In-depth study of deinking of flexographic printing paper

The cepiprint of the European publishing paper manufacturer has reached an agreement to provide one-year funding for further studies to find solutions to deinking of water-based flexographic printing papers.

The study was hosted by the Paper Craft Centre (CTP) headquartered in Grenoble, France and assisted by organizations such as the International Deinking Paper Industry Association. Other participating institutions include ink manufacturers, paper mills, printing plants and printing equipment manufacturers.

The research plan is divided into 3 steps: improving the water-based ink to make it easier to remove after printing; improving the deinking process to improve the water-based ink removal rate; and using the new deinking process for improved inks and testing results.

Italy's La Repubblica newsprint mill and UK printing company Harmsworth Quays have conducted industrial type printing trials. In addition, some other newsprint mills also conducted industrial deinking tests, including the Aylesford plant with a 50 per cent stake in Mondi and SCA in the UK, the Bridgewater plant in Abitibi-Consolidated, and the Mantova plant in Burgo Marchi, Italy.

The report provided by GTP shows that the research has made some progress, but further research is needed. Therefore, the French organization calls for an extension of two years to continue research and be completed by 2008. GEPIPRINT agreed to provide one more year of funding and the project is scheduled to end one year later.

Because water-based inks are used in newsprint printing to not cause contamination or stick to readers' hands, flexographic printing is widely welcomed by newspaper publishers. According to GEPIPRINT, offset presses are gradually being replaced by flexographic printing throughout Europe, especially in the United Kingdom and Italy. This method has proven its advanced nature, such as relatively low installation and operating costs and short operating cycles. .

Since the use of the prior art is not easy to remove the ink, the following problem is to find an effective way to recover the flexographic printing paper. It also deals with the quality of recycled fibres. In the case where the proportion of recycled newsprint as a raw material is very high, the quality of recycled fibre is critical.

GEPIPRINT believes that if the proportion of flexographic printing paper in recycled paper is increasing, operators will import high quality waste paper containing less flexo paper from abroad. To solve this problem, since 2002, they have become one of the main sponsors of this research.