DuPontFROM EVOLUTION TO REVOLUTION
From Evolution to Revolution
FROM EVOLUTION TO REVOLUTION
Flexography has evolved dramatically from a basic print-ing form to today’s sophisticated digital output, open-ing new doors to speed, quality and cost-effectiveness. Now, the ability to thermally develop fl exo plates will revolutionize the process even further through recently documented environmental sustainability benefi ts.
EU LEADERSHIP ADDRESSES CLIMATE CHANGE
In order to address climate change by tackling the man-made sources of global warming, the European Union (EU) and many of its member states have, over the past decade, introduced various directives to promote environmental responsibility focusing on energy, natural resource and emission reductions. A particularly signifi -cant EU thrust involves controlling the release of nitro-gen oxides and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere. Of many legislative efforts, one of the most signifi cant is EU Directive 1999/13/EC, also known as the Solvent Emissions Directive (SED).
Whilst this directive impacts more than 400,000 EU solvent users across 30 manufacturing sectors includ-ing printing, it is critical that fl exographers in particular understand the impact of SED when considering new platemaking systems. Fortunately, the fl exo profession has a novel technology available to help it comply with such directives; a revolutionary solvent-free plate imag-ing option that also has a positive impact on environmen-tal sustainability components such as energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions.
• From evolution to revolution
• EU leadership addresses climate change
• Conventional plate processing = VOC
emissions
• Plate drying and solvent recycling uses
energy; creates emissions
• Flexo’s phenomenal growth continues...
• Times gone by...
• Thermal platemaking eliminates numerous
environmental concerns
• Assessing a shop’s environmental footprint
• Electricity’s impact on environmental
footprint
• Digital workfl ow and thermal processing:
A winning combination
• Conclusion: Environmental compliance a key
benefi t of Cyrel® FAST
• DuPont™ Cyrel® FAST
Content
EU directives ask for solvent emissions reduction
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Solvent0.25 Analog
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Solvent
Solvent & RecycleLight FinisherDryerProcessorMain ExposureAblate ImageBack ExposurePlate Manufacture
CONVENTIONAL PLATE PROCESSING
= VOC EMISSIONS
Despite the nearly decade-long availability of thermal plate imaging technology, chemical solvents remain widely used in a variety of fl exo platemaking processes. Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions into the at-mosphere result from the normal evaporation of these solvents from being heated, or from exposure in un-capped storage drums.Processing an analogue or digital photopolymer plate in solvent involves brushes that come into contact with the ultraviolet (UV)-exposed plate whilst it is totally submerged in the chemical. These brushes scrub the plate and re-move the monomer from the unexposed areas. Solvent is typically heated at approximately 40°C to facilitate and speed the dissolution of the unexposed monomer.
Once out of the solvent processor, the plate is signifi -cantly thicker than before washout. This is due to the plate absorbing the solvent that causes considerable swelling. The plate is then dried in an oven at approxi-mately 60°C to regain its original thickness. The typical time needed to dry the plate can vary from two to three hours, depending on its thickness and type. Solvent con-sumption at the processor consists of both fresh and recycled solvent. The total solvent consumption is heav-ily dependent on plate gauge and on the type of solvent recycling practice.
Flexographers are aware of their yearly consumption of fresh solvent, surrogate solvent and their stillbottom production (residual solvent content). The release of VOC emissions can typically occur in a number of areas including plate processors, dryer vents, storage tanks and distillation units.
PLATE DRYING AND SOLVENT RECYCLING USES
ENERGY; CREATES EMISSIONS
When comparing the tradeshops’ solvent consump-tion versus the amount it recycles, it’s evident the distillation process used in this effort results in highly variable, non-renewable energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Newer distillation systems permit a greater portion of used solvent to be recovered. However, it must also be noted that recovering as much solvent as possible requires increased energy, and that the cookdown process used in recovery results in increased emis-sions. In addition, both the non-renewable energy consumption and GHG emissions increase with plate thickness. Thicker plates require more solvents and have a higher energy consumption (longer drying time), therefore releasing more emissions during the drying and recycling steps.
Analogue Solvent Flexographic Plate Impact at Different Thicknesses
From Evolution to Revolution
FLEXO’S PHENOMENAL GROWTH CONTINUES...
During the last three decades, fl exography has successfully pushed the boundaries of package printing to New Horizons.
Today’s commercial fl exography has come a long way from its modest beginnings as a means to print on concrete bags and donut boxes. Continuous innovations by industry suppliers, trade associations, tradeshops and converters have made modern fl exography a high quality, highly-productive, consistent, and sustainable printing process. Flexibility is also seen as a major fl exo benefi t, allowing the choice of a wide range of substrates, inks, resolution and speed-to-market by reducing overall plate imaging processes.
Many brand owners and retailers worldwide rely on fl exography to help their packaging and tags and labels deliver shelf appeal through high-quality, eye-catching graphics, brand consistency, reduced cycle time, quick response to design changes and often, lower substrate costs.
For the last three decades, high-tech printing presses, advanced anilox rollers and superior inks have been backed-up by leading edge printing forms.
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35 years technology road map
Times gone by …
Flexo’s fi rst major evolution came in 1974 when DuPont introduced the fi rst Cyrel® photopolymer fl exo-graphic printing plate. This advanced the fl exo plate from being mostly rubber based, with all its inherent variances and disadvantages, to more stable and durable polyester-based fl exible plastic. At the time, and for many years afterward, solvent washout of photopolymer plates was the most popular platemak-ing process. During this period, fl exo innovation focused on producing easier-to-use, more effi cient processors and more effective, less hazardous organic solvents.
Analogue platemaking uses a fi lm negative to image the plate and depends heavily on manual opera-tions, thus allowing for human error and both plate and fi lm negative waste. The plate is processed using chemical developer and fi xer. Due to quality limitations and the labour intensity of this technology, many fl exo experts no longer consider analogue platemaking, either the traditional process or more recently developed processes, to be state-of-the-art.
In 1995, digital solvent plates were introduced to improve quality and enhance the workfl ow by eliminat-ing fi lm production and handling, as well as related processing chemistries.
Digital plates are manufactured with an integral special Laser Ablation Mask S layer which can be ab-lated by the imaging laser to leave a perfect mask for the next stage in the platemaking process. Until recently, the solvent digital platemaking workfl ow originally introduced by DuPont™ Cyrel® has been the primary system of choice to reach high quality fl exo package printing. New thermal processing technol-ogy from DuPont heralded the next major evolution in fl exo platemaking, followed shortly thereafter by the processes’ documented environmental benefi ts surrounding solvent and VOC elimination, power savings, and waste recycling/disposal - all achieved without compromise to fl exography’s renowned fl exibility, print quality, speed and time savings attributes.
Analogue platemaking is based on the use of fi lm negative to “image” the plate Cyrel® FAST Digital Thermal processing technology
From Evolution to Revolution
The entire process takes less than 15 minutes and un-like the solvent process, there is no solution to swell the imaged areas which eliminates lengthy drying.
Removing solvents and the lengthy drying times greatly reduces VOC emissions resulting in a cleaner technology solution, a better work environment and reduced waste. In addition to its lower environmental impact, Cyrel® FAST offers a faster, more cost-effec-tive solution to fl exo plate production for a range of narrow and wide web packaging, from tags and labels to fl exible packaging. Both models of Cyrel® FAST processors (wide and narrow web printing) are totally selfcontained.
Both have a small footprint, about 1/3 the area of a solvent processor, and do not need any auxiliary equip-ment, such as warming and recovery units or solvent tank storage.
This makes them equally suitable for installation into pre-press departments and/or conventional platemak-ing areas. With no chemical mixing or temperature control to worry about, Cyrel® FAST offers consistent and reliable operation.
THERMAL PLATEMAKING ELIMINATES
NUMEROUS ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
DuPont™ Cyrel® FAST is the fi rst solvent-free fl exo platemaking process that delivers a dry, photopoly-mer plate and offers signifi cant time saving benefi ts in the plate and the pressrooms. This revolutionary dry system does not use solvents and brushes to process photopolymer plates.
Specially formulated Cyrel® FAST thermal plates enable the removal of unexposed plate areas by melting the monomer and capturing it within the walls of a devel-oper roll of non-woven fabric.
Following UV exposure, the thermal plate is processed in the Cyrel® FAST thermal processor where the pho-topolymer is brought into contact with the Cyrel® FAST developer roll at high temperature and gentle pressure. Temperature and pressure conditions are directly corre-lated to the plate characteristics. When the Cyrel® FAST plate is heated by an infrared source, the unexposed areas melt and the monomer loosens. The Cyrel® FAST developer roll is brought into contact with the plate and the heated monomer is wicked away. This is repeated a few times until the desired relief is reached.
The DuPont™ Cyrel® FAST thermal platemaking process represents a revolutionary way to process fl exographic plates.
ASSESSING A SHOP’S ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
The major differences between solvent and thermal plate processing are related to imaging steps at the tradeshop or plateroom, as well as environmental components such as solvent recycle and disposal, shop electrical demands from the public power grid, equipment confi guration, and developer roll mate-rial. Beyond these, tradeshops infl uence their envi-ronmental footprint by their image setting workfl ow, which has some bearing on plate waste and equip-ment idle time.
The processing steps, including the manufacture and combustion of spent developer rolls, dominate energy
and greenhouse gas emissions in thermal image set-ting procedures. It is therefore recommended that tradeshops work with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) developer rolls that have a lower material manufactur-ing footprint and weigh less.
The average digital thermal plate imaging process with PET developer rolls) has a 60 percent lower on-renewable energy consumption and 51 percent lower GHG emissions compared to the average digital sol-vent plate imaging processes for a 0.067 thick plate. The environmental impact from plate manufacturing and platemaking rises as the thickness of the plate in-creases because more material is used.
From Evolution to Revolution
ELECTRICITY’S IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENTAL
FOOTPRINT
A tradeshop’s environmental footprint is also infl uenced by the power it receives from the electricity grid. In the worst-case scenario, all electricity is sourced from coal (highest GHG emissions). In the best case, only hydro-generated electricity is used (100 percent renewable).Thermal processes have lower non-renewable energy consumption and GHG emissions compared to solvent when taking power from electricity grids with a high fraction of non-renewable energy.
However, tradeshops fortunate enough to acquire most of their electricity from 100 percent renewable sources may see an overall reduction in non-renewable energy consumption and GHG emissions even when using solvent processes.
It’s important to note, however, that although the GHG’s related to energy are eliminated when no fos-sil fuels are burned, the overall sustainability goals still call for energy reduction strategies as global demand for power continues to grow.
DuPont - the ideal workfl ow
Design WorkstationDigital proofi ng
Cyrel® Digital ImagerCyrel® ECLF
Cyrel® FAST
The fully digital prepress workfl ow including thermal platemaking.
Depending on the solvent recycle practices, digital thermal platemaking (with PET developer rolls) con-sumes 8 - 27 percent less non-renewable energy com-pared to equivalent analogue solvent plate imaging on a total footprint basis (cradle to gate or Life Cycle As-sessment - LCA). In comparison with the average sol-vent recycle case, cradle-to-gate energy savings with digital thermal plate imaging is 18 percent.
Depending on the solvent recycle practices, digital ther-mal plate imaging with PET rolls has 7 - 35 percent lower cradle-to-gate GHG emissions compared to equivalent analogue solvent imaged plates. Cradle-to-gate GHG sav-ings are 23 percent in an average recycle application.
It should be noted that tangible energy and GHG sav-ings of a tradeshop using thermal processing will most likely exceed the savings stated here. Dryers at trade-shops run most of the time with varying capacity. Since dryer idle time was not included in the studies support-ing these calculations, real savings should be higher.
DIGITAL WORKFLOW AND THERMAL PROCESSING: A
WINNING COMBINATION
Cyrel® FAST thermal plate processing eliminates sol-vents from the platemaking process. Digital plate-making uses plates that have a Laser Ablation Mask layer that is imaged directly by computer-to-plate (CDI) equipment.
The combination of Cyrel® FAST thermal processing and digital photopolymer imaging, such as EskoArt-work Cyrel® Digital Imager (CDI), is a completely dry “state-of-the-art” technology.
Digital platemaking continues to grow and is increas-ingly important to the fl exographic printing industry. It has many natural advantages in areas including tonal reproduction, plate features, dot size and dot shape that all add up to high fl exographic print quality.Cyrel® digital plates print equally well with thermal or solvent processing. Unique digital dot shape and do sharpness throughout the tonal range is reached with a digital workfl ow. The most minuscule digital high-light dots are smaller than any possible with a conven-tional fi lm-based exposure.
Cyrel® FAST digital plates processed thermally provide the same plate features and printing performance as Cyrel® digital solvent-processed plates. Although high quality fl exo printing can be achieved by either pro-cess, thermal developing provides for optimal plate thickness uniformity after processing. This is because the plates never undergo the disruptive process of solvent swelling and solvent removal by drying. Thus, the relatively new Cyrel® FAST digital workfl ow with thermal processing provides the same quality benefi ts as Cyrel® digital solvent plates whilst providing a signifi -cant productivity improvement.
From Evolution to Revolution
which minimises solvent use, thus reducing VOCs, en-ergy consumption and GHG emissions.
Cyrel® FAST provides an excellent option to the chal-lenge of complying with such new environmental legislation because its thermal processing platform eliminates solvents and resulting VOCs, with waste polymer conveniently collected on a non-woven fabric, making disposal simple and safe.
As a state of the art process, Cyrel® FAST also helps the end user comply with the European legislation per-tinent to the safe use of solvents such as the Chemical Agents Directive and the ATEX Directives.
CONCLUSION: ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE A
KEY BENEFIT OF CYREL® FAST
Whilst solvent washout processes will continue to serve fl exo platemakers until equipment installed years ago fully amortizes, the newer Cyrel® FAST ther-mal process will grow steadily thanks to its productiv-ity as well as its newly documented, lower environ-mental impact. The marriage of digital workfl ow and Cyrel® FAST thermal platemaking will further support improved quality and productivity for the fl exographic printing industry.
In addition, current EU Directives demand that for ev-ery newly planned facility, technology must be adopted
DuPont™ Cyrel® FAST
• Plates processed using patented thermal technology.
• Thermal processing eliminates chemical solvent or aqueous plate washout steps.
• No water, chemical, drain connections needed.
• Total start-fi nish plate production time under one hour.
• Actual average plate time through developer is less than 15 minutes.
• Plate room no longer a bottleneck in printing operations.
• Cyrel® FAST thermal developer(s) can be placed at or near press room.
• Cluttered plate rooms are now smaller, slimmer, more orderly and free of foul-smelling solvents, chemicals and space-wasting washout units.
• Ideal for quick plate turnaround, replacing damaged plate, or last minute changes. True ‘just-in-time’ platemaking.
• Eliminates need to double-plate in case one plate is damaged during major press run. Similarly eliminates double plate storage for major space/cost savings.
• Highly intuitive, automated, high quality plate processing. Takes random variability out of platemaking.
DuPont™ Cyrel® FAST development will continue to improve the advantages of thermal platemaking productivity and sustainability
The DuPont Oval, DuPontTM, The miracle of scienceTM, Cyrel® are trademarks or registered trademarks of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company or its affi liates. (2/2009)
The information used to prepare this educational material was collected from a number of sources in the public domain which the author believes to be reliable. Some of its content may be proprietary and belong to DuPont or its licensors. The material shall not be used for any purposes other than those for which it has been compiled and made available to you by DuPont. Whilst every care has been taken by DuPont in compiling this educational material, DuPont excludes any liability whatsoever for any loss or any damage (including without limitation to direct or indirect losses and any loss of profi t, data or economic loss) caused to any person or for any damage, cost, claim or expense arising from any reliance on this information or any of its content. The information in this educational material does not constitute or form part of any offer, invitation to sell, offer to subscribe for or to purchase any shares or other securities and must not be relied upon in connection with any contract relating to any such matter.
ABOUT THE AUTHORPier Luigi Sassanelli is Europe MEA marketing manager for DuPont Packaging Graphics. Additional information and resources pertaining to sustainable packaging can be found at www.cyrel.eu andwww.cyrel.eu/sustainability or feel free to contact Pier Luigi Sassanelli directly at [email protected]
Copyright© 2009, DuPont de Nemours (Deutschland) GmbH
Published in 2009 by: Marketing Department DuPont Packaging Graphics Europe MEA
Printed in Europe All rights reserved worldwide. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of DuPont de Nemours (Deutschland) GmbH.
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