The hot sales of high-grade cigarette products have determined that the packaging will inevitably become the focus of the cigarette factory. Cigarette packaging is no longer a simple design and rough old face showing people, have reborn, replaced the traditional white card or coated paper, use a lot of metal luster and high-luminosity aluminum foil composite or PET coated cardboard and other materials, but Because such materials cannot be degraded, they are prone to cause environmental pollution and inevitably bring about an environmental crisis. With the establishment of environmental awareness, companies are paying more and more attention to improving the environmental performance of cigarette packaging and printing, and choosing energy-saving, low-cost, non-toxic, non-polluting, reusable, easily dissolved, multi-functional, pollution-free packaging and printing materials. In particular, in the face of the green trade barriers imposed by developed countries after the accession to the WTO and the impact of foreign low-tar and high-environment cigarettes on the domestic market, green environmental protection has become an irresistible trend for tobacco packaging, and the gradual elimination of composite packaging materials is a foregone conclusion. The key question now is what kind of environmentally friendly materials should be used instead. What methods should be adopted for a smooth transition?
Environmental protection solutions for cigarette pack printing
Cigarette printing is a leader in the packaging and printing industry. From the 1980s to the present, the development of cigarette packs in China reflects a trend: Coated paper - white cardboard - aluminized cardboard - aluminized paper, And has been using the most advanced technology and printing solutions in the domestic printing industry. Currently, there are four major environmental protection methods for printing smoke labels: one is the use of white card paper for printing metal inks and large-area bronzing technology; the second is the use of vacuum aluminum-plated materials to replace composite aluminum foil paper; and thirdly, white card paper or coated paper is used instead of composite paper. Material; fourth is to promote the application of water-based ink.
1, new green darling - vacuum aluminum plating material
Vacuum aluminum plating is an emerging green environmental protection material in recent years. According to statistics, among the 36 key tobacco companies in the country, there are 16 aluminum-plated papers in use, and 5 are undergoing aluminum-plated paper machine testing. There are 12 aluminum-plated materials planned to be used. It is not difficult to see from the statistics that tobacco companies hold a positive attitude towards vacuum aluminum plating materials. Aluminizing materials have the following characteristics: (1) The raw and auxiliary materials are odorless, non-toxic, and meet food hygiene requirements. (2) Good finish, high smoothness, bright color, bright appearance, strong visual impact, and can well improve product packaging grade. (3) It has excellent barrier properties, moisture-proof and anti-oxidation effects. (4) excellent printing performance and machining performance, suitable for gravure, relief, offset, flexographic, screen printing, embossing, die cutting, and even embossing and other processes. (5) It has good degradation recovery, is easy to handle and recycled, meets environmental protection requirements, and is an essential packaging material for export products. Similarly, white cardboard and copperplate paper, which are also environmentally friendly materials, have not been provided with a metallic luster. Therefore, in the cigarette packaging market where innovations and individuality are emphasized, they have been constrained by the inability to meet the requirements for fine packaging of high-end cigarettes. .
2, water-based ink closely follow the environmental protection situation
In order to achieve increasingly stringent environmental management goals, printers are always looking for new ways to print solvent inks. The current focus is on enhancing the handling of emissions from solvent ink printing. The usual practice is to use incinerators for incineration. Others are more creative. The application of a treatment system that uses VOCS to feed on microorganisms or bacteria. Through nearly 10 to 15 years of technical improvements, the ink-and-wash system has successfully solved most of the original difficulties, such as difficult to use, ink storage, substrate limitations, and corona treatment and surface tension. Changing the initial disadvantage is an advantage, and it gradually grows and matures. Under the premise of environment, safety, and health, how ink products meet the requirements of optimal printing and post-processing and improve economic efficiency are important issues that we consider.
3, to do a good job of tobacco film "reduction of conservation" of environmental articles
Cigarette packaging film referred to as smoke film, is a kind of BOPP film. As a kind of high-grade BOPP film, the smoke film has lower heat-sealing temperature, better barrier property, higher transparency and uniform thickness than the ordinary packaging film. With the increase in the consumption of cigarettes, cigarette factories have taken into consideration the reduction of packaging costs (many cigarette factories have changed the cartridge packaging to directly use tobacco packaging to reduce the cost of packaging), prompting the rapid expansion of the use of tobacco film. By the end of 2002, the amount of smoke film in China had reached about 60,000 tons. Because of its stable chemical structure and properties, BOPP films generally cannot be degraded by themselves or easily corroded by bacteria. Therefore, after the cigarette packaging is discarded, it is not easy to rot and decompose. It will form permanent waste and cause serious pollution to the environment.
According to the experience of developed countries, solve plastic packaging and environmental issues. There are three main ways: reuse of plastic packaging, recycling, development of degradable plastics. However, it is difficult to apply on tobacco film products. Therefore, the main solution at present in China is "reduction of savings." The concept of packaging reduction is to reduce resource consumption and reduce the amount of waste generated. Under the functional conditions of protection, convenience, and sales, start from the source of packaging design and design the least amount of appropriate packaging to reduce packaging waste. Things. The first to introduce this concept is Nanjing Zhongda Film (Group) Co., Ltd. The company’s first 18μm BOPP cigarette film not only opens up a new path for the environmental protection of tobacco film, but also regards material properties only. This product also has considerable advantages: (1) The optical performance is more excellent, the transparency is better, the cigarette after packaging is more upscale; (2) The mechanical properties such as friction coefficient, stretching degree, strength and 20μm, 21μm, The thickness of the 22 μm smoke film is comparable, so the adjustment of the smoke machine is less when used in a tobacco factory; (3) Because the thickness is relatively reduced, the overall cost after accounting is also reduced. The thickness of the domestic smoke film is generally 20-22μm. For the sake of cost and environmental considerations and lighter packaging materials, lighter and thinner smoke films will be the trend of future development.
(to be continued)
