Study about Recycling for UV Cured Prints

Abstract

In recent years, various kinds of ink and/or printing system have been developed to reduce energy consumption and the time for delivery as well as to get higher print quality. Several kinds of printing materials from recovered papers were chosen to evaluate their recyclability by using high density pulping and/or PFI mill treatment as a mimic of a mill kneader alternative. The dirt speckles of the de-inked pulp from UV cured, UV vanish over coated, and polystyrene over coated prints were much higher than those of conventional prints. Although high reactive UV cured prints brought fewer dirt counts than the conventional UV prints, they were also affected by printing conditions, especially the intensity of total irradiation of UV lamp for curing. The surfaces of print sample were investigated by using attenuated total reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR) method. As a result, the ATR-IR methods brought more precise classification for each sample in terms of their recyclability compared with conventional solvent detection method. Consequently, the ATR-IR method will be able to contribute more efficiently to sort out recovered papers with poor recyclability in order to enhance quality control of de-inked pulp production in a mill. It is very important to collaborate with companies related to printing industries to facilitate recycling of recovered papers including UV cured prints.