Case Studies for Textile Printing (7)

CASE STUDIES FOR TEXTILE PRINTING
CASE NO. 7
Description: Rexham Corp. prints product labels using
alcohol/acetate based formulations using flexographic
printing techniques.
Courses of Action:
The company was able to reduce its waste generation
through process modification. Rexham substituted water
based inks for the traditional solvent based materials.
The net result was to reduce the quantity of solvent waste
generated and the quantity of solvent released to the
atmosphere. However, gloss finish labels could not be
printed this way. There was also a net decrease in
printing speed using the water-based inks.
Savings:
This modification did not require Rexham to incur
any large capital costs; however, some operator retraining
was required. Because the company also purchased an onsite
distillation system for solvent recovery for $16,000,
Rexham Corp. saves $15,000 per year in virgin solvent costs
and $22,800 per year in waste disposal costs. Total payback
for the process modifications and solvent recovery
systems was 5 months.
As can be seen, this example relates directly to many
textile printing operations.