David Savastano, Editor10.01.15
Ink manufacturers and their suppliers are facing plenty of regulatory issues, ranging from migration in food packaging, dust collection, HazCom labels and more. During the first two days of the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers’ (NAPIM) National Printing Ink Research Institute’s (NPIRI) Technical Conference, the focus has been on “Trends and Directions in Graphic Arts,” with a log look at these topics.
NPIRI president Jerry Napiecek of Colorcon is the chair of the Technical Conference, which is being held at the Oak Brook Hills Resort and Conference Center in Oak Brook, IL. Fittingly, the conference opened with a short course, GHS Implementation – First Wave After the Tsunami, presented by Denese Deeds, Industrial Health & Safety Consultants, Inc., and Jonathan Hellerstein of WestRock.
Al Marquardt of Kimberly-Clark formally opened the conference with his keynote talk, “Addressing Color in a CPC’s World,” a look at the importance of color to brand owners.
“CPCs use brand color to attract customers, sell products and help customers navigate products on the shelf,” Marquardt said. “For example, we can identify brands by colors – Starbucks is green, Pepsi is blue, 3M is red, UPS is brown and our Huggies are red. You have to understand how to treat your customer’s brand colors.”
Marquardt said that Kimberly-Clark predominantly uses CMYK, with some products utilizing extended gamut (OGB).
“There are times when we ask if using a spot color vs. process colors matter, like Scott Blue 2935 vs. 100-61-0-0,” Marquardt noted. “Huggies is CMYK, while Kleenex uses extended gamut. We don’t use inks with rhodamine or rubine pigments due to fading. We do color signatures electronically as color books fade. If the marketing department says it doesn’t matter, it saves costs. That’s what goes through a CPC’s mind.”
Marquardt added that color needs to be predictable, consistent and repeatable.
“You want to know if the design can succeed, how consistently can the printer hold the color on press, and how easy will it be for the printer to match the previous run,” Marquardt said. “Once the color is selected, we need to know if the inks will reproduce the color. Controlling color is a challenge for substrates, whether they are bags, labels, shrink sleeves, preprint cases all need the same color on press.”
Vitaly Rogachevsky of Argus DeWitt provided “Petroleum Hydrocarbons Market Update,” a discussion of trends and forecasts in the petroleum hydrocarbons market. He began his talk by noting that lubricants are 1.3% of a barrel of crude oil, while gasoline is 43% and distillates are 21.5%, and then discussed cracking naptha gas.
“When naptha gas is cracked, it is broken down into feedstocks like ethylene, propylene and butadiene, which are used for commodities, and aromatics (benzene, toluene and xylene), which includes intermediates like acrylates, styrenes and polyols,” said Rogachevsky.
Ethylene currently costs 27 cents a pound, and 160 million tons are produced annually. By contrast, manufacturers produce two million tons of C5 and C9.
“Companies can only make money out of cracking gas and not liquids,” said Rogachevsky. “Monomer feeds are from liquids, and cracking liquid has dropped 75% from 2007.”
“The oil industry is a big puzzle with pieces moving all the time,” added Rogachevsky. “The Western world is increasingly dependent on monomers from Asia, and eventually polymers and resins as well in five to 10 years. Potential shortages have been masked by low demand and growth. Low prices may force feed production shutdowns in Asia.”
“Inks - Managing the Safety of Printed Food Packaging” was the topic of BCF’s Chris Whitehead.
“There is a lot of concern among our legislators that there are contaminants from packaging getting into the food – substrates, inks, adhesives and coatings,” Whitehead said. “While there is strict legislation for food and food contact material, there is no EU legislation on inks.
“Under the Swiss Ordinance, ink manufacturers have to provide a list of all of their proprietary ingredients to the testing lab under an NDA, which then goes to the suppliers,” he added. “The German Ink Ordinance asks for confidential information to be disclosed. The Swiss ordinance has a positive list of what raw materials can be used. It is not easy but it can be done. The German ordinance is muddled.”
He noted that since 1995, there have been 10 alerts over chemicals from ink and coatings, and some of those have been curious.
“BPA, for example, all scientific evidence indicates it is safe,” Whitehead said. “Phthalate plasticizers have not been used in inks for 20 years. Benzophenone is legal as a food additive, but not legal in inks.”
“We all have to work together in the packaging chain,” Whitehead concluded. “One problem is that member states can do their own thing – France banned BPA and is questioning the use of titanium dioxide. Ink makers have been proactive, will obey rules which should be harmonized across Europe and workable based on scientific evidence.”
Whitehead then joined the Packaging Safety Panel Discussion, joined by Hellerstein, Marquardt and Jim Bishop of Sun Chemical. Each brought their expertise to the lively discussion.
“If you produce packages that go to Europe, it has to meet that standard,” Bishop said. “The trend is moving toward whether a package is safe or not. Conversations on food migration have increased exponentially.”
“If you have any concerns about a raw material, simply don’t use it,” Whitehead recommended. “Primary and secondary packaging are considered the same.”
“We don’t want to be on the front page of bad news,” Marquadt said.
Recycling was an area of interest for the panel.
“As for recycling, die cutting clippings with UV photoinitiators go back to recycling,” Bishop said.
“There’s still lead from pigments from 20 years ago in the recycling stream,” Whitehead said.
“WestRock doesn’t accept recycled newspapers and graphic packaging for recycling,” said Hellerstein. “News inks were not intended for food packaging. WestRock keep these clippings away from the mills.”
Marquardt noted that one of its printers produced displays with barium pigments, which are prohibited. “They even had a certificate of compliance,” he added.
“The golden sample is fool’s gold; the first sample is always great. It’s the best sample they can make. You need to make random samples,” Hellerstein noted.
The first day closed with Technical Spotlights and the Exhibitor Reception.
The Wednesday, Sept. 30 morning Technical Session began with “Water-Based Binders for Flexible Packaging Inks” by Dave Tappa of BASF.
“Water-based inks are approximately 20% of surface printing for flexible packaging, and 5% of lamination inks,” said Tappa. “The two main substrates for surface printing are PE and polypropylene (OPP), while lamination uses OPP, PET and nylon. Water-based inks can offer improved color strength, safety and health protection, eliminating solvent emission controls and capital investment savings.
“Solvent-based inks include nitrocellulose- and polyurethane-based inks, while water-based inks use higher cost raw materials, and are not compatible with all pigment concentrates,” Tappa reported. “Polyurethane dispersions and acrylic hybrids have very good resolubility, bond structures and blocking resistance. BASF ran it at 500 meters/minute on a Comexi 8-color CI press. These inks had good print quality and resolubility, and easy anilox and plate cleaning. It had good blocking resistance and no solvent retention.”
3M’s Robin Wright focused on “UV LED – The Power of One.”
“LEDs are becoming more of an alternative to mercury lamps,” said Wright. “Mercury vapor lamps date back to 1901. Current photoinitators work well with UV LEDs. LED offers real advantages. The key is to cure through ink thickness.”
“Color A-B,” by BASF’s Jim Rediske, then discussed the physical transfer of color from substrate to the surrounding environment. Les Borodinsky of Keller and Heckman focused on “Assessing the Potential for Ink to Migrate from Multi-Layer Packaging to Food.”
“If any substance used to manufacture food packaging migrates to food it is considered to be a food additive,” said Borodinsky. “An indirect food additive is not intended to become a component of food and des not have a technical function in food.
‘Our experience is that very few ink components have explicit clearances for their intended uses,” he added. “There is a need to be able to conclude that all of the uncleared ink components are not food additives. FDA considers aluminum foil (reasonably free of pinholes) and PET film 1 mil thick for applications at room temperature and below. Some polymers like PET are good migration barriers, and some polymers aren’t like, polyolefins. ”
“Investigation of Recycled Paper Deinking Methods” was the topic of Veronika Husovska, Western Michigan University.
“The use of water-based inks in conventional and non-impact (NIP) printing is on the rise, but they represent difficulty in recycling,’ Husovska NOTED. “Solvent-based inks are hydrophobic and easily agglomerated, so the ink is easy to remove. Water-baesd inks are hydrophilic and difficult to agglomerate. We had to focus on each element, like resins, inks and fatty acids.”
The afternoon Regulatory Session began with “Dust Explosions - The Nature Of The Problem And Practical Measures For Its Control,” by Vahid Ebadat of Chilworth Cons. Ebadat discussed the conditions needed for a dust explosion.
“Dust must be explosible (flammable, combustible), it must be airborne and concentration must be within the explosible range,’ he said. “An ignition source must also be present with enough energy to ignite the dust cloud. Dust from sugar, metal and coal can explode. “
Deeds returned to give a talk on her short course topic, “GHS/HazCom 1 year After – Learnings,” a look at the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) into the Hazard Communication Standard. This presentation will focus on practical solutions to the issues and problems that ink manufacturers have encountered as they have begun the development of GHS compliant SDSs and labels.
“June 1 has passed; are all your safety data sheets (SDS) converted? It isn’t that hard, but you do need to read the regulations,” said Deeds.
“Overview and Update on California’s Prop 65” was presented by Pamela Langhorn of Keller and Heckman.
“Proposition 65 is the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986,} sad Langhorn. “It has grown to 900+ substances. It is a right-to-know law that requires a label. Notable listings include PCBs, titanium dioxide (inhalation), lead, toluene, BPA (as of 5/11/15), ethylene glycol (6/19/15) and proposed additions such as PFOA, PFOS and styrene.)”
George Fuchs, NAPIM’s director, regulatory affairs and technology, followed with his talk on “Current Regulatory Issues – Printing Ink.” Fuchs talked about the NAPIM Safety First program, which allows companies to train employees and keep records online. maintains individual and safety records. PCBs were another area of interest.
“The State of Washington is claiming that diarylide pigments are leading to PCBs in water pollution,” Fuchs observed. “These rules can develop a life of their own.
“Brand owners are looking for Proposition 65-free inks,” he added. “That’s going to be a big problem for us, as there are some ink companies that do sell Prop 65-free inks, but many others do not.”
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is another area of interest for ink manufacturers.
“There are a two bills going through Congress.,” said Fuchs. “HR 2576 passed the House 398-1; it is 43 pages long, and is incredibly vague. It gives power to the EPA, and requires full disclosure of ingredients. S-697 is 1,200 pages long, and in our view, it would be much better if it is adopted. It will establish a risk-based screening process.”
Brad Bergey, NAPIM’s executive director, closed day 2’s talks with a brief overview of NAPIM’s annual State of the Industry report.
“We went through a rather tumultuous time, with the recession in 2008-09, and we continue to bounce around in terms of the economy,” Bergey said.
Day 2 closed with the Awards Dinner, with the prestigious Technical Achievement Award going to Borpit Intawiwat of INX International Ink Co. and Technical Associate Member Service Award to Richard Grandke of BASF.
For more information on NAPIM, see www.napim.org.
NPIRI president Jerry Napiecek of Colorcon is the chair of the Technical Conference, which is being held at the Oak Brook Hills Resort and Conference Center in Oak Brook, IL. Fittingly, the conference opened with a short course, GHS Implementation – First Wave After the Tsunami, presented by Denese Deeds, Industrial Health & Safety Consultants, Inc., and Jonathan Hellerstein of WestRock.
Al Marquardt of Kimberly-Clark formally opened the conference with his keynote talk, “Addressing Color in a CPC’s World,” a look at the importance of color to brand owners.
“CPCs use brand color to attract customers, sell products and help customers navigate products on the shelf,” Marquardt said. “For example, we can identify brands by colors – Starbucks is green, Pepsi is blue, 3M is red, UPS is brown and our Huggies are red. You have to understand how to treat your customer’s brand colors.”
Marquardt said that Kimberly-Clark predominantly uses CMYK, with some products utilizing extended gamut (OGB).
“There are times when we ask if using a spot color vs. process colors matter, like Scott Blue 2935 vs. 100-61-0-0,” Marquardt noted. “Huggies is CMYK, while Kleenex uses extended gamut. We don’t use inks with rhodamine or rubine pigments due to fading. We do color signatures electronically as color books fade. If the marketing department says it doesn’t matter, it saves costs. That’s what goes through a CPC’s mind.”
Marquardt added that color needs to be predictable, consistent and repeatable.
“You want to know if the design can succeed, how consistently can the printer hold the color on press, and how easy will it be for the printer to match the previous run,” Marquardt said. “Once the color is selected, we need to know if the inks will reproduce the color. Controlling color is a challenge for substrates, whether they are bags, labels, shrink sleeves, preprint cases all need the same color on press.”
Vitaly Rogachevsky of Argus DeWitt provided “Petroleum Hydrocarbons Market Update,” a discussion of trends and forecasts in the petroleum hydrocarbons market. He began his talk by noting that lubricants are 1.3% of a barrel of crude oil, while gasoline is 43% and distillates are 21.5%, and then discussed cracking naptha gas.
“When naptha gas is cracked, it is broken down into feedstocks like ethylene, propylene and butadiene, which are used for commodities, and aromatics (benzene, toluene and xylene), which includes intermediates like acrylates, styrenes and polyols,” said Rogachevsky.
Ethylene currently costs 27 cents a pound, and 160 million tons are produced annually. By contrast, manufacturers produce two million tons of C5 and C9.
“Companies can only make money out of cracking gas and not liquids,” said Rogachevsky. “Monomer feeds are from liquids, and cracking liquid has dropped 75% from 2007.”
“The oil industry is a big puzzle with pieces moving all the time,” added Rogachevsky. “The Western world is increasingly dependent on monomers from Asia, and eventually polymers and resins as well in five to 10 years. Potential shortages have been masked by low demand and growth. Low prices may force feed production shutdowns in Asia.”
“Inks - Managing the Safety of Printed Food Packaging” was the topic of BCF’s Chris Whitehead.
“There is a lot of concern among our legislators that there are contaminants from packaging getting into the food – substrates, inks, adhesives and coatings,” Whitehead said. “While there is strict legislation for food and food contact material, there is no EU legislation on inks.
“Under the Swiss Ordinance, ink manufacturers have to provide a list of all of their proprietary ingredients to the testing lab under an NDA, which then goes to the suppliers,” he added. “The German Ink Ordinance asks for confidential information to be disclosed. The Swiss ordinance has a positive list of what raw materials can be used. It is not easy but it can be done. The German ordinance is muddled.”
He noted that since 1995, there have been 10 alerts over chemicals from ink and coatings, and some of those have been curious.
“BPA, for example, all scientific evidence indicates it is safe,” Whitehead said. “Phthalate plasticizers have not been used in inks for 20 years. Benzophenone is legal as a food additive, but not legal in inks.”
“We all have to work together in the packaging chain,” Whitehead concluded. “One problem is that member states can do their own thing – France banned BPA and is questioning the use of titanium dioxide. Ink makers have been proactive, will obey rules which should be harmonized across Europe and workable based on scientific evidence.”
Whitehead then joined the Packaging Safety Panel Discussion, joined by Hellerstein, Marquardt and Jim Bishop of Sun Chemical. Each brought their expertise to the lively discussion.
“If you produce packages that go to Europe, it has to meet that standard,” Bishop said. “The trend is moving toward whether a package is safe or not. Conversations on food migration have increased exponentially.”
“If you have any concerns about a raw material, simply don’t use it,” Whitehead recommended. “Primary and secondary packaging are considered the same.”
“We don’t want to be on the front page of bad news,” Marquadt said.
Recycling was an area of interest for the panel.
“As for recycling, die cutting clippings with UV photoinitiators go back to recycling,” Bishop said.
“There’s still lead from pigments from 20 years ago in the recycling stream,” Whitehead said.
“WestRock doesn’t accept recycled newspapers and graphic packaging for recycling,” said Hellerstein. “News inks were not intended for food packaging. WestRock keep these clippings away from the mills.”
Marquardt noted that one of its printers produced displays with barium pigments, which are prohibited. “They even had a certificate of compliance,” he added.
“The golden sample is fool’s gold; the first sample is always great. It’s the best sample they can make. You need to make random samples,” Hellerstein noted.
The first day closed with Technical Spotlights and the Exhibitor Reception.
The Wednesday, Sept. 30 morning Technical Session began with “Water-Based Binders for Flexible Packaging Inks” by Dave Tappa of BASF.
“Water-based inks are approximately 20% of surface printing for flexible packaging, and 5% of lamination inks,” said Tappa. “The two main substrates for surface printing are PE and polypropylene (OPP), while lamination uses OPP, PET and nylon. Water-based inks can offer improved color strength, safety and health protection, eliminating solvent emission controls and capital investment savings.
“Solvent-based inks include nitrocellulose- and polyurethane-based inks, while water-based inks use higher cost raw materials, and are not compatible with all pigment concentrates,” Tappa reported. “Polyurethane dispersions and acrylic hybrids have very good resolubility, bond structures and blocking resistance. BASF ran it at 500 meters/minute on a Comexi 8-color CI press. These inks had good print quality and resolubility, and easy anilox and plate cleaning. It had good blocking resistance and no solvent retention.”
3M’s Robin Wright focused on “UV LED – The Power of One.”
“LEDs are becoming more of an alternative to mercury lamps,” said Wright. “Mercury vapor lamps date back to 1901. Current photoinitators work well with UV LEDs. LED offers real advantages. The key is to cure through ink thickness.”
“Color A-B,” by BASF’s Jim Rediske, then discussed the physical transfer of color from substrate to the surrounding environment. Les Borodinsky of Keller and Heckman focused on “Assessing the Potential for Ink to Migrate from Multi-Layer Packaging to Food.”
“If any substance used to manufacture food packaging migrates to food it is considered to be a food additive,” said Borodinsky. “An indirect food additive is not intended to become a component of food and des not have a technical function in food.
‘Our experience is that very few ink components have explicit clearances for their intended uses,” he added. “There is a need to be able to conclude that all of the uncleared ink components are not food additives. FDA considers aluminum foil (reasonably free of pinholes) and PET film 1 mil thick for applications at room temperature and below. Some polymers like PET are good migration barriers, and some polymers aren’t like, polyolefins. ”
“Investigation of Recycled Paper Deinking Methods” was the topic of Veronika Husovska, Western Michigan University.
“The use of water-based inks in conventional and non-impact (NIP) printing is on the rise, but they represent difficulty in recycling,’ Husovska NOTED. “Solvent-based inks are hydrophobic and easily agglomerated, so the ink is easy to remove. Water-baesd inks are hydrophilic and difficult to agglomerate. We had to focus on each element, like resins, inks and fatty acids.”
The afternoon Regulatory Session began with “Dust Explosions - The Nature Of The Problem And Practical Measures For Its Control,” by Vahid Ebadat of Chilworth Cons. Ebadat discussed the conditions needed for a dust explosion.
“Dust must be explosible (flammable, combustible), it must be airborne and concentration must be within the explosible range,’ he said. “An ignition source must also be present with enough energy to ignite the dust cloud. Dust from sugar, metal and coal can explode. “
Deeds returned to give a talk on her short course topic, “GHS/HazCom 1 year After – Learnings,” a look at the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) into the Hazard Communication Standard. This presentation will focus on practical solutions to the issues and problems that ink manufacturers have encountered as they have begun the development of GHS compliant SDSs and labels.
“June 1 has passed; are all your safety data sheets (SDS) converted? It isn’t that hard, but you do need to read the regulations,” said Deeds.
“Overview and Update on California’s Prop 65” was presented by Pamela Langhorn of Keller and Heckman.
“Proposition 65 is the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986,} sad Langhorn. “It has grown to 900+ substances. It is a right-to-know law that requires a label. Notable listings include PCBs, titanium dioxide (inhalation), lead, toluene, BPA (as of 5/11/15), ethylene glycol (6/19/15) and proposed additions such as PFOA, PFOS and styrene.)”
George Fuchs, NAPIM’s director, regulatory affairs and technology, followed with his talk on “Current Regulatory Issues – Printing Ink.” Fuchs talked about the NAPIM Safety First program, which allows companies to train employees and keep records online. maintains individual and safety records. PCBs were another area of interest.
“The State of Washington is claiming that diarylide pigments are leading to PCBs in water pollution,” Fuchs observed. “These rules can develop a life of their own.
“Brand owners are looking for Proposition 65-free inks,” he added. “That’s going to be a big problem for us, as there are some ink companies that do sell Prop 65-free inks, but many others do not.”
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is another area of interest for ink manufacturers.
“There are a two bills going through Congress.,” said Fuchs. “HR 2576 passed the House 398-1; it is 43 pages long, and is incredibly vague. It gives power to the EPA, and requires full disclosure of ingredients. S-697 is 1,200 pages long, and in our view, it would be much better if it is adopted. It will establish a risk-based screening process.”
Brad Bergey, NAPIM’s executive director, closed day 2’s talks with a brief overview of NAPIM’s annual State of the Industry report.
“We went through a rather tumultuous time, with the recession in 2008-09, and we continue to bounce around in terms of the economy,” Bergey said.
Day 2 closed with the Awards Dinner, with the prestigious Technical Achievement Award going to Borpit Intawiwat of INX International Ink Co. and Technical Associate Member Service Award to Richard Grandke of BASF.
For more information on NAPIM, see www.napim.org.