Based on the Development of Cigarette Packaging to Improve Gravitational Marking Coping Ability (I)

With the continued development of transformational restructuring of the tobacco industry, in particular the adoption of the "Framework Convention on Tobacco Control" and the "Cleaner Production Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China" and the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Waste", the development trend of cigarette packaging It has become increasingly clear. This makes the intaglio printing company have higher, newer and more pressing target tasks, which has led us into a new era of challenges and opportunities.

The trend of cigarette packaging

1. The demand for the tobacco industry's own development determines the centralization of trend goals

Packaging quality is one of the eternal themes of the tobacco industry. It involves environmental technology, decoration and structural design, material selection, printing processes and technologies, and anti-counterfeiting measures. Looking at the development and changes of tobacco packaging at home and abroad and survey statistics show that the current development trend of tobacco packaging in the world is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

Environmental protection: The pursuit of reducing and eliminating the impact on human health and environmental pollution.

Anti-counterfeiting: It is necessary to protect the legitimate rights and interests of famous enterprises and intellectual property rights, maintain corporate reputation, establish a good corporate image, but also easy to identify and reduce the cost of anti-counterfeit labels.

Packaging costs: adopting a variety of ways to reduce the cost of packaging, offsetting the price shock brought about by zero tariffs on foreign tobacco imports.

2. The improvement of policies and regulations will speed up the implementation of trend goals

The "Cleaner Production Promotion Law" passed in 2002 and the newly revised "Environmental Protection Law for the Prevention of Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Waste" formally stipulated that enterprise products and packaging must meet environmental protection requirements. For the first time, it will prevent environmental pollution caused by excessive packaging and write it into the law, and increase the polluter pays principle and relevant payment regulations. The tobacco industry is currently discussing the revised “General Principles of Cleaner Production of Cigarette Enterprises” and will make clear regulations on the requirements for the environmental protection of cigarettes.

In order to adapt to the process of global economic integration and improve the ability of smoke label printing companies to respond, state and industry authorities have introduced and will implement a series of policies. The introduction of these laws and policies will surely promote China's "green packaging" process.

Raise the coping ability of gravure cigarette companies

In order to actively respond to the development trend of cigarette packaging, intaglio cigarette label printing companies are constantly adapting to changes and meeting requirements in the process of change. Tobacco label printing companies need to timely adopt technology upgrades, new ones, and new ones to accelerate efficiency and strengthen cooperation. Strategy.

First, comply with the trend requirements and accelerate the pace of environmental protection

The environmental protection of cigarettes is reflected in many aspects. But one of the important indicators is "solvent residue." It has a direct impact on the environmental protection of cigarettes and is a major factor in the future of cigarette companies encountering “green trade barriers” in Western developed countries.

The smoke odor is mainly produced by the presence of volatile chemical components in the cigarette packets. The components continue to evaporate after the cigarette packets are printed and processed to produce odors. The factors such as paper, ink, printing process, finished cigarette label packaging and other factors used in cigarette pack printing and processing are the causes of the odor produced by printed products.

1. Factors that make up paper odors

Printing paper consists of plant fibers, excipients, pigments and other chemical additives. The effect on the paper's own odor is the latex in the surface coating (such as the benzene latex in the homemade paper). Other auxiliary additives such as water-repellent agents, lubricants, dispersants, and defoamers also have slight effects. When these components are exposed to ultraviolet radiation and high-temperature drying, some organic monomers easily escape to generate a slight odor.

2. The main factors that constitute the non-environmental odor of smoke labels are inks and solvents

The ink used for gravure printing is a volatile drying ink. The binder in the ink is composed of resin and solvent. In the process of evaporation and evaporation of the ink, if the solvent does not evaporate completely, it will cause part of the solvent to remain in the ink layer to generate odor.

(1) The choice of solvent

● Choose a suitable solvent for environmental protection

The world-famous tobacco group has a clear requirement for the “limitation of smoke labels for solvent residues”. It specifies the volatile substances that are strictly prohibited in gravure printing products. For the volatile substances that are allowed to exist, there are also provisions for limited quantities and variable amounts, and a clear definition and limit for the total amount of each square meter. These advanced technical standards undoubtedly point the way for our selection of cigarette labels.

Market sales of some foreign brands Smoke label Odor residue test value Market sales Some domestic brands Smoke label Odor residue detection value

●Select a solvent with a suitable volatilization rate

The same solvent, the lower the boiling point, the faster the evaporation rate. However, when the solvent of different types has the same boiling point, the volatilization rate is not necessarily close. Therefore, when setting the process, the choice of solvent should be very careful.

(2) Main factors affecting solvent volatilization

In addition to its volatilization rate, the volatilization rate of the solvent is also affected by the resin and the pigment. In general, the more easily the resin dissolves in the solvent, the slower the solvent escapes; the resin with the higher melting point has less solubility and the solvent is more easily volatilized. Therefore, the resin used for high-speed gravure inks should have a melting point of not less than 150°C. However, if the melting point of the resin is too high, the solubility of the resin in the solvent is too low, and other problems may easily arise.

The surface characteristics and concentration of the pigment also have an effect on the volatilization of the solvent. The fine particles of the pigment have a small density, and the volatilization of the solvent in the unit area and unit time is less.

At the same time, the volatilization rate of the solvent is also related to the external vapor pressure, temperature, and air volume. Under normal circumstances, the greater the external vapor pressure, the higher the temperature, the greater the amount of air, the faster the evaporation rate of the solvent.

3. Measures to reduce product odor

At present, for the above-mentioned odor-producing factors, we can use the following measures to improve the printing process of intaglio cigarettes:

(1) Choose environmentally friendly raw materials. In similar products, high quality, relatively environmentally friendly, low odor paper (such as pure native wood pulp or acrylonitrile latex coated paper) and low toxicity, low odor, and odorless inks and solvents are selected for production. (such as environmentally friendly alcohol ink or water-based ink).

(2) The design of the product should avoid the influence. In the design of the new cigarette graphic and graphic design, the process of laminating the large area of ​​ink should be used as little as possible; as far as possible, materials that can easily increase the odor of the printed product should be avoided.

(3) Make a reasonable gravure printing process. According to different graphics, different materials, temperature and humidity in different periods and other factors, the printing process can be adjusted and improved at any time, so that the odor-producing volatile organic components can remain in the printed product as little as possible. Such as: the ink system with the use of solvent ratio; suitable drying temperature, the relationship between the amount of air circulation and the speed of the machine; make a reasonable printing sequence, speed up solvent evaporation; choose the right packaging and so on.

4. Gravure ink and solvent used by our company

Qingdao Lima Dun Company attaches great importance to the issue of the odor of smoke labels. Since the beginning of the business, it has used the imported base ink of the high-quality alcohol-soluble system, and has adopted the self-adjusting ink to print the cigarette. As our company’s foreign shareholder, AMCOR Group, is the world’s largest tobacco label printing company, the company has been following the requirements of the AMCOR Group since 1997, as long as it is the solvent that the European and American countries require to be banned when printing tobacco labels. No longer use. At present, the company uses solvents such as anhydrous ethanol, ethyl acetate and n-propyl acetate. The ink has good solvent release properties and its purity is 99.5% or more. Among them, n-propyl acetate is expensive for imported products, but its odor is small and it is a low-toxic solvent. It is the preferred product of foreign gravure cigarette manufacturers. The residue of the aromatic hydrocarbon solvent in the print can be completely avoided. However, in China, very few manufacturers use it except for my company.

Qingdao Lima Dun is the first printing company that uses water-based gloss oil. As early as 1997, it began to be used on hard boxes and barrels. Since 2000, through technical breakthroughs, the problem of curling and drying on flexible packaging has been solved. Began to use on soft pack cigarettes.

In the printing process of the intaglio cigarettes, our company strictly follows the requirements of the large European and American tobacco companies on the “restriction of solvent residues of gravure printing inks” to organize the production, and ensure that the solvents in the various inks in the printing process can be fully released.

The “HILTON” cigarette label produced by our company for BAT is in full compliance with BAT's requirements for the residual value of printed solvents.