Drafting Group Established for Standard on Preparation of Test Specimens for VOC Detection in Cigarette Pack Printing Materials

On March 13, 2013, the National Printing Standardization Technical Committee (SAC/TC170) held the founding meeting of the drafting group for the press and publication industry standard 'Methods for Preparing Test Specimens for the Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds in Printing and Post-Press Materials' in Changde, Hunan Province. More than 20 experts and technicians from Changde Jinpeng Printing Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Kecai Printing Co., Ltd., Shantou Wanshun Packaging Materials Co., Ltd., Daya Technology Danyang New Packaging Materials Branch, Hanghua Ink Chemical Co., Ltd., Zhuhai Letong Chemical Co., Ltd., Shanxi Jinghua Science, Industry and Trade Co., Ltd., Beijing Taili Hengyou Technology Development Co., Ltd. and Kurz Transfer Technology (Hefei) Co., Ltd. attended the meeting. Changde Jinpeng Printing Co., Ltd. hosted the meeting.

The meeting first set up the drafting group and determined the list of drafters and writers. After that, the meeting carefully studied the title, framework and content of the standard and the methods for preparing the relevant test specimens. Taking into account the range of printing materials for which test specimens need to be prepared, the meeting set the title of the standard as 'Methods for Preparing Test Specimens for the Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds in Cigarette Pack Printing Materials'. It also narrowed the scope of specimen preparation in the standard to three categories of materials used in packaging printing - paper, ink and hot stamping foil - mainly regulating the preparation methods of test specimens for detecting volatile organic compounds in paper, ink and hot stamping foil used in printing for cigarette cartons and packs; similar materials in other printing fields may refer to and use it.

The meeting made preliminary revisions to the specific content of the draft framework of the standard, deciding to change all 'white material handling' in the specimen preparation steps of the standard to 'substrate handling'; to unify the unit of the cut paper specification as 'mm'; 'flexographic ink specimen preparation steps' would no longer be specified in detail but would refer to the specimen preparation steps for other inks; in the paper sample preparation steps, 'cut paper of full web width' was changed to 'cut paper samples larger than A4'; in the gravure ink specimen preparation steps, 'use a 4# wire bar to scrape the sample evenly' was removed and 'use a color proofer' was emphasized; in the sampling and identification for offset ink specimen preparation, 'scoop 20 ml of ink as the sample' was changed to 'scoop 10 grams of ink as the sample' to facilitate operation.

In view of the fact that the preparation of standard test specimens involves the use of various instruments and specific operational issues, the meeting decided that the specific content of the standard would be determined after the relevant enterprises and units had actually measured and operated, and according to its feasibility. Based on the workload of drafting the standard, the meeting decided that the drafting group would complete the drafting of the first draft of the drafting group's draft no later than the end of May 2013. The first working meeting of the standard drafting group would be held in Hangzhou in June 2013.

—This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-361935.html