Innovation abounds at Emballage

13 January 2011



The Emballage exhibition, held from 22 to 25 November last year, at the Villepinte exhibition centre in Paris, attracted over 85,000 visitors. Maureen Byrne was there.


Innovations abounded at the Emballage exhibition, with new materials and packs, as well as novel solutions for streamlining packaging operations. Minimising environmental impact, increased barrier protection for products and novel closing systems were strong themes among the 1,295 exhibitors.

Appe (formerly known as Artenius PET Packaging) was showcasing its latest multilayer wine bottle with an active barrier containing an oxygen scavenger between the PET layers to prevent oxygen passing through the bottle, and to avoid oxygen in the headspace, a development that earned it an Innovation Award from the Emballage panel of judges.

There are two types of barrier used, depending on the desired shelf life. For a two-year shelf life, the 3-layer Amguard PET bottle with Bind-OX oxygen scavenger is used; and for a one-year shelf life, the monolayer bottle with monoBLOx oxygen scavenger is used. The bottles are 100% recyclable, as each layer can be separated by flotation, explained Sylvain Houard, Appe’s Business Development manager, France .

Production began in early 2010, after a €300,000 investment in a blow moulder, which is in operation in the company’s Belgian plant. By November last year, 18 million units were sold, according to Mr Houard. “In 2011, we will sell 35 million units,” he said. “These will be mainly in the UK market, and some to the Nordic countries.”

Customers include Tesco and Marks & Spencer; and small 187 and 250ml PET bottles are used by airlines and the TGV and Eurostar train services.

During 2010, said Mr Houard, there was a growth in demand for Appe PET wine bottles of 45%, and the amount of PET bottles for the year’s Beaujolais Nouveau vintage had doubled. “The impressive growth in demand underlines consumer acceptance of PET as a suitable pack format for wine,” said Mr Houard. “Our PET bottles enable the quality of the wine to be preserved while offering important benefits in terms of convenience.”

Green is the colour

Oystar Erca-Formseal was one of the many companies keen to show the ‘green’ credentials of plastics. The company offers a number of ‘eco-friendly’ packaging solutions, including PLA, a biologically degradable and renewable material. According to Oystar, it can be composted and then disintegrates into the natural components of carbon and water. It is suitable for all dairy products and is said to retain the taste and aroma of the products.

A new material, CrushPak, from the manufacturer EverEdgeIP, made its debut at Emballage. A yoghurt pot made of CrushPak material can be pressed together like an accordian. The product itself is pushed upward and can be eaten directly out of the cup, even without a spoon. The cup gradually becomes narrower and causes hardly any waste. It can be used on all Oystar Erca-Forseal forming, filling and sealing machines and is suitable for products such as yoghurt, pudding, ice cream, jelly and chocolate mousse.

Through thermoforming, the machines produce thin walled but robust cups of only 0.7mm thickness. Because the cup, the cover and the label are all made from the same material, it makes recycling easier.

Innovia Films was at Emballage to promote a new grade of its NatureFlex cellulose-based film. NatureFlex N913 comprises NatureFlex together with a proprietary sealant layer. Benefits claimed for the new film include an excellent barrier to moisture and a good barrier to gases and aromas, in addition to enhanced sealability and seal integrity.

“There is a perception in the marketplace that biofilms cannot perform as well as conventional packaging films, but with both the barrier and sealing properties of NatureFlex N913 this is no longer the case,” said Paul Barker, Product Manager for NatureFlex and Cellophane.

Applications include meat, cheese cereals, confectionery, fresh produce, snacks, and household and personal care products.

Customers do not consider materials’ environmental benefits in isolation: they also want performance and novelty. Billerud’s new FibreForm was attracting quite a crowd at the exhibition. Armin van Overbeek, Sales and Marketing Director of Billerud, said: “It is the package’s appearance that determines how much attention a product attracts in a contacts buying situation. FibreForm can stretch in a way similar to plastics, allowing an embossing, or 3D effect.”

FibreForm consists of 100% primary fibre, and is approved for contact with food. It can be coated with a range of films for particular barrier requirements. It can replace plastics in a range of applications such as trays and blister packs for food and pharma products, and Mr van Overbeek said that Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Waitrose and Fleury Michon have chosen the material for some of their products.

One benefit of FibreForm is that switching from plastics is not difficult, as it can be used on existing thermoforming machines, for example Multivac models. Trays can be formed, filled, and sealed in the same process.

Machinery

As well as novel packs and packaging materials, there was plenty of innovation amongst the equipment on show. For example, Illig’s new thermoformer was designed to make life easier for operatives, as well as improve efficiencies.

Udo Habermann from Illig was on the stand explaining the benefits of the new ThermoLineControl, which is employed on the machine. “Customers have problems with setting the machine: it tends to be an art rather than a science,” he said. “We now have new technology to compensate for the fluctuations in temperature that can occur. For example, when you run film through the thermoformer, it is typically at 20 – 25°C, but it might arrive at the factory at 10°C, making set-up difficult. The new sensor measures the temperature of the film and the machine frame. A central control calculates the optimum temperature and maintains it.”

In addition to this, the controls have all now been centralised, so the user can guide, optimise, monitor and control all processes of the individual machines within a line at one control centre. Even the tool change s centrally controlled, all of which saves valuable time.

For the pharma industry, Avery Dennison (which also has divisions to supply the consumer and food processing sectors) offers technology to comply with the law in France (effective from 1 January) that demands datamatrix codes on all pharmaceutical products. Aude Thierry, Marketing Communications Specialist for Avery Dennison, said: “Other European countries may follow suit – we don’t know yet. Some countries, such as South Africa and Tunisia are already using datamatrix, although it is not mandatory.”

The new ALX 306 Datamatrix C solution handles, from a single control panel, all the operations necessary for the marking and control of the Datamatrix on the case’s top or side: application of labels; inkjet marking; datamatrix marking vision control; and non-compliant case ejection.

Also brand new at the show was the ALX 730 print and apply system, designed for demanding production lines, which had not yet been launched onto the market; and the AP 5.6 printer, which is said to enable food processing and supply chain industries to improve productivity by up to 30% (based on internal tests).

Winning an Innovations Award at Emballage, the Traceability Manager software from Avery Dennison was recognised as an effective and flexible system for product marking and traceability, and protection of products against counterfeiting. The company promises ‘seamless integration’ on all production lines.

Also for the pharma industry, Ko¨rber Medipak/Mediseal was present in force to demonstrate the flexibility of its packaging solutions.

Exhibited for the first time, the Puma 300 line from Mediseal is a blister line that combines efficiency with flexibility and future-proofing, according to the company. Promising a significant reduction in production costs, the consistent applicationof servo technology is said to minimise the number of format parts significantly, reducing life cycle costs. This is achieved by quick format changes, high levels of machine availability and lower format parts costs. It is claimed to be the only machine on the market that can be supplied as standard with plate or roller sealing, or as a combined machine.

An Emballage Innovations Award was won by the Ko¨rber Medipak division for its NeoTOP 804 TopLoading cartoner with Triple Mode features, which provides a solution for various configurations. Suitable for packaging parenteral forms of administration such as ampoules, syringes, pens and vials, as well as pouches, sprays, blisters and other applicators, it can cope with 240 boxes/min in Triple Mode.

No packaging show would be complete without robots, and Bosch was showcasing, among others, its next generation Presto D2, which offers high volumes with a small footprint. This piece of kit can top load or feed place at speeds of up to 500 products/min, and is easy to clean.

High speed sachet packaging sealing and cartoning in one system and the MHI vial filling and closing machine, as well as the company’s new portfolio of infeed systems were also on show.

Streamlining maintenance and boosting efficiency is the aim of Bosch’s CBT Mobile device, which was also demonstrated at the exhibition. This maintenance tool helps manufacturers achieve fast, easy format changes through automated guidance. Once the operator inputs information about a future format change, the device automatically generates the correct change-order code to implement the necessary machinery alterations.


emballage An Emballage Innovations Award was won by Körber Medipak division for its NeoTOP 804 TopLoading cartoner with Triple Mode features. korber Appe’s multilayer PET wine bottle has an active barrier. Appe Innovia Films was at Emballage to promote a new grade of its NatureFlex cellulose-based film. Innovia A yoghurt pot made of CrushPak material can be pressed together like an accordian. CrushPak

emballage emballage
Innovia Innovia
korber korber
CrushPak CrushPak
Appe Appe


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