With the continuous deepening of domestic air pollution control measures, volatile organic compound (VOC) control standards have been upgraded, and spraying and screen printing processes in advertising signage manufacturing have also been incorporated into key regulatory areas. The implementation of new mandatory environmental protection standards has profoundly changed the production model of identification factories. Environmental compliance has become a fundamental threshold for companies participating in municipal and real estate label tenders, marking a major test for the transformation of green manufacturing.

Advertising signs are a major source of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions during production. Traditional solvent spraying releases large amounts of volatile substances. If exhaust gas is not properly collected and treated, it may pollute the surrounding air. In the past, many small and medium-sized signage processing factories had rudimentary facilities and directly used solvent-based paints. With stricter regulations, many small workshops have been restricted or suspended due to environmental standards. The ecology and environment department requires the collection and treatment of exhaust gases generated during the spraying process. Some regions require key factories to install online VOCs monitoring equipment and upload emission data in real time, significantly increasing corporate investment in environmental upgrades.

Process iteration has become an inevitable trend in the industry, with water-based coatings and UV-curable coatings rapidly replacing traditional solvent-based coatings on a large scale. Water-based coatings use water as the dilution medium, significantly reducing volatile organic compound emissions and meeting environmental protection requirements; UV spraying cures quickly, the paint has high hardness, excellent weather resistance, and is suitable for outdoor marking products. Meanwhile, there have been significant changes in raw materials, with the penetration rate of recycled aluminum alloys and recycled stainless steel substrates continuously increasing, replacing some entirely new raw materials; Bamboo plastics and improved eco-friendly boards are gradually being applied to reduce the use of non-degradable plastic substrates.

A new model of shared eco-friendly spray painting workshops has emerged within industrial clusters. Many small and medium-sized marking factories have small order volumes, requiring substantial investment to install complete spraying and environmental protection equipment, resulting in significant operating cost pressures. The shared spraying center focuses on building a complete exhaust gas treatment facility. Multiple factories send semi-finished sheet metal to shared workshops for unified spraying, sharing environmental investment. This not only meets environmental regulatory requirements but also eases the pressure for SMEs to transform. Currently, this model has been piloted and promoted in multiple advertising and marker industrial parks.

Industry pain is inevitable during the transformation process. Purchasing eco-friendly equipment, refurbishing workshops, and acquiring new coatings all increase production costs. Water-based paints have strict requirements for the temperature and humidity of the production environment. Its production process differs from traditional paint, requiring workers to retrain and learn, which may affect production efficiency in the short term. Some customers lack sufficient understanding of new materials and processes, and still use traditional product quotations as the benchmark for price comparison, resulting in compliant factories at a disadvantage in low-price bidding. Recycling discarded signage is also a major challenge. A large amount of old demolition and construction waste with illuminated letters and signs is processed, resulting in low resource recovery rates, and the industry has yet to establish a comprehensive recycling system.

In the long run, greening is an irreversible direction for the industry. Government bidding projects have adopted environmental production qualifications and green materials as scoring criteria; companies that do not meet the standards will lose their bidding qualifications. Industry companies need to actively embrace process upgrades, optimize supply chains, and strike a balance between environmental investment and product pricing. In the future, low-emission production, recyclable materials, and full lifecycle low-carbon design will become the core competitiveness of signage engineering enterprises.