greenDM

Ink and Finishes

The objective of inks and finishes for PAS 2020 is to use make efficient use of ink and finishes.

The greenDM.co.uk web site has been developed to be used in conjunction with the BSI PAS 2020:2009 standard. The environmental performance relating to the level needs to be used in conjunction with the PAS 2020:2009 document.

The PAS 2020 on printing inks is an extremely difficult standard to establish due to the number of printing processes that are utilised in direct marketing communications. However, remember that this is a standard that is a dynamic specification and will no doubt be subject to change before the two year minimum review period as more evidence an knowledge of environmental factors becomes known.

There are a number of different printing processes that can be used in the production of direct marketing material.

When the product has been produced the main issue of it being recoverable material is during the de-inking process.

Paper de-inking is a process that removes the ink from the recycled paper pulp to result in white paper. However this tends to preclude liquid toner and ink jet for higher volumes.

The current de-inking process utilises the oil based hydrophobic (water repellent) nature of most mass-produced inks, such as heat set web offset and gravure printing to separate it from the pulp.

The latest generation of ink jet printers for commercial applications on paper use water-based inks. Hence the hydrophobic process of de-inking is not effective.

Other forms of ink jet printing use UV cured inks such as the Dotrix machine by Agfa and some some conventional printing of substrates utilise UV curing. Unfortunately any UV inks used in the de-inking process are a hindrance. More of this later…

Types of Printing

Gravure - long run production of magazines and brochures. For example mail order catalogues can be produced by gravure printing. The substrate is generally a lower grammage product so less tonnage is used and the solvents are recycled during the printing process.

Heat Set web Offset – a main printing process for medium to long run production of marketing collateral.

Sheet fed – Inks used can be both UV, conventional (dried with IR generally and oxidation) as well as vegetable based inks. Generally shorter to medium run print productions.

Digital toner – short run which enables highly personalised and customised products to be produced. This assists with targeting and therefore can reduce print volumes. The process uses toner which is able to be de-inked as it forms relatively weak bonds to the paper fibres.

Digital HP – as above regarding short run and highly customisable but uses liquid ink technology or ‘electroink’. Ongoing tests are being conducted with this type of ink to determine just how de-inkable it is.

UV continuous – can be used to produce printed products which need to be subsequently laser printed during the personalisation process. The UV drying process enables moisture content in the paper to be more suitable for post personalisation, although heat set web offset can be utilised by printers that understand the requirements of laser printing and humidity.

Trying to determine a technical standard that covers the production processes becomes very complicated.

One of the general principles that PAS 2020 is encouraging is for direct marketing to be increasingly even more targeted, thereby reducing physical output so less gets printed.

On the basis that less is better the PAS 2020 steering group have devised the ink standard to reflect ink coverage rather than any particular ink or process type.

Ink coverage can be accurately measured. So any products that are created can have their ink coverage determined.

Lateral Group have measured a range of different types of direct marketing printed products and arrived at a suggested level of coverage for 3 levels. The important aspect regarding this is that ink coverage is obviously influenced by the design of the product.

However there are technical ways that ink coverage can be reduced further by utilising under colour removal techniques at the pre press stage. This can be achieved by the printer without the end result being compromised in any way as it still produces the same colour result.

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