Save tens of millions of yuan annually, Songyu Printing empowers the entire supply chain with green initiatives!
Driven by the dual goals of the "dual carbon" strategy and environmental protection policies, the printing and packaging industry is undergoing a profound green revolution. Songyu Printing & Packaging Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Songyu Printing) was established in 2010 and is part of Hongsheng Beverage Group. It owns two major intelligent production bases in Hangzhou and Chengdu, with an annual label production capacity of 2.8 billion meters, firmly ranking among the top in the national heat shrink label industry. Facing widespread industry challenges such as high VOC emissions, large solvent consumption, and difficulties in green substitution, Songyu Printing focuses on the food and beverage label sector, leveraging technological innovation to achieve breakthroughs in solvent recycling and resource utilization and green ink label processes, forging a path of synergistic improvement in environmental protection and efficiency, becoming a typical representative of green innovation in the printing industry.
From End to Source: Extracting Resources from Exhaust Gas, The "Closed-Loop Revolution" of Solvent Recovery
Gravure printing is the mainstream process for food and beverage labels, but its production process generates large amounts of exhaust gases containing organic solvents, which are not only a major source of air pollution but also a prominent manifestation of resource waste. Traditional treatment models mainly rely on incineration and adsorption, which can only meet emission standards and cannot create economic value. Songyu Printing has deeply understood industry pain points and was the first to introduce internationally leading VOCs solvent recovery equipment, establishing a complete closed loop of "adsorption-desorption-recovery-purification." This transforms organic solvents that are originally released into the atmosphere into high-purity raw materials that can be directly reused in production, achieving "turning waste into treasure and creating efficiency through cycles."
This unit centrally treats organic waste gas generated by 8 printing machines and 2 laminating machines. The technology uses a full-chain process of "activated carbon adsorption, nitrogen desorption, cryogenic liquefaction recovery, dehydration treatment, and distillation purification." It can efficiently recover solvents such as ethyl acetate and n-propyl acetate, with a recovery rate exceeding 98%, and the purity of the regenerated solvent exceeds 99.5%, allowing direct reuse in ink preparation production.
More importantly, this system achieves dual assurance of "intrinsic safety and ultra-low emissions." Through intrinsic safety designs such as nitrogen inertization protection and online oxygen concentration monitoring, fire and explosion risks are eliminated at the source; The final emission of total non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) is controlled below 30mg/m³, far exceeding national standards.
From a benefit perspective, this "green subtraction" has achieved an astonishing "addition": it is expected to recover about 3,350 tons of mixed solvents annually, saving tens of millions of yuan in procurement costs annually. This not only significantly reduces the procurement cost of new solvents but also lowers hazardous waste treatment expenses, truly achieving the goal of "environmental protection costs nothing, but actually profitable." Songyu Printing has proven through practice that VOCs management is not a cost burden but a new growth point for sustainable corporate development.
Gradual Breakthrough: Letting Ink "Form a Film" to Solve Common Industry Problems
If solvent recovery is a model of "end-of-pipe treatment," then green water-based ink label technology represents Songyu Printing's breakthrough in source substitution. For a long time, water-based inks have had poor adhesion and slow drying on non-absorbent plastic films, a common problem recognized in the gravure printing industry. Most companies are hesitant to attempt full replacement due to high equipment investment and unstable processes.
Songyu Printing chose a more practical and steady gradual path: without replacing specialized water-based ink equipment, they took "replacing solvent white ink with a water-based gravure white ink in a single step" as the breakthrough point. By optimizing the water-based resin system, roller process, drying parameters, and solvent ratio, combined with adjustments to the shallow plate laser plate process, they maintained the opacity of white ink while significantly reducing ink transfer, saving 3.5% of white ink and further reducing material consumption. Tests show that the static/dynamic friction coefficients of water-based white ink labels are even better than traditional solvent inks, with superior smoothness, fully meeting the requirements of high-speed label application.
From an environmental perspective, VOC emissions are reduced by about 60% compared to solvent-based inks, making it safer and more environmentally friendly. Currently, this technology has been scaled up in four mainstream products, moving from "single-point verification" to "batch replication," providing the industry with a low-cost, low-risk, and replicable water-based ink replacement solution.
Full-Process Empowerment: Green Manufacturing System, Strengthening the Foundation for Development
Songyu Printing's green technological innovation is not an isolated environmental investment, but a reinvention of competitiveness integrated into the entire production process. At the equipment and process level, high-end devices such as the Italian Cerutti gravure press line and the French DCM fully automatic post-press system have been introduced, equipped with professional research and testing instruments, providing solid hardware support for green technology research, process optimization, and the implementation of results.
On the resource management side, it has established mechanisms for scrap classification and recycling, compliant hazardous waste disposal, and intelligent energy management. Through digital production scheduling, it reduces order exchange waste and trial production losses, promoting efficient use of energy and materials. The Chengdu base is built according to green smart factory standards, integrating flexible production, low carbon emissions, and intelligent control, becoming a benchmark for green food packaging manufacturing in Southwest China.
On the standards and patent side, Songyu Printing leads green development with high standards, having participated in the formulation of 2 national standards, 4 industry standards, and 5 group standards. Among them, the industry standard "Heat Shrink Labels" was the first drafting unit, holding significant influence in industry standard development and technical specifications. At the same time, as a national high-tech enterprise and Hangzhou Enterprise Technology Center, Songyu Printing has been deeply engaged in independent research and development, having obtained a total of 33 patents, including 7 invention patents and 23 utility model patents. Thanks to its green innovation achievements, it has won multiple honors such as the "Aida Cup" Green Style Award, the "Sun Cup" Asia Label Award Food Gold Award, and the China Printing Gold Award, continuously leading the green food and beverage packaging track.
"We always adhere to the philosophy of professionalism, innovation, and green sustainable development." Songyu Printing has gone from solvent recovery to "turning waste into treasure" to ink replacement for "source carbon reduction"; From single-point technological innovation to building a full-chain green system, concrete actions demonstrate that greening is not a multiple-choice question but a survival challenge, a development problem, and a bonus question. At this critical stage of the industry's move toward high-quality development, Songyu Printing has not only built a solid "green moat" for itself but also provided a viable, profitable, and scalable transformation model for China's packaging and printing industry.