The event was hosted by Central Piedmont Community College a Roll-to-Roll higher education member. Industry members Harper Corporation of America, Southern Graphics Systems, Flint Ink Group provided personnel as instructors and Sun Chemical provided conductive ink. The following link has event pictures and details.                                  https://aimcal.sharefile.com/d-s08c6c4482f524d97bf008a44b7555779

From the October Issue of SmallBiz@EPA

Below is an article from the October 2022 issue. To download the September and October issue PDF, go to: https://aimcal.sharefile.com/d-s79e4c5294ede498a8ca4719eefd0239a

Coming soon: A technical article on the importance of “Controlling Gravure-Ink Temperature” during printing, authored by Gary Silvers, technical consultant from GSP Specialties, Inc. Gary’s gravure experience started over 50 years ago working his way through the gravure pressroom. He is well versed in the gravure process and will be sharing his years of experience in the article.  

This article originally appeared on the PRINTING United Alliance First to Know page and is republished with permission. To learn more about PRINTING United Alliance and its vast member benefits, including access to veteran Alliance industry experts like Gary Jones who provides insight on critical issues such as these, please visit: www.printing.org.

As part of a new package of regulations, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has adopted several new rules requiring more rigorous monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in certain situations and one of them impacts printing operations. The rulemaking is part of a comprehensive strategy to address greenhouse gas emissions statewide. The rule effecting printing operations requires facilities that use 50 pounds or more of high global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants in refrigeration systems to register and report their equipment and use of refrigerants. 

NJDEP reports that refrigeration system leaks comprise up to 35 percent of the State’s estimated overall halogenated gas emissions.  The proposed registration and reporting program allows NJDEP to identify the use of high-GWP refrigerants in refrigeration systems in the State, providing a more accurate baseline inventory of these pollutants.

NJDEP defines a “refrigeration system” at N.J.A.C. 7:27E-1.2 to mean stationary, non-residential equipment that:

1) is an industrial process refrigeration (appliances linked to an industrial process), commercial refrigeration (appliance used in the retail food or cold storage warehouse sectors), or other refrigeration appliance; and

2) the equipment has a single refrigerant circuit that requires 50 pounds or more of any combination of high-GWP refrigerant to maintain normal operating characteristics and conditions. 

Under this definition, a refrigeration system that requires 50 pounds or more of a high-GWP refrigerant or combination of refrigerants, at least one of which is a high-GWP refrigerant, will have to comply with N.J.A.C. 7:27E-2. Excluded from the definition are systems used for comfort cooling such as air conditioning systems, excluding chillers. Chiller used for comfort cooling or industrial process cooling are included in the new requirements.

NJDEP defines a “high-GWP refrigerant” to mean a compound used as a heat transfer fluid or gas that is a chlorofluorocarbon, a hydrochlorofluorocarbon, a hydrofluorocarbon, a perfluorocarbon, or any compound or blend of compounds with a 100-year GWP value equal to or greater than 150. The rule incorporates by reference the “GWP value” as published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The 100-year GWP values are published in table 2.14 of the 2007 IPCC AR4, at https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ar4-wg1-chapter2-1.pdf, and in Chapter 8 of AR5, pp. 731-37, Appendix 8.A, at https://archive.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter08_FINAL.pdf. These values are also published on the NJDEP website at: https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/ghg/refrigerants-100-gwp.pdf.

The owner or operator of a covered facility with one or more refrigeration systems must register and submit a facility registration fee. Registration is through the Department’s online business portal at NJDEPonline.com. Registration is valid for five years. Prior to the registration expiration date, the facility will receive a renewal invoice.

Initial registration is due by October 1, 2022. If the owner or operator has its first refrigeration system installed after the operative date of the rulemaking, the registration is due 90 days after installation.

Once the facility is registered, the owner or operator of the facility must submit an annual Facility Refrigeration System Report in accordance with N.J.A.C. 7:27E-2.3. Among other information, the report is to include the refrigeration system identification number and information for each refrigeration system at the facility, including equipment type, manufacturer, model or description, model year, serial number, date of installation, temperature classification, the full charge of the refrigeration system, and the identity of the high-GWP refrigerant. The report is also to include the quantity of each high-GWP refrigerant purchased, the amount of each high-GWP refrigerant charged into the refrigeration system that is not considered part of an initial refrigerant charge, and the amounts recovered, stored, or shipped by the facility to be reclaimed or destroyed in a calendar year. This information will be used to calculate refrigerant leakage and subsequent emissions from each facility.

Annual reports are due starting April 1, 2023, and all subsequent years on April 1, for the previous calendar year. The time period of refrigerant use for the initial report for existing systems is October 1, 2022, or the first month 90 days after the installation of a new system.

The owner or operator of a registered facility must also maintain records, as provided at N.J.A.C. 7:27E-2.4. Records to be kept include all refrigeration system service and refrigerant leak repairs, items required to be reported in the Facility Refrigeration System Report, and refrigeration system component data, measurements, calculations, and assumptions used to determine the full charge. The facility must keep the records at the facility for five years and must make them available to the Department, on request.

For more information, please see https://dep.nj.gov/ghg/ghgmr-rule/refrigeration/.

PRINTING United Alliance seeks to keep the printing industry updated on workplace requirements related to environmental compliance. For more information, or if you have questions on this or any other state regulatory program, please contact Marci Kinter, mkinter@printing.org or Gary Jones, gjones@printing.org

“Management of Change”! During the Gravure Track R2R USA Sub-Committee meeting last week, the majority of time was spent discussing all the challenges the COVID-related supply-change crisis has and is causing. Then add consumer-influenced sustainability concerns and John Edwards of Sun said that we are all dealing with the “Management of Change.” The reality check in making the needed delivery dates involves everyone from the printer and their customers combined with the suppliers making decisions in an ever-changing environment. One discussion was around who has the APR (Association of Plastic Recyclers) Guidelines on what paper labels can be on a plastic bottle with what inks and can then be recycled. It all comes down to contingency plans for the contingency plans. I do not have the answers, but in the words of Red Green (the onstage character of Canadian comic Steve Smith): “Remember. I’m pullin’ for ya–we’re all in this together.”

DOCTOR-BLADE SYSTEM CHALLENGES FOR WIDE-WEB CYLINDER METERING – Part 3 “Efficient Blade Changes” by Bill Warner of Allison Systems, Riverside, NJ.

Wide-web gravure applications can have doctor blades with lengths greater than 100 in. When doctor blades are that long, setting them correctly and consistently to achieve effective metering can be more difficult because slight variations will be compounded over the length of the blade. Part One of this article focused on challenges with setting the doctor blade at an appropriate position and angle; Part Two centered on applied force control. This month will cover the barriers to efficient blade changes.

Quick and easy blade-change capability is essential when working with long doctor blades. Slow, difficult, and potentially dangerous blade changes were the norm with a very wide-web application that required a +200-in.-long doctor blade. The existing bladeholder was a prime example of everything you don’t want in a very-wide-web blade holder. It needed to be removed from the press and carried to a remote location to clean the holder and install new doctor blades. Carrying such as long, heavy, steel doctor bladeholder with a used, sharp doctor blade installed could be challenging for the three operators typically needed to accomplish the task. To install the new blade, dozens of bolts had to be loosened and then carefully re-tightened so that the blade did not have any wrinkles. The blade holder was worn from all the years of being carried in and out of the press so that, even on a good day, it was difficult to install the doctor blade without producing wrinkles in the blade. Assuming the blade was installed without wrinkles, often the blade would have wrinkles after the bladeholder was carried back and installed on the press due to deflection of the holder while being carried. Wrinkles in the doctor blade typically lead to poor metering and printed waste. Upgrades with this project provide new components with the ability to be able to perform blade-change operations on-press, in less than 10 minutes, and without having to use tools or deal with bladeholder bolts and their associated issues.