Costly accident destroyed Indian production and entire factories

In the past ten years or even longer, an astonishing disaster occurred in the Indian flexible packaging plant. In the case of Alpina in Kolkata, the entire brand new plant was almost destroyed before it was fully put into production. Fires and explosions of CI flexo and gravure printing presses also occurred in the north, south and west. Generally speaking, these are attributed to "mismanagement."

The only factory I have seen that discussed and trained on fire safety was the Thomson Press commercial offset printing factory in Faridabad in the 1970s. Nevertheless, the oven of the factory's web offset thermoset printing machine caught fire-this may be due to poor maintenance of the oven and the general tendency of fountain solution and ink to accumulate on the paper substrate. This caused the oven temperature to continue to rise. High to cure a thicker ink layer during printing.

About 20 years ago, the oven of a thermoset web printing press in Chennai exploded. About 15 years ago, the entire label printing machine building was burned down on the main road in Noida-fire trucks stayed there for a few days. This just means that fires and explosions are a danger and hazard in all types of printing plants. They also occur in the processing and packaging plants of major brand owners-in fact, industrial fires can occur in any energy-using process and environment middle.

The flexible packaging industry should or should be organized. It usually handles flammable plastic substrates that are prone to static electricity and discharge, inks based on volatile solvents and diluted with volatile solvents, and uses a curing system that is usually a hot air oven. It's not just the printing workshop, because a new cast polypropylene CPP production line and metallizing machine in India have also caught fire recently.

According to flexible packaging experts, the fire hazard in the industry starts at the highest level, leading to a low awareness of the lack of best practices, awareness and training in the workshop. There is great negligence when filling and pouring solvent in the printing room, because the air around the printing unit already contains a large amount of evaporated solvent. A little bit of static electricity will produce sparks, and usually enough solvent to evaporate will cause a fire. In less than a few seconds, the film or laminate caught fire and burned it through the entire length of the printing press. Just think about it-what better fuel than plastic film, laminate, ink and solvent?

Organized flexible packaging companies got it. In addition to following best practices and training workshop resources, companies such as Amcor, Constantia, Huhtamaki, and Paharpur 3P usually use dual static elimination systems. They also install cameras around the printing press to monitor the material's housekeeping and operating personnel. Safe behavior.

Best practices include following the ATEX directive on the workplace atmosphere as well as the safety and health of workers. In addition to the dual static elimination system, the CO2 flooding of each printing unit of the printing press is becoming a mandatory requirement. If you have seen any live demonstrations of Kohli Industry Zoom gravure printing presses in the past year, you will notice that Kaku Kohli always highlights the CO2 flooding system on each unit.

Safety regulations include ensuring that the dryer should contain negative pressure to expel air and solvents from the press and the factory. You must not allow solvents to migrate into the equipment, and according to ATEX regulations, there should be additional exhaust air in the printing room. People saw this air evacuation and replacement system in the newly built Constantia Ecolam factory in Ahmedabad.

Any components that may catch fire should be at least one and a half meters away from the potential fire source. Explosion-proof motors are part of the CE regulations, and finally, flexible packaging business owners must purchase printers that include a lower explosive limit (LEL) system. If any printing device exceeds the solvent limit in the atmosphere, the LEL system will shut down the printing press. However, the LEL system for each imported printing press may cost 4,000 to 5,000 Euros, and many printing press buyers avoid spending this "extra" 40,000 to 50,000 Euros when buying a printing press-only regretting it later.

Naresh Khanna editor@ippgroup.in

This column is dedicated to Prabuddha Dasgupta, a leader and packaging designer in the Indian packaging industry (April 6, 1952-October 30, 2018), about five years ago I should have written this article with him.

When you join us today from India and elsewhere, we have a helping hand. In these uncertain and challenging times, the packaging industry in India and most parts of the world has always been lucky. With the expansion of our coverage and influence, we are now read in more than 90 countries/regions. According to analysis, our traffic has more than doubled in 2020, and even if advertising collapses, many readers choose to support us financially.

In the next few months, as we emerge from the pandemic, we hope to expand our geographic reach again and develop our high-impact reporting and authoritative and technical information with some of the best correspondents in the industry. If there is time to support us, it is now. You can power Packaging South Asia's balanced industry news and help maintain our growth through subscriptions.

It is pure coincidence that this article was written on the occasion of the third anniversary of Pabuda's death. Needless to say, this is a subject he personally takes seriously. Flexible packaging processors must pay more attention to safety, fire and explosion hazards, and workplace safety. In the past five years, every time I touched the keyboard to write this article, there was another thing related to me, including yesterday I finally wrote this article.

I cannot mention many consequences, such as injuries, deaths and long-term damage to workers’ health. However, if you use flexible packaging, at least discuss the material and economic losses with other processors. How easy or difficult it is to get insurance companies to compensate for losses and the effort and time required for manufacturers to rebuild burning or exploding machines.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time you comment.