Innovation on a big scale

The door has opened to formats with answers to mounting disposal costs, environmental concerns, increased worker safety, and the financial burden of inefficient transportation and storage.

Every now and again, a single development can take industrial packaging a leap forward. There is one coming soon, when bpi.industrial’s newly expanded factory in Scotland becomes fully operational. The £7 million investment will give, so the company believes, ‘one of the most advanced packaging production facilities of its kind anywhere in the world’.

“Our enhanced Ardeer site is set to redefine the term ‘one-stop-shop’,” says Roy McAdoo, Commercial Director at bpi.industrial. “Users ofindustrial packaging will be able to procure a complete range of innovative high performance products all from a single source.”

This will include Ventisack, a FFS (form/fill/seal) film with back seam technology for making sacks that are breathable yet waterproof; and four-sided printed pallet stretchhoods, which, at up to 1,950mm layflat, are believed to be the largest of their kind produced in one continuous process.

Ardeer now boasts ‘one of the largest wide width blown film lines in Europe’, capable of producing films up to 25m across, opening up a host of opportunities, particularly for large-scale packaging requirements, says Mr McAdoo.

A development 10 years ago in the USA ironed out the ‘wrinkles’ in the pillow liner system, which has been a longtime competitor to bottleand-cage systems for bulk liquid packaging. Now the concept by CDF Corporation has finally touched down in Europe via Flexipack. The gusseted, multi-ply bag, with capacities from 250-1,250 litres, is engineered to perfectly fit the internal shape of the container, which can be made of corrugated, plastics or steel.

Use it or lose it

Using the most suitable ancillary equipment to handle bulk will reduce risk of worker injury and waste product and save losses that no business can afford.

Flexicon (Europe) has a system that first weighs dry bulk discharged either from bags, or manually dumped from containers, then empties the batch into mobile storage bins.

Designed to totally empty the contents, the system comprises a bulk-bag unloading frame, two hoppers and two flexible screw conveyors that feed a central gain-in-weight hopper under automated control. Loadcells that support the hopper transmit weight-gain information to the controller, which steps down the feed rate to a dribble prior to reaching the target weight.

Spiroflow’s bulk bag fillers have been designed to increase filling accuracy and cycle time in industries including chemical, food, dairy, pharmaceutical, animal feed, plastics, minerals and aggregates. The C Series Bulk Bag Filler allows users to remove bags on a pallet by forklift truck and ‘unimpeded access to the front of the filler for the easy hanging of empty bags’. Filling can be controlled by volume or by weight, at up to 20 bags/hour. For the purpose of Weights and Measures (OIML) approval, there is the option of an automatic ‘gain-in-weight’ weighing system with programmable one-touch controls. A liner inflation device properly forms the bag for maximum material capacity and enables thebag to be inflated with nitrogen when packing materials that oxidise during storage.

Fool the fakers

Mondi’s Security Label Bag is designed to confound would-be product counterfeiters in the building industry. It is easy to identify through its special structure and a label with several recognition marks. The thermo-reactive label temporarily displays the word ‘original’ and is simply rubbed for easy checking, for example. It won this year’s Emballissimo Award for industrial packaging paper, awarded by the Association of the Austrian Paper Industry.

In the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and Central and Eastern Europe product forgery of bagged high quality building materials is on the rise, says Anton Reithner, Managing Director at Ardex, the industry supplier: “Low quality products are packed in imitated bags and this forces us to look for new packaging solutions, and implementing them is only possible in a long term business relationship like the one we have with Mondi Bags Austria.”

Compliance with European packaging standards is among the strengths of FP International’s eco-friendly protective packaging formats. Flo-Pak Green is an expanded polystyrene (EPS) loosefill made from 100% recycled polystyrene, which the company says can be recycled and reused; alternatively, it will degrade ‘in nine to 60 months’. The lightweight, interlocking figureeight shapes do not chip or break up during shipping and are dust-free.

The company’s Cell-O Green is void-fill cushioning made from post-consumer recycled HDPE (high density polyethylene), described as ‘lightweight, recyclable, reusable and degradable’ for protecting diverse products including books, cosmetics, engine parts, electronics and pharmaceuticals.

Protection that offers weight, space and energy savings makes a strong ally in a supply chain for vulnerable goods. Plastique’s Lo.G recycled HDPE packaging protects fragile products in transit with an impact absorbing buffer system that forms a cushioned ‘nest’.

A void fill system from Pregis Protective Packaging Europe called Airspeed Smart creates inflatable cushions on demand. An alternative for smaller work areas, or decentralised workstation packing operations, it is easy to move and quiet in operation.

With the aim of reducing package weight and size, Sealed Air has just introduced a system that produces continuous foam tubes (CFTs) with ‘minimal foam usage’, the company says. With Instapak Complete, the company is targeting products including auto parts, computer and electronic components, construction materials, industrial equipmentm and medical instruments.

Older and wiser

Structure-flex, which is celebrating its 40th birthday, is known for its expertise in the use of PVC for the packaging of dry bulk and liquids, and its Original Big Bag is used extensively in the oil industry, for the safe removal of oil drilling waste in Alaska. It also came up with the water storage tank that solved a water shortage problem for the Antarctic Survey at the South Pole.

Meanwhile, Mosca Direct is celebrating 10 years as a supplier of strapping machinery and materials to the graphics, corrugated packaging and other industrial sectors in the UK and Ireland. Parent company Mosca was responsible for direct drive and airless technology leading to cost-effective, low maintenance strapping; and ‘the world’s first in-line cross strapping system without the need for a turning device’.

A major expansion at Mosca Direct’s site in Nottinghamshire, in 2008, has lent the flexibility to handle larger and more unusual strapping machines; and the arrival in the UK of Mosca’s ‘revolutionary’ SoniXs technology offers a faster and stronger seal.

Anti-glug pourer gives a helping hand

Astra Plastique’s directionally adjustable and lockable pourer closure offers an efficient anti-glug system for jerrican style containers with capacities up to 10 litres. The Jeroboam pourer has been launched with French customer Charbonneaux Brabant on Phebus demineralised water.

Other manufacturers are adopting the standard 42mm ‘double tamper-evident’ closure for automotive lubricants, coolants and screen washes, to make their products easier to use, says the company.

Around the world with the industrial sector

The industrial packaging community was kept on an almost continuous conveyor belt of meetings during May and June in the UK, Europe and around the world. Their content covered almost as much ground as the delegates did.

• UK Industrial Packaging Association Spring General Meeting reviewed latest issues and proposals on both Standards and Regulations.
• VCA Packaging Scheme Review Committee met at the UK Department for Transport, to discuss the UK testing methods and charges for UN certification of Dangerous Goods packaging.
• European Industrial Packaging Association (EIPA) AGM focused on life cycle assessment.
• IPA Reconditioning Committee met with Defra to express concerns about direct recycling and its impact on safety and the environment.
• ISO Standards Committee on Packaging and Environment meeting in Beijing and discussion with experts from around the globe.
• International Confederation of Plastics Packaging Manufacturers AGM in Geneva, which coincided with the meetings of the UN Sub Committee of Experts on Transport of Dangerous Goods at which several ICPP members attended key discussions on packaging issues.

New date for 2010 FIBC Congress

The World Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container Congress 2010 is being held in Amsterdam in The Netherlands on 16-17 September, postponed due to the volcanic ash eruption. It will cover machinery, the global market, FIBC components, new technology and electrostatics. Registration is open until 15 September.