10.12.17
The National Printing Ink Research Institute’s (NPIRI) annual Technical Conference provides a comprehensive look at the technical and regulatory side of the printing ink industry, and this year’s conference has brought some excellent insights to attendees.
Hosted by the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM), the 2017 conference covered a wide range of issues, including the growth if digital printing in packaging, the olegislative challanges in Washington, technical and regulatory issues and new technologies. The conference was held Oct. 10-12 at the Hilton Chicago/Oak Brook Hills Hotel and Conference Center in Oak Brook, IL.
“Our attendance is growing, and shows the priority our companies place on keeping informed,” said NPIRI president Dan Delegge of inksolutions. “This is a big team effort.”
The NPIRI Technical Conference began with a morning short course, “Intro to Ink Formulation and Manufacturing.” The Opening Session followed, with the Keynote Address, “Brand Disruption and Print – How Technology is Changing Brand Image Management,” presented by Paul Nowak of Quad Packaging. Quad’s main business is in folding carton and pressure sensitive labels, and the Quad/Graphics subsidiary uses offset, flexo and digital printing.
“Brand owners are struggling to remain relevant,’ Nowak said. “They are learning how digital, offset, flexo and gravure mix. One key for brands is that all colors must be the same.”
He noted that brand owners have to take into account the preferences of their consumers. For example, more than half of seniors and baby boomers have trouble reading small print, and many find the use of colors helpful for reading packages. The use of data is changing brands, and anyone who sees ads come up for products they have previously looked at when they turn on their computer knows.
“You’d be spooked if you knew how much data companies have on your buying habits,” said Nowak.
“The rules have changed,” he added. “There is less brand loyalty, as companies can sell directly through Amazon. Target bases their decisions on sales per square inch. We need to be faster to market.”
Digital printing ensures that speed to market, and there are a number of factors driving its momentum. The Coke project, printing names on bottles, was a marketing success, and Pepsi developed its own emoji project. Nature Valley regionalizes its packaging through photos of local trails and hikers.
“Micro regionalization was cost prohibitive before digital,” said Nowak. Digital allows brands to reduce inventory and obsolescence. Variable print enables 1 t0 1 personalization for improved ROI on a campaign. I have no doubt that packaging will get to 1 to 1, as it happened in direct mail. This is an interesting time to be in the market.”
Matt Hoekstra of Williams & Jennings discussed what’s happening in Washington in his Legislative Update. Tax reform is of particular note.
“Legislative relationships between the two parties are not very good right now,” Hoekstra noted. “The Republicans face the toughest environment for either major party in recent history. Tax reform is the big priority, as the Republicans can’t afford to not pass it. Republicans must deliver a victory ahead of the mid-term elections.
Noting that there are a number of key issues that have to be ironed out, including whether the reform will be revenue neutral, Hoekstra said a plan may take some time.
“Tax reform is likely to stretch into 2018, while tax relief is a potential fallback plan,” he said.
Phil Riebel of Two Sides North America discussed Two Sides’ anti-greenwashing campaign, pointing out the advantages and environmental friendliness of printing, and how companies are trying to eliminate paper statements to save money but claiming it is for environmental reasons.
“Surveys show that print is the preferred choice for recreational reading,” Riebel said, adding that younger readers do tend to use digital sources more. “Ninety percent of consumers believe they should have the right to selecting between digital and paper communications, and 83% believe they should not be charged if they choose paper statements. In addition, 72% agree that organizations wanting to switch to paperless statements are doing so because they want to save money, not necessarily to help the environment.”
Jeff Pyper of Lifetouch Services, a major school picture and yearbook specialist, discussed his company’s use of printing. He said that the company’s printing mix is about half digital and half conventional. As an aside, the company printed NAPIM’s new NPIRI Printing Ink Handbook.
“We produce 17,500 yearbooks and 5,000 church directories annually, and use 90,000 pounds of ink annually,” Pyper said. “We are seeing increased demand for hard cover yearbooks, and outlived VHS tapes, CDs and DVDs, which were all thought would replace yearbooks.
Pyper added that Lifetouch is considering increasing its use of conventional printing.
“Our average run is 300 copies, and conventional press manufacturers such as Heidelberg have really improved their quick-change capabilities,” he noted.
NAPIM Management Committee members Jim Leitch of Braden Sutphin Ink and John Jilek Jr. of inksolutions then gave a briefing on NASPIM’s 2017 State of the Industry report, reporting that inks sales, not including inkjet, were relatively flat, with earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased to 5.8% from 4.5% in 2015.
Lawter sponsors the NPIRI Lecture Award, which is given to the top technical paper. JoAnn Arceneaux of Allnex received the award for her paper, “Redesign of Energy Curable Polyurethane Dispersions for Inkjet Applications.”
“EC polyurethane dispersions (PUD) can be redesigned to meet the requirements of inkjet applications. The EC PUDs use no monomers, offer better adhesion on plastic, and opens doors to food packaging applications,” Arceneaux said. “It also offers better regulatory compliance, as there is no use of regulated materials, no/low residuals or migrating species and no/low odor and VOCs.”
The opening session closed with a series of seven short product presentations, titled the “Fastest 50 Minutes in Tech.” The speakers were Brian Casey of Evonik; Saif Ansari of Keim Additec; Philippe Schlaepfer of Songwon; Ruth Bauer of BASF; Alex Lauke of NETSCH; Jennifer Rigney of BASF; and Dhara Metla of BYK.
The first day’s session closed with tabletop exhibits and the NPIRI reception.
On Oct. 11, the NPIRI Technical Conference opened with its
Morning Technical Sessions, which were moderated by Scot Pedersen of Siegwerk. Bill Dougherty of Total Specialties USA opened the session with his talk on “The Use of Styrene Maleic Anhydride Copolymer Resins as Additives for Both Water Based Pigment Dispersion and Flexographic Ink Transfer.”
Dougherty talked about the development of a new styrene maleic anhydride copolymer for flexo applications.
“The type of alcohol we used was important,” said Dougherty. “We found that glycol ethers performed better than alkyl alcohols, and no wetting was needed. The new SMA derivative gave the highest optical density with all four CMYK colors. It performed exceptionally well as a transfer aid in both lab and press trials.”
Ruth Bauer of BASF then covered “Analysis of Primary Aromatic Amines (PAA) in Pigment.”
“Many PAA are toxic compounds and/or suspected human carcinogens.” Bauer said. “They can be found in azo colorants. The yellow, orange, red and magenta color space is affected.”
To determine PAAs in pigments, BASF developed its own detection method, which is now an industry standard.
“BASF developed a powerful in-house test method to detect PAAs as single substances in organic pigments and shared its knowledge with ETAD within the Analytical Expert Team,” Bauer noted. “It is published as ETAD Method 212, Edition May 3rd, 2016.” She added that BASF Colors +Effects has already analyzed all of its pigments with its test method, and has installed spot tests.
Franck Bardin of Total Specialties USA then discussed “Scriptlane BioLife: A New Generation of Bio-Sourced Printing Ink Distillates,” an overview of Total’s development of a low environmental impact renewable hydrocarbon fluid based on a feedstock of crude palm oil, designed for heatset, sheetfed, digital and textile inks.
“There is no regulatory framework for the use of aromatic hydrocarbons in Europe and the US right now, but some ECO Labels are now promoted in Asia and Europe,” Bardin observed, adding that the German Blue Engel RAL-YZ 195 is a “game changer.
“With today quest for even more sustainable solutions for mineral oil-free products, TOTAL Fluides committed to an ambitious R&D program. This led to TOAL BioLife,” he noted. “We are developing extra low aromatic bio-alkanes for the chemical industry to reduce the environmental impact of our current products and solutions. It is already positively evaluated and approved by major ink producers.”
BASF’s Charlie Hsu followed with “Effect of Surface Tension and Surface Energy of Waterborne Inks on Resolubility.”
“Water-based resins are a key technology for BASF, and emulsion polymers are the backbone of waterborne inks,” Hsu said. “Surface energy and surface tension play an important role the resolubility of waterborne inks. We have to balance resolubility and resistance. Superior resolubility can be achieved through ink formulation aiming for proper surface tension and energy.”
Dave Maternowski of INX closed the technical session with “Overview of the ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001 2015 Standard Changes – Creating a True Business Management System.”
“These are the most significant changes in a decade,” Maternowski said. “There is a common 10-clause structure for all Management System Standards (MSS). The concept of preventive action is now addressed throughout the standard by risk identification and mitigation.”
“Prioritize your projects and resources to ‘Plan Improvements’ based on risk, and make changes to your entire system based on risk,” Maternowski added.
Greg Pace of Sun Chemical moderated the afternoon session, which focused on regulatory concerns. will be moderated by Greg Pace of Sun Chemical. BASF’s Bauer covered the topic of “Pigments for Sensitive Applications,” including food packaging, toys, cosmetics and medical devices. Bauer also covered global regulations for printing inks.
Christina Franz of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) then discussed “LCSA Implementation: What’s Happened, What’s Next, and How to Stay Informed.”
“LCSA’s goal is to create a more efficient system with multiple deadlines to keep EPA on track,” Franz said. “It must have risk evaluations underway for at least 20 chemicals by December 2019.” The EPA has three and a half years once it begins risk evaluation of a high priority chemical. In August the EPA announced progress in reducing its backlog.
“We want more timely information,” Franz said. “EPA must base its decision on best available science, and we are reviewing its current policy guidance.”
Stephen Divarco, Sun Chemical, discussed “Continual EHS Improvement - Incident Reduction Through Risk Management.” Dr. Divarco discussed targeting at-risk behaviors and the benefits of root cause analysis.
“If we target at-risk behaviors, we will reduce the occurrence of a major event,” said Dr. Divarco. “The safety guy is there to help you. For incident reporting, we replaced our former paper form to 100% use of a new global platform for reporting incidents at all Sun Chemical locations. We have added Unsafe Acts, Unsafe Conditions and Safety+, which documents good behavior.
“The 5-Why Root Cause Analysis repeatedly asks why, and you can eventually find the root cause,” Dr. Divarco added. “There is usually more than one root cause for any given problem. To be effective, root cause identification must be performed systematically with conclusions and causes backed up by documented evidence. Root cause determination does have pitfalls. You have to avoid the trap of laying sole blame on the employee, even if they openly blame themselves. Also, the initial ‘obvious’ answer may not be the correct one.”
“Food Packaging in the Spotlight, for Better or Worse” was presented by Eric Greenberg of Eric F. Greenberg P.C.
“When food packing is in the spotlight, it’s almost never good news,” said Greenberg, who discussed the plan to eliminate two regulations for each one approved in Washington.
“The two-for-one approach is a simple approach that takes little account of regulations’ purpose or value and are translating it into real action. It may lead to increasing action on the state level,” Greenberg observed.
Greenberg also discussed the recent story about phthalates being found in Kraft-Heinz’s mac and cheese.
“They said, ‘We do not add phthalates to our product. The trace amounts that were reported in this limited study are more than 1,000 times lower than the level that scientific authorities have identified as acceptable. Our products are safe for consumers to enjoy.’ Kraft-Heinz’s reaction was about as good as it gets.”
George Fuchs, NAPIM’s director, regulatory affairs and technology, closed the regulatory session with “Current NAPIM EHS Issues.” He began by talking about NAPIM’s collaboration with EuPIA.
“We have a formal global relationship with EuPIA and have a good information exchange with them,” Fuchs said. “EuPIA’s approach is a little different than ours, as they have an exclusion policy for printing inks and related products. This is becoming an important topic as a result of REACH. In addition, China is becoming a bigger player and are developing their own food safety standards.”
Fuchs also discussed NAPIM’s Threshold of Regulation Project.
“We have the Threshold of Regulation Project, which we are working on with a former senior FDA official,” said Fuchs. “We believe a wide array of ink formulation components should be suitable for FDA exemption. We are working with CPMA, RadTech, SGIA and the Printing Industries of America on this project.”
During the evening, NAPIM held annual awards dinner. NPIRI president Dan Delegge of inksolutions presented the prestigious Technical Achievement Award to Mathew Mathew of Sun Chemical and the Technical Associate Member Service Award to John Foster of Cabot Corporation. Mathew is technical manager for Sun Chemical. Foster is applications development manager performance materials at Cabot.
Hosted by the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM), the 2017 conference covered a wide range of issues, including the growth if digital printing in packaging, the olegislative challanges in Washington, technical and regulatory issues and new technologies. The conference was held Oct. 10-12 at the Hilton Chicago/Oak Brook Hills Hotel and Conference Center in Oak Brook, IL.
“Our attendance is growing, and shows the priority our companies place on keeping informed,” said NPIRI president Dan Delegge of inksolutions. “This is a big team effort.”
The NPIRI Technical Conference began with a morning short course, “Intro to Ink Formulation and Manufacturing.” The Opening Session followed, with the Keynote Address, “Brand Disruption and Print – How Technology is Changing Brand Image Management,” presented by Paul Nowak of Quad Packaging. Quad’s main business is in folding carton and pressure sensitive labels, and the Quad/Graphics subsidiary uses offset, flexo and digital printing.
“Brand owners are struggling to remain relevant,’ Nowak said. “They are learning how digital, offset, flexo and gravure mix. One key for brands is that all colors must be the same.”
He noted that brand owners have to take into account the preferences of their consumers. For example, more than half of seniors and baby boomers have trouble reading small print, and many find the use of colors helpful for reading packages. The use of data is changing brands, and anyone who sees ads come up for products they have previously looked at when they turn on their computer knows.
“You’d be spooked if you knew how much data companies have on your buying habits,” said Nowak.
“The rules have changed,” he added. “There is less brand loyalty, as companies can sell directly through Amazon. Target bases their decisions on sales per square inch. We need to be faster to market.”
Digital printing ensures that speed to market, and there are a number of factors driving its momentum. The Coke project, printing names on bottles, was a marketing success, and Pepsi developed its own emoji project. Nature Valley regionalizes its packaging through photos of local trails and hikers.
“Micro regionalization was cost prohibitive before digital,” said Nowak. Digital allows brands to reduce inventory and obsolescence. Variable print enables 1 t0 1 personalization for improved ROI on a campaign. I have no doubt that packaging will get to 1 to 1, as it happened in direct mail. This is an interesting time to be in the market.”
Matt Hoekstra of Williams & Jennings discussed what’s happening in Washington in his Legislative Update. Tax reform is of particular note.
“Legislative relationships between the two parties are not very good right now,” Hoekstra noted. “The Republicans face the toughest environment for either major party in recent history. Tax reform is the big priority, as the Republicans can’t afford to not pass it. Republicans must deliver a victory ahead of the mid-term elections.
Noting that there are a number of key issues that have to be ironed out, including whether the reform will be revenue neutral, Hoekstra said a plan may take some time.
“Tax reform is likely to stretch into 2018, while tax relief is a potential fallback plan,” he said.
Phil Riebel of Two Sides North America discussed Two Sides’ anti-greenwashing campaign, pointing out the advantages and environmental friendliness of printing, and how companies are trying to eliminate paper statements to save money but claiming it is for environmental reasons.
“Surveys show that print is the preferred choice for recreational reading,” Riebel said, adding that younger readers do tend to use digital sources more. “Ninety percent of consumers believe they should have the right to selecting between digital and paper communications, and 83% believe they should not be charged if they choose paper statements. In addition, 72% agree that organizations wanting to switch to paperless statements are doing so because they want to save money, not necessarily to help the environment.”
Jeff Pyper of Lifetouch Services, a major school picture and yearbook specialist, discussed his company’s use of printing. He said that the company’s printing mix is about half digital and half conventional. As an aside, the company printed NAPIM’s new NPIRI Printing Ink Handbook.
“We produce 17,500 yearbooks and 5,000 church directories annually, and use 90,000 pounds of ink annually,” Pyper said. “We are seeing increased demand for hard cover yearbooks, and outlived VHS tapes, CDs and DVDs, which were all thought would replace yearbooks.
Pyper added that Lifetouch is considering increasing its use of conventional printing.
“Our average run is 300 copies, and conventional press manufacturers such as Heidelberg have really improved their quick-change capabilities,” he noted.
NAPIM Management Committee members Jim Leitch of Braden Sutphin Ink and John Jilek Jr. of inksolutions then gave a briefing on NASPIM’s 2017 State of the Industry report, reporting that inks sales, not including inkjet, were relatively flat, with earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased to 5.8% from 4.5% in 2015.
Lawter sponsors the NPIRI Lecture Award, which is given to the top technical paper. JoAnn Arceneaux of Allnex received the award for her paper, “Redesign of Energy Curable Polyurethane Dispersions for Inkjet Applications.”
“EC polyurethane dispersions (PUD) can be redesigned to meet the requirements of inkjet applications. The EC PUDs use no monomers, offer better adhesion on plastic, and opens doors to food packaging applications,” Arceneaux said. “It also offers better regulatory compliance, as there is no use of regulated materials, no/low residuals or migrating species and no/low odor and VOCs.”
The opening session closed with a series of seven short product presentations, titled the “Fastest 50 Minutes in Tech.” The speakers were Brian Casey of Evonik; Saif Ansari of Keim Additec; Philippe Schlaepfer of Songwon; Ruth Bauer of BASF; Alex Lauke of NETSCH; Jennifer Rigney of BASF; and Dhara Metla of BYK.
The first day’s session closed with tabletop exhibits and the NPIRI reception.
On Oct. 11, the NPIRI Technical Conference opened with its
Morning Technical Sessions, which were moderated by Scot Pedersen of Siegwerk. Bill Dougherty of Total Specialties USA opened the session with his talk on “The Use of Styrene Maleic Anhydride Copolymer Resins as Additives for Both Water Based Pigment Dispersion and Flexographic Ink Transfer.”
Dougherty talked about the development of a new styrene maleic anhydride copolymer for flexo applications.
“The type of alcohol we used was important,” said Dougherty. “We found that glycol ethers performed better than alkyl alcohols, and no wetting was needed. The new SMA derivative gave the highest optical density with all four CMYK colors. It performed exceptionally well as a transfer aid in both lab and press trials.”
Ruth Bauer of BASF then covered “Analysis of Primary Aromatic Amines (PAA) in Pigment.”
“Many PAA are toxic compounds and/or suspected human carcinogens.” Bauer said. “They can be found in azo colorants. The yellow, orange, red and magenta color space is affected.”
To determine PAAs in pigments, BASF developed its own detection method, which is now an industry standard.
“BASF developed a powerful in-house test method to detect PAAs as single substances in organic pigments and shared its knowledge with ETAD within the Analytical Expert Team,” Bauer noted. “It is published as ETAD Method 212, Edition May 3rd, 2016.” She added that BASF Colors +Effects has already analyzed all of its pigments with its test method, and has installed spot tests.
Franck Bardin of Total Specialties USA then discussed “Scriptlane BioLife: A New Generation of Bio-Sourced Printing Ink Distillates,” an overview of Total’s development of a low environmental impact renewable hydrocarbon fluid based on a feedstock of crude palm oil, designed for heatset, sheetfed, digital and textile inks.
“There is no regulatory framework for the use of aromatic hydrocarbons in Europe and the US right now, but some ECO Labels are now promoted in Asia and Europe,” Bardin observed, adding that the German Blue Engel RAL-YZ 195 is a “game changer.
“With today quest for even more sustainable solutions for mineral oil-free products, TOTAL Fluides committed to an ambitious R&D program. This led to TOAL BioLife,” he noted. “We are developing extra low aromatic bio-alkanes for the chemical industry to reduce the environmental impact of our current products and solutions. It is already positively evaluated and approved by major ink producers.”
BASF’s Charlie Hsu followed with “Effect of Surface Tension and Surface Energy of Waterborne Inks on Resolubility.”
“Water-based resins are a key technology for BASF, and emulsion polymers are the backbone of waterborne inks,” Hsu said. “Surface energy and surface tension play an important role the resolubility of waterborne inks. We have to balance resolubility and resistance. Superior resolubility can be achieved through ink formulation aiming for proper surface tension and energy.”
Dave Maternowski of INX closed the technical session with “Overview of the ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001 2015 Standard Changes – Creating a True Business Management System.”
“These are the most significant changes in a decade,” Maternowski said. “There is a common 10-clause structure for all Management System Standards (MSS). The concept of preventive action is now addressed throughout the standard by risk identification and mitigation.”
“Prioritize your projects and resources to ‘Plan Improvements’ based on risk, and make changes to your entire system based on risk,” Maternowski added.
Greg Pace of Sun Chemical moderated the afternoon session, which focused on regulatory concerns. will be moderated by Greg Pace of Sun Chemical. BASF’s Bauer covered the topic of “Pigments for Sensitive Applications,” including food packaging, toys, cosmetics and medical devices. Bauer also covered global regulations for printing inks.
Christina Franz of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) then discussed “LCSA Implementation: What’s Happened, What’s Next, and How to Stay Informed.”
“LCSA’s goal is to create a more efficient system with multiple deadlines to keep EPA on track,” Franz said. “It must have risk evaluations underway for at least 20 chemicals by December 2019.” The EPA has three and a half years once it begins risk evaluation of a high priority chemical. In August the EPA announced progress in reducing its backlog.
“We want more timely information,” Franz said. “EPA must base its decision on best available science, and we are reviewing its current policy guidance.”
Stephen Divarco, Sun Chemical, discussed “Continual EHS Improvement - Incident Reduction Through Risk Management.” Dr. Divarco discussed targeting at-risk behaviors and the benefits of root cause analysis.
“If we target at-risk behaviors, we will reduce the occurrence of a major event,” said Dr. Divarco. “The safety guy is there to help you. For incident reporting, we replaced our former paper form to 100% use of a new global platform for reporting incidents at all Sun Chemical locations. We have added Unsafe Acts, Unsafe Conditions and Safety+, which documents good behavior.
“The 5-Why Root Cause Analysis repeatedly asks why, and you can eventually find the root cause,” Dr. Divarco added. “There is usually more than one root cause for any given problem. To be effective, root cause identification must be performed systematically with conclusions and causes backed up by documented evidence. Root cause determination does have pitfalls. You have to avoid the trap of laying sole blame on the employee, even if they openly blame themselves. Also, the initial ‘obvious’ answer may not be the correct one.”
“Food Packaging in the Spotlight, for Better or Worse” was presented by Eric Greenberg of Eric F. Greenberg P.C.
“When food packing is in the spotlight, it’s almost never good news,” said Greenberg, who discussed the plan to eliminate two regulations for each one approved in Washington.
“The two-for-one approach is a simple approach that takes little account of regulations’ purpose or value and are translating it into real action. It may lead to increasing action on the state level,” Greenberg observed.
Greenberg also discussed the recent story about phthalates being found in Kraft-Heinz’s mac and cheese.
“They said, ‘We do not add phthalates to our product. The trace amounts that were reported in this limited study are more than 1,000 times lower than the level that scientific authorities have identified as acceptable. Our products are safe for consumers to enjoy.’ Kraft-Heinz’s reaction was about as good as it gets.”
George Fuchs, NAPIM’s director, regulatory affairs and technology, closed the regulatory session with “Current NAPIM EHS Issues.” He began by talking about NAPIM’s collaboration with EuPIA.
“We have a formal global relationship with EuPIA and have a good information exchange with them,” Fuchs said. “EuPIA’s approach is a little different than ours, as they have an exclusion policy for printing inks and related products. This is becoming an important topic as a result of REACH. In addition, China is becoming a bigger player and are developing their own food safety standards.”
Fuchs also discussed NAPIM’s Threshold of Regulation Project.
“We have the Threshold of Regulation Project, which we are working on with a former senior FDA official,” said Fuchs. “We believe a wide array of ink formulation components should be suitable for FDA exemption. We are working with CPMA, RadTech, SGIA and the Printing Industries of America on this project.”
During the evening, NAPIM held annual awards dinner. NPIRI president Dan Delegge of inksolutions presented the prestigious Technical Achievement Award to Mathew Mathew of Sun Chemical and the Technical Associate Member Service Award to John Foster of Cabot Corporation. Mathew is technical manager for Sun Chemical. Foster is applications development manager performance materials at Cabot.
