider the following:
Gravure: An Unsustainable Practice
Gravure printing necessitates the use of metal cylinders to transport the ink, which is applied to recessed areas of the cylinders. It is arguably the least long-term sustainable printing method. The cylinders typically carry only one color, and the inks used in this process are highly solvent-based, resulting in harmful byproducts.
Litho Printing: Outdated and Unsustainable
While litho offers some more sustainable practices in terms of materials used, the multistep process of litho adds a significant amount of effort to print runs. Because litho requires a transfer onto a liner board, its applications are extremely limited.
Screen Printing: Unsustainable and Inefficient
Screen printing is a popular printing method due to its vibrant colors, but it is also the least sustainable option due to its use of hazardous chemicals, toxic fumes, and non-recyclable materials. Additionally, it is difficult to reuse inks and screens, making it an unsustainable choice for large-scale production.
Offset Printing: Unsustainable and Costly
Offset printing is a type of indirect printing in which ink is transferred from plates to a rubber cylinder known as a blanket, which then transfers the ink to the substrate. This puts offset printing in the middle of the sustainability spectrum.
It necessitates more equipment, specifically a blanket cylinder, and takes longer to set up. Furthermore, the inks used for offset are frequently oil-based, and the cylinders must be washed after each use. The water used to clean the oil-based inks is frequently contaminated.
Flexo printing is the most environmentally friendly printing method, as it allows for the use of more sustainable and recyclable materials,water-based inks, and elastomer sleeve technology. With its technological advancements, flexo printing is well-positioned to remain the go-to printing method for the foreseeable future.
Green Printing 101: An In-Depth Look at Sustainable Printing Practices
Reusability and adaptability are critical components of a sustainable printing operation. When more than one printing task is required, methods such as litho and gravure severely limit reusability, resulting in massive storage and waste issues. Other factors that influence what constitutes sustainable printing practices include:
The Ink Dilemma: How Sustainable Printing is addressing the Issue of Toxic Inks
Many inks contain hazardous and toxic chemicals, resulting in water contamination and hazardous waste during manufacturing. Utilizing sustainable inks reduces the environmental impact of your business.
When you print onto a substrate, the ink and substrate become inextricably linked and cannot be easily separated. Certain inks may be harmful to consumers as this bond slowly degrades during recycling and disposal.
Clearing the Air: The Harmful Effects of VOCs in Printing and How to Avoid Them
VOCs are harmful pollutants that are frequently produced by the solvents used in harsher inks. Litho printing is often associated with oil-based inks that contain a slew of hazardous VOCs.
Using water-based inks is one of the most effective ways to reduce VOC emissions in a printing operation. Flexo can accommodate a wide range of inks, including water-based inks, to meet your specific requirements.
Though the level of energy consumption between processes tends to balance out, the secondary tasks associated with certain printing methods can drastically change energy output. Newer equipment uses less power than older equipment because of digital technology.
This makes flexo especially appealing. Flexo is much more efficient than alternatives because it uses air mandrels and quick changeover sleeve technology, combined with digital monitoring.
Beyond Paper: The Impact of Image Carrier Material on Sustainable Printing
Flexo printing is an environmentally friendly printing method that offers high-quality results, cost savings, and easy-to-clean sleeves. Its in-the-round design eliminates the need for hazardous washout processes, while its ability to use silicone and elastomer sleeves reduces the use of hazardous photopolymer. Flexo printing is the ideal choice for businesses looking to reduce their environmental impact.
Though many printing methods have little environmental sustainability, the most responsible printing methods allow for easy reuse, have a lower energy and waste footprint, and use the most environmentally friendly inks and substrates. There is always a way to reduce your operation’s environmental impact and improve its sustainability.
Time Management and Productivity Tools
Your time is your life, so, you want to spend your time on the goals and tasks that enable and enrich your life. Time management will increase your productivity and give you more time for life's more important moments. Time management and productivity tools boost your self-image because you accomplish more and feel better about your achievements. Spend your time where it counts most for you.
1. Getting Things Done: Stress-Free Productivity
My favorite, current book about productivity and time management provides a decision making model that helps you manage work flow. This useful book also covers project planning, organizing and processing work, and developing a functional productivity and time management system. If you know a lot about increasing productivity, you'll still get new tips in David Allen's excellent book.
2. Handhelds and PDAs
I'm a list maker. If you are, too, why are you still using a paper calendar/planner? My favorite feature of my Palm is its ability to move incomplete items forward to the date of my choice without my having to re-enter the item. When I use my Palm as is intended, my paper-less time management increases my productivity. My attention to goals, plans, and progress keeps me on track professionally.
3. Palm Portable Keyboard
I learned how to write the graffiti alphabet within a half-hour of opening my Palm. But,
I don't like to use either it or the stylus when I have a lot of writing to input. The Palm
Keyboard makes typing goals, appointments, meeting minutes, addresses, and other entries easy. It often allows me to leave my laptop in the office because it's so easy to take to meetings in my briefcase.
4. First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy
I'm not a raving Stephen Covey "Seven Habits" fan, although I do believe in "begin with the end in mind." This book asks you to approach the time of your life knowing that the important actions you invest time in are usually not urgent. Thus, they’re harder to devote time to. Time invested in preparation, prevention, planning, and relationships comes first when you plan the time of your life.
5. Time Management from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System ...
Julie Morgenstern applies her "analyze, strategize, attack" philosophy to the management of time. If you are a person who juggles competing interests and events, her approach to creating a personal time map is helpful. I also like her emphasis on the fact that each of us will have a time management system that is different and uniquely ours. Your custom-designed system will work best for you.
6. Life Balance
Life Balance is award-winning software that will help you create a "To Do" list that is driven by your important goals, your desired allocation of time and effort, and feedback from what you accomplish every day. A personal coach that works in your Palm OS system, a Windows version will soon be available; Life Balance Desktop Edition for Macintosh is available now.
7. Planning Boards
The perfect tool for teams of people who work together and need a visual, on-wall, depiction of their schedules, is an erasable planning board. Use this tool to schedule all of the tasks and events that have to happen for you to complete your projects on time. Visually schedule vacations and paid time off so people can plan around each other's schedules. A simple, but effective, tool.
8. Tickler File System
My all-time favorite productivity tip is to make a hanging file for each week. Into files within these hanging files, I place all of the documentation relating to a meeting, a training event and any correspondence due that week. My desk is clear because all of the paper is in this file. I don't forget dates and supporting information as they are filed by date needed at my fingertips.
Reduce or Minimize the Hazardous wastes
Recycling and pollution prevention measures can significantly reduce your regulatory burden and may save your business considerable money. This section presents information on hazardous wastes typically generated by various printing processes and provides suggestions for how to recycle them or implement pollution prevention measures.
Process
Using ink in lithography, letterpress, screen printing, flexography, and gravure.
Wastes Generated
Waste ink with chromium, barium, and lead content; and waste ink contaminated with cleaning solvents, such as trichloroethylene, methylene chloride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, carbon tetrachloride, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, 1,2,3-trifluoroethane, chlorobenzene, xylene, acetone, methanol, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), toluene, carbon disulfide, or benzene.
Potential Recycling, Treatment, and Disposal Methods
Potential Pollution Prevention Methods
Cleaning printing equipment.
Spent organic solvents might include trichloroethylene, methylene chloride, 1,1,1- trichloroethane, carbon tetrachloride, 1,1,2-trichloroethane, 1,2,3-trifluoroethane, chlorobenzene, xylene, acetone, methanol, MEK, toluene, carbon disulfide, or benzene.
Plate Processing.
Acid plate etching chemicals for metallic lithographic plates, and flexographic photopolymer plates.
Printing processes.
Unused inks, solvents, and other chemicals used in printing industry.
Unit - 3
Definition: ‘meeting the requirements of the customer.
According to ISO 9001:2008, “quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristic fulfills requirements”.
There are five aspect of quality:
Quality control: the observation technique and activities used to fulfill requirement for quality. Customer demand high-quality print jobs without variations or defects.
Control: an evaluation to indicate needed corrective response and change cause.
Quality assurance: describes any systematic process for ensuring quality during the successive steps in developing a product or service. ISO 9000 is a standard for ensuring that a company’s quality assurance system follow best industry practices.
Quality assurance: the planned and systematic activities implemented in a quality system so the so that quality requirement for a product.
Assurance: the act of giving confidence, the state of being certain or the act of making certain.
Quality control & quality assurance
Product
process
Reactive
proactive
Line function
staff function
Find defects
prevent defects
Process control: Refers to the methods that are used to control variable such as proportion of one ingredient to another, the temperature of material, how well ingredient are mixed.
Total quality management: It is a set of systematic activities carried out by the entire organization to effectively and efficiently achieve company objectives so as to provide products and service with a level of quality that satisfies customers, at the appropriate time and price.
What we do: food safety to computers, and agriculture to healthcare, ISO international standards impact all our lives. It is covering almost all aspects of technology and business.
The cycle of management:
2 (a) analyze your organization situation
2 (b) establish your overall objectives
2 (c) set your targets
2 (d) develop plans to achieve them.
Eight elements quality control process:
G (1) downward: top management to employees.
G (2) upward: where workers provide management.
G (3) sideways: supplier and customer.
These all element divided into four group:-
Steps of process management:
The process can make as much conforming product as possible with a minimum waste (rework or trash).
It approach to resolving problem and do any type of measurement to help gather information and find a solution.
Purpose:
Statistical process control tools:
It tree-like structure result showing the many facets of the problem.
Types of check sheet:
It helps you analyze what going on in the process and show capability of a process.
Five element:
It made to the United States by the ford motor company.
5S is a structured program to systematically achieve total organization, cleanliness and standardization in the work place.
Six sigma: It seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and remove defect.
It include statistical method, and create a special infrastructure of people, who are the expert in the method.it project follow a define sequence of steps and has quantified value targets.
Sig sigma: it measure how many defects are in a process, you can figure out how to systematically eliminate them and get as close to projection as possible.
Method: two project
Six sigma key role for implementation:
Total productive maintenance:
Use system maintenance technique and zero breakdown.
Quality circle: A quality circle is a volunteer group under the leadership, who are trained to identify and solve problem and present solution and become self-managing having gained the confidence of management.
Implementation of ISO for print quality
Introduction: ISO 9001:- ISO 9000 is a series of standard develop and publish by the international organization for standardization (ISO), that define, establish, and maintain an effective manufacturing and service industries.
ISO 9001:2008 quality management system certification enable you to demonstrate your commitment to quality and customer satisfaction, and continuous improving your company.
It improve quality, expanding trade, increasing productivity, lowering costs, and transferring technology around the globe.
Background: in November 2008 the (ISO) introduced a revised QM standard based on same 2000 revision with emphasis on measuring customer satisfaction. The current version continues to compatibility with ISO 14001 environment management system.
ISO 9001 group have 4 categories:
Benefits ISO 9001:2008
Step involved in ISO 9001 certification:
ISO philosophy:
ISO 9001 series
ISO 12647 series: it is printing method for use.
Current standard for printing and media:
Suggestion ISO certification audit process.
Internal audit grade:
Benefit of audit: customer focus, good leadership, involvement of people, approach quality management, approach system management, continuous improvement, decision making, supplier relationship.
ISO 9001 implementation:
Cost divide into three part:
1% sale dollar in preparation for 18 months to 24months plan become ISO-certified.
Approx only 27% of this
1% will direct out of packet expenses.
73% involved employed time.
ISO 9001 can be costly process, start adding internal work, maintain, system development, administration, record, keeping, training, internal audits.
ISO cost
5.4 customer satisfaction: satisfied customer makes repeat purchase.
Customer complaints (color, poor folding etc.) increased quality management and found problem systemic. Following steps:
Do little investigation and customer survey and find why return job.
Customer convinced and employees sat down and improve quality.
RE-check all process which involved make of product and write problem:-
Lock detail, poor equipment condition, don’t understand of what the customer wants, press operator not trained, not equipment capable, poor material.
After this six ‘M’ method use:-
What customer want.
Quality control: Quality control has three department:
before accepting paper check inspection all paper transit damage, shortage, delivery receipt and proper packaging and found problem for doing damage complaint and click photography and before store in placed, all packing should be repaired and taped.
Old stock first used and after new.
Test procedure: for paper and paper board
Parameters
acceptance criteria
measuring mode
Grammage
+/- 5%
weighing scale
Stiffness MD (machine direction)
+/-10%
stiffness tester
Stiffness CD (cross direction)
+/- 10%
Thickness
thickness guage
Bulk
+/- 0.1%
PH value
5.5-6.5
PH indicator
Size
+/- 5mm
measuring scale
Moisture content
7+/- 1%
weighting scale, oven
Cobb value (g/m2) top
25-50 maximum
Cobb tester
Cobb value (g/m2) bottom
25-100 maximum
Printability
38 to 42 dyn test
visual
Bursting factor
minimum 12
bursting strength Tester
Practical knowledge
Sampling: draw out sample randomly as per sampling plan for paper and paper board.
Check sheets of 1-2 packets/pallets visually for loose particles, specks, spots, smoothness of top and back surface etc.
Test procedure: testing of paper and paper board should be done as per following.
Significance: most of paper is sold in accordance with its grammage and therefore grammage has great significance both to the consumer and the procedure in defining price. The value of many physical properties such as bursting strength, thickness and bulk interpreted and specified with regarded to grammage.
Apparatus: a weighing scale. It is a special sheet weighing device designed to weight test speciman of 500 square cm (i.e. 20cmX25cm) area current, when it is in use.
Sampling & test speciman:-
Procedure: check grammage one by one on the weighting scale.
Formula in CM: weight X 10000 / length X width.
Weight: 1.67 X 10000 / 10 X 10
Weight = 167 gms.
Formula in Meter: weight / length X width.
Report: report the grammage as arithmetic means of the value of the test speciman cut in grams/square meter. The range of maximum to minimum (i.e. specification) is also to be reported.
Acceptance creteria: it the value of grammage tested is not within the standard specification range i.e +/-5%, then the lot is liable to rejection.
However, the lot may be accepted within same condition after taking approval from QA (incharge).
Aim: to check for resist towards bending of paper.
Sampling: draw out flat surface samples form the sheets and cut the required MD & CD sample form that sheet by cutter.
Appratus: stiffness tester, weight box, cutter.
Sample size: length=7cm and width=3.8cm.
Significance: stiffness test is a very important test in board, since the utility of the box depends upon its ability to resists bulging when filled, packages must resists deformation or bulging, when being filled and when the contents settle in a package-folding cartons must also withstand bending stresses from loads imposed on them from containers stacked above.
Leveling: before starting the machine please ensure that all three pointers of pendulum, driving disc and stationery disc and zero. Leveling can be done with the help of leveling screws at the base of the stand.
Cutting of test strip: cut the test strip with the help cut shear, place the material to be cut at the back guage with an additional quick blow with the ball of the hand to detach strip form the sheet. Test smaple will be cut in 1 ½ “X 2 ¾ “size. Immediately mark the grain direction of the board to identify MD & CD.
Formula: Left X 5 + right X 5 / 2.
Ex: 25X5 + 25X5 / 2.
125 + 125 /2 250/2 125
Operating the instrument: we know strip insert in jaws in marked and down mark according roller only contact not pressure cause pendulum move and the slowly move the roller ¼ turn in reverse direction same procedure R.H.S and put a calibrated range weight on the lower pendulum stud. For 500 unit different range. The mark on the pendulum aligns to the 7 ½ or 15 degree mark on the driving disc. If pointer mark 25 note the reading as 25X5=125 for range weight of 1000 unit the reading will be 25X10=25 taber unit.
Acceptance criteria: stiffness reading should be within 10% of the specified stiffness values.
Scope: this method described the procedure for measuring single sheet thickness and variation in single sheet thickness and combined board expect for kraft paper.
Definition: thickness of caliper of paper/ paper board as measured by this method is defined as the perpendicular distance between the two principle surface of the paper board under pressureribed conditions.
Significance: variation in thickness can create lots of problems during printing and punching of cartons. The print transfer form blanket to surface will be improper. The crease will be shallow at some place and deep at other place. Variation in thickness may be resulted into rough cutting problem during punching.
Apparatus: a handy dial thickness gauge having 1cm or 0.01mm least count.
Definition: PH is inverse of logarithmic hydrogen ion concentration of the surface of paper.
Significance: it is non-destructive test for finding out the PH of paper which has a direct relation with the life of paper. A PH of 5.0 to 6.5 is widely accepted and a very high low PH can adversely affected the printing and also the life of paper.
Apparatus: a universal PH indicator solution is available from heading lab reagent manufactures like qualigence, glaxo, S.D, fine chemical.
Definition: distance between two edges.
Longer side = length
Shorter side = width
Significance: variation in size will be resulted into out printing and out punching problem. Variation in width at minus side will create grip problem at the feeder of the printing machine and also complete form blanket will not be transfer as sheet is smaller in size variation in length with create feeding problem on machine and also side lay.
Definition: the percentage of the part of water in board in normal condition called moisture.
Calculation:-
% moisture content = E/C X 100.
Significance: sizing bigger and smaller and high consumption ink and adhesive.
Cobb formula
A = without moisture paper GSM.
B = after moisture paper GSM.
(B – A) X GSM = ------------------------- g/m2.
Definition: board’s ability to give good print quality with the help of various properties of board is printability of board.
Significance: the degree of surface property is same level and high print quality by a particular printing process. Surface properties are smoothness, levelness and uniformity with which the surface accept ink transfer and absorption of ink.
Defects: hickies, unwanted spots and checks on the printed area
Picking: this defect can appear to poor bonding between the two layers of the pulp.
AIM: check for maximum pressure withstand by the spiceman.
Sample size 10X10cm
Unit: kg/cm2
Apparatus: bursting strength tester.
B.S / GSM X 1000 kg/cm2 / gm/cm2 X 1000
Purpose: to lay down the work instruction for scuff testing.
Scope: this procedure is applicable to all printed items to ensure minimum scuff property required/ specified by the customer.
Responsibility: quality control inspector.
Instruction:
Adhesive (Fevicol, pasting gum, lamination glue)
Apperance
white emulsion
Odour
no-objectable
sensory
Viscosity
ford cup/viscometer
Homogenity
no coarse particles, no lump
Solid content
55% for film, 54(+/-) 2% for Lamination
oven
PH
5 +/- 1
Test procedure of adhesive
Significance: adhesive must check because it affects the gluing capacity of the adhesive. Solid constitute functional part of any adhesive, as volatile part only wet carrier and absorbed by the substrate or gets evaporated.
Formula; weight of empty tin = (a) = ------------------- gms.
Weight of tin + adhesive = (b) = ----------------------- gms.
Weight of adhesive = (c) = (b-a) = ---------------------- gms.
Weight of tin + solid adhesive (after heating) = (d) = ------------------------- gms.
Weight of solid adhesive (after heating) = (e) = (d-a) = ------------------- gms.
= fevicol weight after dry/before heat fevicol weight X 100
% of solid content = e/c X100
(d-a) / (b-a) X 100 = --------------------------- % weight.
Significance: the flow of properties of the adhesive are out-most important when it is used for lamination adhesive in substrate.
Significance: PH adhesive should be around neutral 5 to 8. A PH less 5 and more 8 may ultimation dis-coloration of print after reaction.
Varnish
Parameters Mode
measuring
Physical state
liquid
Colour
ford cup
PH solution
ph indicator
Solubility
miscible
Foaming
Sampling required: 250 ml of varnish any one drum.
Significance: solid content must be check because it affect the coating capacity of the varnish. Solid constitute the function part of any varnish, as volatile part only acts as a carrier and either gets absorbed and evaporated.
Calculation:
Weight of empty tin = (a) = ------------------------ gms.
Weight of tin + varnish (b) = ------------------------ gms.
Weight of varnish = (c) = (b-a) = --------------------- gms.
Weight of tin + solid varnish (after heating) = (d) = --------------------------- gms.
Weight of solid varnish = e = (d-a) = ----------------------- gms.
% solid content = e/c X 100
(d-a) / (b-a) X 100
= ------------------- % weight.
Significance: the flow of properties of the varnish of most of outmost important because it is used for coating process by keeping proper viscosity adequater amount of varnish.
Apparatus: we check viscosity varnish by ford cup method, with B4 as per ISSPE 3944. The office of B4 cup is of 4mm diameter.
250ml glass beaker.
Glass rod.
Varnish sample.
Sampling: take 100 ml varnish from the varnish sample taken above.
Sample liner
Parameter Mode
Acceptance criteria
Measuring
Grammage Machine
STD +/- 5%
weighing
no-objectionable
De-lamination
no delamination
Surface
free from wrinkles
Surface treatment (Corona treatment dyne/cm)
minimum 38
Reel width (mm)
+/-2 mm
measuring tape
Winding
tight & non-telescopic
Packing
as per specification
Presence of hazardous substances declaration certified (As per the list of restricted or XRF testing Chemicals mentions in respective Buyer’s protocol)
specified in the list
Physical testing as per the internal Buyer’s protocol report
within the limits specified in the list
against the lab test report/ External test
Sampling procedure: sampling of liner should be done as per sampling plan for LINER reference.
Significance: if the width (size) of the film is less than ordered size then it will be resulted into short lamination and if the width of film is more than ordered size then it will be resulted into full lamination it will cover also the pasting flap of cartons and that will create pasting problem.
Significance: BOPP & polyester film being a non-polar substance, do not allow the liquids to spread on it. BOPP & polyester film used for lamination must be treated so that they allow the adhesive to spread. The film should be treated is to adequate level so that it becomes receptive to adhesive. The treatment is given by passing the film through high voltage discharge.
Apparatus: difference no. corona treat tester pens along with refill pack of their relevant numbered test fluid. We use 32, 34, 36, 38, & 40 no pens which shows treatment level in 32, 34, 36, 38, & 40 dyns/cm2.
Significance: visual inspection of the film roll is to be done to see that if there are wrinkles or any kind of handling damage or paper winding of film roll is there or not because it affects the actual lamination process. Also check the roll no. on the box and on the care of that roll are same or not, also check the box no.s and roll no. are as per the packing list supplied by the supplier or not, because it’s useful to uniform the supplier while some rolls are rejected due to problem faced during production.
CFC Testing
Sample CFC (cartons)
Dimension (mm)
Bursting Strength
5 ply, min. 12, 7 ply, min. 14
Moisture
8 +/- 2
scale, oven
Grammage (GSM) Composite
std +/- 7 %
weighting scale
No. of ply
5 ply, 7 ply
Manufacture joint
one joint flap
Theory= 30% extra semi kraft than virgin kraft upper and last layer called virgin and between semi kraft
Virgin kraft standard = 140 GSm
Semi kraft standard = 130 GSM
Liner GSM (flat) = total gsm / 130 X 100
Total GSM = 180 / 130 X 100 = 37
Actual GSM = 160-37 = 123.