EX-P News Letter July 2017
25 August 2017
I want to emphasize the advantage of the ECOCARD in comparison to other plastic materials that are used for card production
ECOCARD is a Polypropylene based shee. it is formulated as replacement to mono-core PVC cards.The ECOCARD E module is 2400 MPa with specific gravity of 1.03 in white or 0.91 in transparent.
The advantages of the ECOCARD compared to PVC.
ECOCARD is primed on both sides with top coat that enables excellent printing and scratch resistance. The excellent ink adhesion prevents the need to protect the print by an overlay lamination. After some years of experience we learned that the durability of the single core printed and OPV protected is much better than laminated PVC card.
ECOCARD can be laminated with magnetic stripe and overlay lamination. If the card specification requires lamination we recommend laminating in a roll laminating machine with a thin laminate film. It is much easier to achieve good flatness compared to a sheet press machine as used in traditional PVC cards. The lamination speed is fast and consumes significantly less energy.
ECOCARD target market is mono-core cards usually PVC cards are laminated since this is the only way to protect the printing. In more sophisticated cards the lamination is a technical requirement. Such as RFID antenna and chip.
Many cards do not need the encapsulation and this is the current target of ECOCARD.
ECOCARD personalization: the personalization process can be done with Thermal printing, UV inkjet printing, or by complete digital printing. Since ECOCARD is chemically different from PVC the converter should optimize the process for ECOCARD. This is a disadvantage of the ECOCARD since traditional card printers have to learn how to convert a different product. EXTEN is investing in the development of the card finishing in order to help converters to promote the product.
ECOCARD can be die cut like PVC. Cutting can be made with a male female punch and by ram punching. It is easy to produce a snap cards. The score line should be thin and without perforation. So just by folding the card snaps with high quality cut finis.
The main strength of ECOCARD is its environmental advantages Vs PVC and also PET and HIPS.
ECOCARD is much lighter than PVC this means that for the same card we use only 70% of the material weight.
ECOCARD white
Printability & Adhesion Good
Rigidity Elastic Modulus 2400 MPa
Weight of m2 500µ 515 gr.
Difference From PVC % -27%
ECOCARD transparent
Printability & Adhesion Good
Rigidity Elastic Modulas 2400 MPa
Weight of m2 500µ 515 gr.
Difference From PVC % -35%
PVC
Printability & Adhesion Good
Rigidity Elastic Modulas 2400-2800 MPa
Weight of m2 500µ 700 gr.
Difference From PVC % 0 (reference)
How can we evaluate the environmental impact of each product?
Actually it is very difficult. We have to rely on calculations and studies of certified institutions that collect “Big Data” and Comply to international standards.
Since EXTEN is using its raw materials form European suppliers we can compare values to other European made resins. See graph below
Attention! It is difficult to compare European made sheets to imported products from China Thailand India etc. In Europe a large part of the energy sourced from nuclear or other renewables sources and in the Asia still most of the energy is from fossil fuel.
This is dramatically increases the emissions of the imported goods.
Another difficulty is to evaluate the particular emissions of each sheet producer and transport emissions. This is the reason that we publish the data about the resin.
EXTEN is situated in Switzerland. Almost all of our electricity is from renewable or nuclear source. EXTEN converting machinery is updated and high energetically efficient. We participate in a national energy saving program. The Swiss goal is to be 100% renewable by 2050.
What is a carbon footprint?
Carbon footprint (CF) – also named Carbon profile - is the overall amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (e.g. methane, laughing gas, etc.) associated with a product1, along its supply-chain and sometimes including from use and end-of-life recovery and disposal. Causes of these emissions are, for example, electricity production in power plants, heating with fossil fuels, transport operations and other industrial and agricultural processes.
What is ECO-PROFILE
Eco-profile — Another term for Life Cycle Inventory, LCI — an input/output analysis of material and energy flows from operations along product system.
What is CO2 Equivalents.?
Carbon dioxide equivalent (CDE) and Equivalent carbon dioxide (or CO2e) are two related but distinct measures for describing how much global warming a given type and amount of greenhouse gas may cause, using the functionally equivalent amount or concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) as the reference
What is Emission Reduction Unit?
Emission reduction unit (ERU) refers to the reduction of greenhouse gases, particularly under Joint Implementation, where it represents one tonne of CO2 equivalent reduced. It is asserted that emission of carbon dioxide is the main cause of global warming (via the greenhouse effect). However other gases also play a role in atmospheric warming. For instance, older refrigerators and air conditioners used chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are often more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. To allow comparison between the different effect of gases on the environment, scientists have defined multipliers for gases that compare their greenhouse potency (global warming potential) relative to that of carbon dioxide.
Regarding emission reduction units, one example is the production of biogases by landfill sites. These gases consist of mainly methane which escapes to the atmosphere if it is not collected. The main reason for dealing with methane is that it has a 100-year global warming potential multiplier of 25[1] compared to carbon dioxide (i.e. has 25 times the greenhouse potency). Collection of methane is usually accompanied by its combustion. Although burning methane produces carbon dioxide, its greenhouse effect is reduced by 22 ERU (i.e. 1 tonne of methane (25 tonnes CO2 equivalent) produces nearly 3 tonnes of CO2).
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