Mondi Packaging ceo Peter Oswald has opened a €4.5m research and development centre for the flexible packaging specialist at Korneuberg in Austria.
Built over the past eight months, and to be staffed initially by 10 packaging specialists, the centre will pool flexible packaging and printing expertise from r&d experts previously located at the company's numerous production sites, making the combined know-how available to the group's various business units. One of its key roles will be to work closely with customers to develop packaging solutions that are convenient and easy to use but equally eye-catching at point-of-sale.
The centre is equipped with two laboratories - an analytical and an applications lab - which will be used to test and analyse new packaging materials and undertake quality assurance for the group's production plants. It also incorporates pilot production lines, including digital printing equipment, with the pilot equipment enabling the Mondi team to verify the runnability and printability of the materials they develop, and make adjustments quickly and inexpensively, in near-industrial conditions.
Staff will offer expertise in areas ranging from extrusion and offset, flexo, gravure and digital printing to lacquering, glue and adhesive lamination, laser perforation and bag and pouch production. Key sectors served will include food, household detergents, pharmaceuticals, tobacco and petfood, with considerable emphasis on materials such as biodegradable polymers, transparent barrier materials and paper and polymer membranes. The Centre will place high priority on ensuring that all materials developed comply with the latest regulatory and legislative criteria.
Among prominent guests at the opening ceremony were Austrian Minister of Economics and Labour Dr Martin Bartenstein and governor of Lower Austria Dr Erwin Pröll.
