Offset Printing
Drent Goebel acquires Safety Food Certificate
Tuesday 10. June 2008 - New Milestone with Declaration of Compliance
Drent Goebel has successfully proven that the offset press VSOP 850 can produce a pet food bag with UV offset inks, which is within the migration limits set by European legislation.
“We have not only proven that we are able to produce pet food bags, instead we have proven that we are able to print any kind of food or animal feed bag with a laminate structure of OPP/OPP. This material structure is widely used in the field of packing snacks, candies, cookies and waffles,” says Oliver Thiele. He is sales manager and head of Drent Goebels project team that took care of the certification.
The market for flexible packaging is dominated by gravure and flexo printers who print either with solvent or water based inks. When printing offset inks on film material Drent Goebel needs to apply energy curing systems (UV or EB) to cure the inks on such flexible materials.
Declaration of compliance
Given the fact that offset inks do contain certain chemicals the printer of such flexible packaging products needs to proof to the brand owner that his products are safe, fit for purpose, and do not contaminate the packed goods. The printer needs to clear all risks for the brand owner involved with his printed packaging material.
By being able to present such a declaration of compliance the printer has a proof that his products does comply with the latest regulations in terms of migration limits. With this declaration of compliance Drent Goebel is able to support their customers in a way where the builder of the offset presses has proven that UV / UV inert / EB offset is fit for purpose and must be seriously considered as a viable alternative to gravure and flexo.
Oliver Thiele: “Considering the full sleeve technology of the VSOP, and the achieved declaration of compliance for food applications we can say that the VSOP is an ideal press for any flexible packing printer in the field, who is looking for an alternative to print short and medium runs profitable.”
Kuhlmann Institut
According to Oliver Thiele the process of getting the approval was rather complex.
“Initially we teamed-up with several ink and material suppliers; also we looked for partners in the industry who were able to produce various laminate structures for us. Then we tried to identify the most common material combinations in the market (cookies, candies, chocolate, coffee, soups, etc.).
After having identified what the most commonly used laminates are, we started printing with various types of inks on various materials. During this process we considered the printability of the inks, the initial adhesion on the material, odor, and the ability for lamination.
From these numerous results we filtered out the best results and did actual trials with the example of the pet food bag. After having the products ready we sent the relevant amount of samples to the German based Kuhlmann Institut for them to do the various migration tests. Some of our samples did not comply with the current regulations, but many did.”
Best inks in the market
Thiele adds: “Offset is a newcomer in this field. Therefore we needed to find the best partners with the best inks in the market. Also we had to review our press design and consider all chemicals which are currently being used in the VSOP. Every detail in the press needed to be attended to in order to ensure that is not a source of contamination.”
This Declaration of Compliance is for the VSOP 850. In principle there is no reason why it should not work on any of our other press models. Drent Goebel is able to achieve the same results on any other VSOP.
Oliver Thiele: “We will not stop here. We have many more packaging jobs in the pipeline for testing and certification. Thanks to our show room press in Eerbeek in Holland we can run trials on a daily basis and team-up with printers to prove the feasibility of the VSOP for them.”