Packaging Europe Issue 11.5

VOLUME 11.5 – 2016

FACHPACK EXTENDED SHOW PREVIEW K 2016 GUIDE PLASTICS TRENDS FINDING EFFICIENCIES Laminated with Cosmo Films’s Scuff Free Matte Thermal Lamination Film

EXCLUSIVE DOW & ROCKWELL INTERVIEWS

Contents

VOLUME 11.5 – 2016

The cover of this edition has been laminated with a BOPP-based Scuff Free Matte thermal lamination film supplied by Cosmo Films Ltd., the world’s largest manufacturer of thermal lamination films. This film is used for laminating all kinds of printed and non printed paper. It offers excellent resistance to scuff marks and scratches, which may develop during handling and transportation. The matte surface of the film is ideal for post laminating procedures such as UV spot coating, hot foil stamping, embossing etc. Apart from the luxury packaging applications, the film is best suited for laminating packing boxes of electronic goods such as mobile phones, tablets, power banks etc. For further info, write to enquiry@cosmofilms.com.

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Editorial Tim Sykes News & Comment Design How to bring a packaging idea to life Personalisation HAVI on the trend everyone is talking about Automation Rockwell’s search for the best future machine Dow The changing face of innovation Sumitomo interview Plastic in the age of industry 4.0 K 2016 overview K essentials Cautious optimism in plastics Esko on Efficiency Part 1: Identifying & solving FachPack essentials FachPack Floor plan FachPack interview Knowledge bottlenecks Minimising risks Events Luxe Pack Monaco Events Biopolymers and bioplastics Events MIAC 2016 Azmec Quality and customer service

62 64 68 70 73

Events PPMA Total show 2016 DataLase Building the brand experience in the e-commerce sector Events Labelexpo Americas Sustainability Awards review Solidus Solutions Sustainable solid board solutions

76 80 87 90 94 98 102 105 108 112 116 118

Industry Profiles Elif We are packaging for life EAFA All about aluminium foil Contital Contital plays a bigger role in European market Packaging Innovations Barriers without boundaries Sarten Shaping packaging’s future Dunapack Corrugated plus ALL4PACK Paris Celebrating creativity Fefco Why corrugated packaging keeps your product fresh Alvey Group Revolution in automation evolution MMC Packaging Equipment Custom built automation for the closure industry Graco Improve hot melt efficiency with remote monitoring Max Speciality Films Speciality films success

Advertisers Index A

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All4Pack Emballage

104

Alvey Manex

111

LeanLogistics

Outside back cover

ArtGos

69

M

Aschieri De Pietri

34

Mala Verschluss-Systeme

82

Assan Alüminyum

83

Max Speciality Films

49

ATI di Morganti

57

MMC Packaging Model

115 27

B Bemis

71

N

Bericap

43

NürnbergMesse

C

39

O

Contital

86

OMC Collareda

56

Cosmo Films

30

Özerden

66

E

P

EFI

47

PakTech

Eurofoil

82

Promosalons

Euromac

33

European Bioplastics

52

13 104

R Rockwell Automation

5

F Fabo Tape Solutions

23

S

Federfin Tech

85

Sarten

97

Fefco

35

Schur Flexibles

51

G

Sealed Air

9

Sidel

7

GE.FA.S.

61

Solidus Solutions

GEW

19

Sonoco Alcore

Graco Packaging

30

Squid Ink

67

Systech

15

75 Inside front cover

H Hapa

11

U Uflex

26

I Iggesund Paperboard

41

Y

Illig Maschinenbau

51

Yueli Machinery

J Jiffy

45

101

Editor Tim Sykes

Art Editor Paul Abbott

Deputy Editor Victoria Hattersley

Designers Rob Czerwinski Leon Esterhuizen

News Editor Elisabeth Skoda Journalists Libby White Profile Writers Emma-Jane Batey Alessandra Lacaita Felicity Landon Romana Moares Barbara Rossi Piotr Sadowski Abigail Saltmarsh Marco Siebel Julia Snow Vanja Svacko Philip Yorke Art Director Gareth Harrey

Production Manager Tania Balderson Administration Amber Dawson Kayleigh Harvey Senior Account Managers Kevin Gambrill Jesse Roberts Features Managers Mauro Berini Clayton Green Matthew Howe Dominic Kurkowski

Packaging Europe

Telephone: +44 (0)1603 414444 Fax: +44 (0)1603 779850 Email: Editorial: editor@packagingeurope.com Studio: adcopy@packagingeurope.com Advertising: jr@packagingeurope.com kg@packagingeurope.com Website: www.packagingeurope.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/PackagingEurope Twitter: www.twitter.com/PackagingEurope

© Packaging Europe 2016 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form for any purpose, other than short sections for the purpose of review, without prior consent of the publisher.

A Square Root Company

EDITOR

Web Development Neil Robertson

Alkmaar House, Alkmaar Way, Norwich, Norfolk, NR6 6BF, UK

POSITIVE PUBLICATIONS

Tim Sykes

IT Support James D’More

M

ajor trade shows have traditionally featured heavily in the September edition of Packaging Europe magazine. This year we have a particular abundance of events to cover, starting with FachPack – Europe’s most important general packaging exhibition of 2016. As part of our collaboration with the show, which takes place in Nürnberg on 27-29 September, we present a dedicated guide to the fair, featuring all the practical information you require about the exhibition and its programme of events, an exclusive interview with the organisers on the packaging trends and contexts that will be reflected at FachPack, and in-depth profiles of many of the most exciting exhibitors.

We also preview K 2016 – the world’s most important expo for plastics, which comes to Düsseldorf in October. In addition to our comprehensive guide to the event, we take the chance to delve into market trends and what is new in the world of polymers. Libby White reports on Dow’s pursuit of innovation through collaboration, which has brought about product developments that will be showcased at K. Meanwhile, Nigel Flowers of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag talks about the way plastics converters and processors are responding to the demands and opportunities of Industry 4.0.

Staying on the subject of the fourth industrial revolution, we catch up with Rockwell Automation, which is launching its Best Future Machine Award – an initiative celebrating outstanding machine technology and highlighting the creativity and innovation within automation. The participants will all be on show at next year’s interpack, which of course Packaging Europe will be extensively covering throughout the first half of 2017.

Among the other major events we preview are Birmingham’s PPMA Total Show 2016, which aside from its market importance will be the stage for an important debate on the future of British manufacturing; MIAC, Europe’s essential expo for the paper industry this year, which takes place in Lucca, Italy; the ever dynamic Labelexpo Americas; the ever beautiful Luxe Pack Monaco; and the third International Conference and Exhibition on Biopolymers and Bioplastics, taking place in San Antonio, Texas.

Stepping out of the whirlwind of fairs and conferences, we share the insights of two print giants into raising production efficiencies. EFI offers its ideas on how to eliminate knowledge bottlenecks and poor job flow on the shop floor. Meanwhile, Esko presents the first of a two-part guide to conquering packaging and artwork inefficiencies. Finally, Gillian Garside-Wight of Sun Branding Solutions discusses how to bring a packaging idea to life, while bringing life to packaging ideas. It’s about mastering the interplay between two crucial forces of creativity and function. And you can read about it on the next page.

We wish you a successful and stimulating events season, and hope to encounter many of you in person in a Messe, convention centre or conference venue over the next couple of months.

Tim Sykes ts@packagingeurope.com @PackEuropeTim

Packaging Europe | 3 |

Design

How to bring a packaging idea to life (and life to your ideas) The clearest, most intuitive and understandable ideas are usually the simplest ones. Apple is a classic example. Its packaging mirrors the simplicity and minimalizing of the branding through a clean, intuitive structure that’s not only functional, but beautiful. The products inside are revealed bit by bit, adding to the whole experience of unwrapping the device – writes Gillian Garside-Wight, packaging technology director at Sun Branding Solutions.

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hen it comes to packaging, it’s best to avoid the temptation to overcomplicate. Sticking with the basics, recognising the value in being straightforward and direct, can make it far easier to take that idea out of your head and bring it to life.

So how does this process work? How do you find the right ideas and make them work practically and effectively in the real world? It comes down to the interplay between two crucial forces: creativity and function.

Turning the creative into something real Creativity is a hugely important part of the packaging design process. It’s what gives you an edge, allows you to create something new and exciting that will stand out on the shelves. But where does it come from and how can it be brought to life?

We traditionally think of creativity as the “light bulb moment”. People imagine the flash of inspiration that strikes your mind, where an idea with all its intricacies comes together in an instant. Sadly it’s not that simple. | 4 | Packaging Europe

While a design may sound ingenious in your mind, when you put it together you will encounter practical constraints and challenges. Ideas can work brilliantly in the abstract, but developing them into tangible products can be a long and difficult process, especially if the idea is difficult to implement.

Once you settle on an idea, you need to identify the right combination of materials and finishes that won’t break the bank. Then you must ensure that it will be fit for purpose and easy for consumers to use. The design must be aligned aesthetically with the brand, or it will confuse customers. And you have to meet your sustainability goals – a common mistake is to dream up a shiny white design that will be made entirely from recycled materials, only to find that most recycled materials tend to come in darker shades.

Your idea won’t survive without experts in packaging function, who can anticipate and help you to navigate these logistical challenges.

That doesn’t mean that the creatives come up with the ideas and the technical experts implement them. Both disciplines have to work together throughout the

Packaging Europe | 5 |

Design

process, bringing creative vision and technical wisdom to each stage of the development process. If a technical challenge arises, you can use creative thinking to overcome it. And if you’re suffering from a creative block, use insights into the technical process to establish your options and set your creative boundaries.

Packaging design is not just about dreaming up a fantastic idea. It’s about how you implement it and making sure that it consumers will ultimately buy and love it.

where the ingredients came from, opportunities that couldn’t be realised before are now available to inspire us. While not yet mainstream, smart packaging is certainly one to watch for ideas.

Life can inspire our creative processes, while logistical challenges can lead us to innovative solutions. It’s just a question of staying observant and staying open to the possibilities that the world offers.

Using the real world to inspire creativity

Keeping sustainability at the heart of the design process

Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Our lives and the world around us inspire us every day by shaping our perceptions and expectations. The Apple logo only makes sense to us when we know what an apple is. But once we do, we can access the infinite range of ideas and possibilities for using the apple in a design. Observing and fully appreciating the world around you is a core part of finding the best ideas.

Consider this simple observation: olive oil does not dissolve sugar, but water does. It’s an easy concept to test and most school children will discover this in their Chemistry classes.

With this knowledge, there are a range of possibilities that are open to us. A Swedish design firm called Tomorrow Machines used this fact to package an olive oil brand. It opted to use a sugar-based shell to store the olive oil, knowing that the oil wouldn’t degrade or dissolve the sugar. To open it, you crack the shell and pour the oil out. And thanks to the sugar’s solubility, to dispose of the packaging you simply drop it in a sink filled with water and it dissolves. It’s easy to use and no waste is left behind.

One of the world’s best designers is Nature. Take the egg for example. The form of an egg is an almost perfect solution for packaging. It is incredibly strong when subjected to vertical pressure, making it easy to stack, but can be easily cracked from the sides making it easy for the consumer to access. Designing packaging in this way solves a host of logistical challenges, simply by creatively reflecting about the world around us.

Digital technology can extend our imagination even beyond nature. Smart packaging can create new uses and new functions for packaging that weren’t possible before. Whether it’s a box that can automatically cool the product to the right temperature, or an innovation like TouchcodeTM that allows you to scan it and see

As creativity and logistics work together to make innovative new packaging solutions possible, we must remember our responsibility to be sustainable.

Getting better at recycling should be priority, but just using recyclable materials isn’t enough anymore. Despite our best efforts, many consumers just don’t recycle at all. And when the materials that can and cannot be recycled varies by each local authority, educating consumers becomes an even greater challenge.

This mixture of inspiration and technical knowledge is key to finding new ways of creating packaging that isn’t just recyclable, but reduces our environmental impact more broadly.

Much like the dissolvable olive oil shell, or edible packaging like KFC’s edible bowls, imaginative solutions can have a significantly better environmental benefit.

And this is an area that is filled with opportunities. Water bottles are long overdue a rethink, with British people throwing away 7.7 billion empty bottles a year. Is there a way we can redesign the bottle that will take off, like the Ooho edible water capsule that is made from seaweed.

Sustainability should be a part of every aspect of the design process, not a last minute consideration. Creative ideas and logistical implementations need to be assessed against their environmental impact from the beginning, otherwise it risks falling off the priority list.

If there are three things that make an effective, sustainable packaging solution, it’s these: carefully observing the world around you and using its wisdom; respecting the interplay between creativity and function; and appreciating the art of keeping it simple.

Forget about light bulb moments and overthinking your designs. Embrace the wisdom of the world around you. When it comes down to it, this is the simplest way n of bringing the best ideas to life.

| 6 | Packaging Europe

Packaging Europe | 7 |

Personalisation

Packaging Gets Personal If there is one trend today which the packaging industry is able to capitalise on, personalisation is undoubtedly it. No longer satisfied generic, non-customised goods, consumers are opting in their masses for products which – at least a first glance – speak directly to them. Perhaps more significant, at least for sales executives, is the extent to which customers are willing to pay more for this premium. A standard jar of Nutella will set a consumer back around £2.50 in the supermarket. Offer consumers the opportunity to stamp their name on the side of the product, and the price increases by as much as 50 per cent. By Richard Bunch, packaging director Europe at HAVI.

AS

companies wake up to this new phenomenon, it is important to assess the various challenges at play, in addition to the new opportunities which lie ahead for company’s packaging strategies. Uncertain as its exact future may be, for an industry which is valued at $111bn – equivalent to 15 per cent market share – its significance must not be underestimated.

Widely lauded by industry professionals and consumers alike, Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign undoubtedly marked a turning point for digital printing and personalised packaging. Initiated in 2011, the seemingly straightforward process of putting people’s names on millions of bottles and cans took the industry by storm, and helped to revive the somewhat stagnant sales for Coca-Cola in Europe.

Despite having been in existence since the 1990s, digital printing was, at the time, thought of as a largely new and form of technology. It was also regarded as largely inferior, following an historic struggle to compete with analogue presses in terms of its quality and price. However, as the campaign demonstrated, the technology has come a long way since and is now regarded as mainstream in the printing industry. | 8 | Packaging Europe

That is not to say that it is without its challenges. While digital printing is thought of as the most efficient method, this is only true for jobs of less than 3,000 metres. For mass runs, analogue printing remains the cheaper of the two. In addition, digital offers a slower print speed, making it crucial it focus on shorter runs.

Thankfully, the majority of companies nowadays are looking for more short label runs than long runs. Nevertheless, the difference in capabilities between the two technologies accentuates the need for constant communication with sales officials to ensure the business stream is allocated appropriately.

An additional key challenge for digital printing is the ever-present challenge of having a skilled workforce. Sophisticated technology such as digital printing machines requires in-depth knowledge and skills. While processes can seem straightforward to begin with, the picture can become less rosy when things go wrong. From uneven colouring to inconsistent toner levels, the variety of issues which can arise during the digital printing process are wide and varied. As a result, the need for contingency planning, such as additional IT support or standby machines, is all the more crucial.

Packaging Europe | 9 |

Personalisation

A final challenge for a personalised packaging strategy is the integration of digital printing into an already existing system. If companies continue to use the same systems as had been used with more traditional approaches such as flexo press, there is the strong likelihood the resources will be wasted. Given digital printing is the more streamlined approach, if processes still take over a week to process, there is clearly an imbalance between the capacity of the systems and the waste being produced.

While the challenges which digital printing brings are significant, so too is the window of opportunity it presents to companies, namely, the chance to grab the attention of the most influential consumer groups; millennials. Part of the reason why the “Share a Coke” campaign was so successful was that it had a social media strategy at its very heart.

Having identified its core demographic, Coca-Cola targeted them, rewarding consumers who shared a selfie with the hashtags #ShareACoke and #SelfieSweeps with access to popular music events. The approach not only boosted sales significantly, but increased CocaCola’s visibility across multiple social media channels. With the number millennials willing to pay significantly more for personalisation at an all-time high, a strategy which incorporates a social media is not only crucial, but extremely powerful.

The question left on people’s lips is now, what next for customisation and digital printing?

For now at least, the demand for it does not seem to be fading. The queues across department stores for personalised Nutella are testimony to this fact. While such personalised gifts remain a novelty to consumers, they are likely to move increasingly into the mainstream as time goes on.

However, as with all economic predictions, there are no guarantees. The fact that customers are willing to spend twice as much money on customised products today is no affirmation | 10 | Packaging Europe

that this will still be the case in ten years’ time. For many companies, personalised packaging strategies are short term manoeuvres that do not form part of a wider business blueprint. In addition, the more frequently such campaigns are used, the more likely it is that the novelty factor may wear off.

As ever, the importance is authenticity. Personalisation does not necessarily mean printing people’s names on products. As demonstrated by Heinz, it can also include a common messages such as ‘Get Well Soon’. And once again, the consumer is willing to pay for such a premium, with the customised can costing more than twice as much as the standard one.

For the time being at least, it’s still very much personal in the packaging world.

Packaging Europe | 11 |

Highlighting the Best Future Machine At interpack 2017 Rockwell Automation will be hosting its ‘Best Future Machine Award’, which seeks to celebrate outstanding machine technology and highlight the creativity and innovation within automation. Davide Brancaleoni (EMEA segment leader - Packaging Industry) spoke to Tim Sykes about the intentions and contexts behind the initiative.

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mart manufacturing is driving new opportunities for end users as they look to optimise their production and supply chain by bringing together islands of information. As end users pursue smart manufacturing, they look to OEMs to create intelligent equipment that easily integrates into a facility, provides secure access to information and enables agile reaction to changing market demands. With this in mind, Rockwell Automation is launching its first Best Future Machine Award. Eligible to enter is any machine exhibited at interpack 2017 that incorporates Rockwell Automation products and solutions and which falls under one of the five sub-categories: • MODULAR MACHINES – Flexible, Pack Styles, Materials • SMART MACHINES – Safety, Integration, Information, Real Time Diagnostic, Operating Efficiency and Data Tracking • EASE to USE – Intuitive HMI, Simple Troubleshooting, Easy Changeover

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• SUSTAINABILITY – Reduced Waste Material, Energy Efficiency • TRACEABILITY and PRODUCT SAFETY – Product Safety, Serialisation, Sanitary Design, Product Tracking

A unique platform “The interpack show is such a big event for both end users and OEMs, so we wanted to give machine builders an opportunity to showcase the innovations that they will be selling over the next three years,” Mr Brancaleoni explained. “It’s intended to be a friendly competition that highlights the advantages of these innovations and of using Rockwell’s technologies as an automation platform. More broadly the award aims to promote smart manufacturing. Smart machines, smart lines and smart plants can help create a sustainable and highly productive operation.”

Automation Davide Brancaleoni (EMEA segment leader - Packaging Industry)

This is also an initiative that underlines Rockwell Automation’s position at the centre of a fast developing ecosystem of smart technologies. “Of course, interpack is a very big exhibition at which both end users and OEMs are present,” remarked Mr Brancaleoni. “This gives us the opportunity to highlight how our technologies, across a wide range of packaging machinery functions, can help produce highly efficient manufacturing equipment that can be easily integrated into an end user environment. Rockwell Automation can be the bridge between OEMs and end users.

Working together with machine builders we can fulfil end users’ needs – optimising performance through innovation and market solutions.”

The products set to be spotlighted through the Best Future Machine Award reflect a dynamic in which innovation is driven by a combination of the enabling technologies brought to the market by Rockwell Automation and, on the other hand, context-specific solutions created by packaging machinery builders, together meeting new demands from end users. This constant push and pull in innovation necessitates a clear view of the both OEMs and end users on the part of Rockwell Automation. “Thanks to our global position in the packaging market and good partnerships with OEM and end user markets we are able to listen to our customers and integrate solutions,” said Mr Brancaleoni. “We have a very strong global organisation with a focus on industries, including Consumer Packaged Goods and Life Science. I’m in charge of the Packaging Markets in EMEA, with a focus on the OEMs. Our organisation works to bring together the needs of end users and OEMs and to find the best solutions for the market. Highly productive manufacturing is essential for our customers to compete, and this is something we can facilitate through our integrated architecture and the Connected Enterprise. The smarter the machines are, the smarter the environment. Once you have that you can offer simplified integration, real time analysis of information, productive maintenance, diagnostic flexibility.”

Fast moving markets The pace at which Rockwell Automation has brought out new technologies for packaging, CPG and LS, itself evolving as a company in the process, reflects the particular dynamism of this market.

“The packaging market is very demanding,” Mr Brancaleoni said. “If you look back at interpack 2014, a lot of the big trends have accelerated since then. The Connected Enterprise, smart machines, Industry 4.0, transmission and management of data are becoming more and more important. Our focus over the last three years has mainly been to satisfy all these new demands on our integrated architecture – by which I mean our portfolio of HMI, controllers, drives, motors and safety solutions.

We have been focusing on offering a high degree of scalability from the smallest to largest systems and delivering software tools to optimise quality, and on mechatronic and robotic applications that are becoming very important in the packaging market.”

Packaging Europe | 13 |

Automation

Indeed, since the last edition of interpack Rockwell Automation has bought MagneMotion, a specialist in smart conveyor systems. This of course came not long after the acquisition of Jacob Automation, which produces the iTRAK mechatronic solution for faster production changeovers, increased flexibility and increased speed

Raising awareness Turning to the Best Future Machine Award itself, the decision to break it down into five sub-categories was motivated by a desire for inclusiveness: a wish to give every Rockwell Automation partner exhibiting at interpack an opportunity to participate and highlight their innovations. “Some of them will be exhibiting a single machine, while others will have whole or parts of lines, so we wanted to give everyone a chance to take part,” Mr Brancaleoni explained. “For example, a ‘smart machine’ could be envisaged as an integrated safety solution or a clever real-time diagnostic or simply as a machine which as a whole is easy to use. Or it could be an innovation that delivers modularity. We selected categories that provided the flexibility for participants to highlight whatever key benefit gives them an edge over their competitors.

“It’s not so important which participant wins the award,” Mr Brancaleoni continued. “Rather, the objective is to help all participants promote their solutions and | 14 | Packaging Europe

raise awareness of the diverse benefits that these innovations bring to the market.

Another point was to have a wider discussion about innovation, and we hope that our categories are of interest to the interpack visitors. The focus is on end users discovering the innovations that OEMs are coming up with. For this reason, we didn’t want to be the main actor in these awards, so Rockwell Automation will not be on the jury judging the awards. Rather, the jury will consists of packaging associations, such as UCIMA and Geppia, and the end users Procter and Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, Johnson & Johnson and Nestlé.”

For its part, Rockwell Automation will of course also be present as an exhibitor at interpack 2017. While the company is holding back on specific announcements on the solutions to be shown in Dusseldorf, Mr Brancaleoni confirms there will be an exciting line-up of new products, including the recently launched, powerful ControlLogix L8 controller and CompactLogix. In line with the big current trend in the market, the Rockwell booth will have a broad focus on the Connected Enterprise and smart machines. It will also exhibit hardware and software that supports the development and integration of smart lines – perhaps including new technologies that will be installed in lines and n machines across the show floor at interpack 2020.

For more information visit: www.rockwellautomation.com/en_UK/events/interpack

Packaging Europe | 15 |

Dow: The Changing Face of Innovation Ambitiously developing innovations through collaboration, Dow is at the forefront of the plastics industry, drawing on expertise in the EMEA region. At K 2016 Dow’s booth (Hall 8a, stand K48) will attract the attention of attendees to its theme ‘the face of innovation’. Focused on the three pillars of growth, sustainability and innovation, the stand will share stories of collaboration for sustainable solutions, and demonstrate how Dow helps smaller and medium sized companies grow alongside it.

“O

ur focus will be on the key faces that bring solutions alive and to the marketplace, whether that means our value chain partners, customers, researchers, world-class scientists or marketing experts,” comments Judith Hicks, senior business communications manager, EvvMEA. Dow’s stand will include an interactive collaboration zone, bringing to life stories of how the company has worked with partners to overcome challenges and technical problems to | 16 | Packaging Europe

develop groundbreaking packaging solutions. Visitors can also learn about Dow’s innovations such as Pouchug™ and PacXpert™ through an application touch table and sample room.

“Our experts will be discussing their solutions and collaboration successes in our auditorium, and for the first time ever, we have invited our partners to give talks with us,” Judith Hicks adds. “This reflects the whole ethos of our Pack Studios concept- bringing people together to collaborate and find the right solution, regardless of who they are in the value chain.”

Innovation

Launched in 2015, the Pack Studios concept represents a new model for collaboration.

It offers Dow customers a distinctive and advantageous position to leverage Dow’s expertise, broad product portfolio, and application testing capabilities as well as the ability to access a global network of additional industry experts and resources to help accelerate the development of packaging solutions.

At K Dow will be showcasing new innovations for markets ranging from food packaging, transportation, infrastructure and appliances to consumer durables, utilities, healthcare, medical and more. There will be live demonstrations of the latest processing and performance advantages of Dow’s next generation products, from its packaging & specialty plastics, elastomers, and electrical & telecommunications businesses.

A flexible alternative to rigid containers Since the PacXpert™ solution won the Packaging Europe Sustainability Award in 2015 for weight reduction, there has been further development and success, as Fabrice Digonnet (NBD leader, EMEA) reveals. “We have effectively introduced PacXpert™ on the shelf in Europe, with more than 15 packs active today on the marketplace - a massive achievement over the course of a single year which we are very proud of,” he says. “We want to take the opportunity to showcase some of these packs at K 2016, and to highlight the collaborative stories with our partners in order to reach this feat.”

PacXpert™ Packaging Technology is an innovative technology that enables the transition from larger traditional rigid containers to flexible packaging options. The distinctive flexible stand-up pouch is durable, lightweight, and cost effective. While flexible, the cube-shaped package is shelf stable and can stand equally well upright or on its side.

Suitable for a wide range of applications, from loose food products and bulk beverage

containers to windscreen fluid, PacXpert™ Technology’s flexible, lightweight design delivers 50 to 80 per cent weight savings over traditional rigid packaging alternatives. It is also lightweight for transportation purposes, weighing ten times less when empty, and for disposal, meaning emptied containers take up less receptacle space when discarded.

Mr Diggonet highlights two successful collaborations which will be shared with attendees at K. The first came about when Swiss brand owner FRIPOO required packaging for a year-round windshield cleaner for vehicles. The result is a five litre lightweight flexible packaging based on an innovative solution brought by O. Kleiner AG, converters who are licensees of the PacXpert™ packaging technology.

Dow worked closely with leading Swiss food service provider, Hugo Reitzel, in order to understand the current trends and challenges within their industry. As innovation and problem solving is in both companies’ DNA, Philippe Michiels, CEO of Hugo Reitzel, immediately could see the opportunities that this partnership could create. Thanks to close collaboration, and PacXpert, a new and more efficient flexible packaging solution was introduced to the market with great success.

On-the-shelf differentiation The second is PoucHug™, a technology designed to elevate consumer perception by communicating a natural look, authenticity, a soft feel, and premium message. It was developed after Dow identified a specific need for a natural and soft-to-touch packaging solution, which would enhance product branding and address the market trend for natural and high quality products.

Using Dow’s Pack Studios capabilities, PoucHug™ combines Dow’s expertise in packaging and non-woven materials for the hygiene industry, as well as its packaging Packaging Europe | 17 |

and lamination adhesives offerings, including: AFFINITY™ Polyolefin Plastomer Sealants, ELITE™ Polyethylene Resins for Optimized Flexible Packaging, and MOR-FREE™ Solventless Laminating Adhesives.

With PoucHug™, the external layer of the laminate is replaced with a non-woven substrate which changes two main aspects of packaging: the look and feel. The nonwoven surfaces are textured and opaque in comparison to incumbent BOPP and PET surfaces which are normally flat and glossy and can be perceived as cold and hard. Additionally as the non-woven laminate is soft, PoucHug™ feels like fabric instead of plastic.

Giuliano Butti, value chain manager, EMEA, comments: “More and more, we are seeing a trend for bio and natural products, especially within the food segment. We aim to address the needs of our customers, converters, and brand owners with PoucHug™ by offering a pack that can communicate their values through the packaging. Often, you see glossy, shiny, stiff packaging which does not address the market needs, and we aim to differentiate.”

| 18 | Packaging Europe

Target applications for this technology are rice, coffee and tea packaging.

“PoucHug™ recalls the traditional packaging that was used for these products in the past. It can also be applied to other premium market segments such as for pet food.

Outside of the food segment, there are many other applications that can benefit from the features of this technology. Giuliano Butti gives the example of wet wipes: “This product is soft, with a natural look, and our technology can reflect the lightness and softness of the product it packs.”

The concept has been promoted for a year, and is currently a work in progress. “We are working with converters in Europe to fully develop this technology,” continues Mr Butti. “We are also focused on discussions with brand owners to drive this product to the shelf on a global level and are looking forward to how the concept will be received at the K fair.”

For more information, visit www.faceofinnovation.com

Packaging Europe | 19 |

Plastics in the Age of Industry 4.0 Nigel Flowers, managing director of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag UK, talks to Packaging Europe’s Tim Sykes as we look ahead to K 2016.

Tim Sykes

As the world of plastics gears up to K 2016, what would you say are the biggest trends and talking points across the

industry this year?

Nigel Flowers

Without doubt, it is Industry 4.0 and, most importantly, how moulders can leverage technology to their future advantage. This is true across all sectors as customers try to increase output and reduce costs. In general there seems to be a lack of clarity among the plastic moulding community about what Industry 4:0 means and where it is heading. It’s a bit of an unknown technology with no clear end game, and this is holding manufacturers back in terms of defining their Industry 4:0 strategies. At K 2016, we aim to clarify this under the banner Electrified 4:0.

Our exhibits at K 2016 will help put Industry 4:0 into context for injection moulders and illustrate how upgradable technologies, including automation and robust process optimisation programmes, are already adding value to businesses.

TS NF

Are there any packaging-specific trends and challenges that are impacting on the way that injection moulders approach the marketplace?

Packaging customers operate in one of the most demanding manufacturing sectors and as such output, equipment reliability and energy efficiency, continue to be the main drivers. Two El-Exis SP machines, with a clamping force of 2,000 and 4,200 kN will appear on the stand at K 2016. Both will showcase packaging applications. The El-Exis SP 200 will be producing four high quality decorated cups in less than two seconds, and is anticipated to be the most rapid IML exhibit during the show. Demonstrating the production of thin-walled packaging is the El-Exis SP 420, producing four polypropylene trays in a 2+2 stack mould, featuring a high-speed Sepro side-extraction robot. 
 With packaging formats constantly changing, it makes economic sense to build a complete moulding system that anticipates future applications, with robotic capabilities integrated for speed, repeatability, multi-tasking and long-term cost saving. Our packaging customers are increasingly asking for complete IM applications, which, once set up, require little modifications or engineering intervention.

By 2020 the flexible and rigid plastics packaging market expected to have expanded significantly. Sustainability is an ongoing concern with a strong commercial incentive to do more with less. As a result thinner, lighter and easier to handle packaging is one of the fastest emerging trends and thin walling and weight reduction has been a focus area for innovation at Sumitomo (SHI) Demag. From a cost and sustainability perspective, shaving off two grams in polymer weight per packaging item can save mass manufacturers thousands of tonnes in raw material a year. However, producing thinner wall sections requires higher pressures and speeds, faster cooling times, and modifications to part-ejection and gating arrangements. All of which must be factored into the mould, machinery, and part design. The use of bioplastics is also poised to play a greater role in packaging going forward.

Caps and closures is a market driven by costs, which filters down the supply chain. For injection moulders, this means deriving more value, with a focus on lean manufacturing and optimising production processes. Beverage caps remains the most dominant market, accounting for approximately 60 per cent of all units, while the toiletries and cosmetic sector and homecare markets remain the largest user of polymer caps and closures.

There is a definite trend emerging towards more sophisticated tamper evident closures.

In the pharmaceutical sector, this trend is mirrored with child-resistant and senior-friendly dispensing closures, with a greater emphasis on product security.

TS

Across the industry automation is a topic on the lips of many at the moment. To what degree would you say European injection moulding has responded to technological opportunities? Are some countries further ahead than others in this respect?

Nigel Flowers, Managing Director of Sumitomo (SHI Demag UK helps put Industry 4:0 into context for injection moulders | 20 | Packaging Europe

NF

In my opinion, Europe and Germany in particular are leading the way globally, both through the setting of interoperability standards via EUROMAP and by bringing products to market which will create real value to moulders.

Plastics Interview

Where high precision is required, the integration of robots into moulding cells is increasing

EUROMAP figures also reveal a marked rise in robotic integration within injection moulding applications over recent years. The number of IM machines sold equipped with robots rose from just 18 per cent in 2010 to almost a third (32 per cent) in 2015. Due to faster ROI, sterile conditions and safer production processes robotic automation in the IM process is no longer the preserve of pharmaceutical manufacturers with cleanroom environments. Applying robotics to precision moulding tends to be about minimising damage to parts and reducing quality costs and defects. There are also safety benefits. Robots can also be used to strip sprues and waste from around the mould and placing them in a granulator for recycling.

TS NF

What are the push and pull factors and the barriers associated with continued adoption?

The main pull factor is cost reduction. A connected factory can significantly reduce the costs of WIP, inventory and scheduling, with quality control data being shared in real time across the organisation. In terms of pull, the introduction of cheaper and smart IoT sensors will allow the direct collection of data from production equipment.

TS

How about the dimension of the Internet of Things? In what ways does smart, connected machinery possess the scope to extend the benefits of automation machinery?

NF

The issue with the Internet of Things, Industry 4.0 etc. is that it covers a multitude of technologies. Ultimately, it is about increasing productivity and profitability, reducing costs and waste, personalisation and traceability, factory connectivity and optimising energy usage.

TS NF

Like the entire Sumitomo (SHI) Demag range, the interface of the Systec Servo 280 has been upgraded to OPC/UA making the machine Industry 4:0 and Euromap 77 compatible

advanced than they might perceive. Instead of adding to the hype, at K 2016 we’re providing practical examples on how Sumitomo (SHI) Demag is already assisting moulders to optimise future production processes in the context of Industry 4:0.

TS NF

Is IoT now central to your product development? How has Sumitomo incorporated Industry 4.0 into its technologies?

Yes, but as our strategic vision illustrates, Industry 4:0 is not a paradigm shift. We have been working on the technology for some time now. Consequently, moulders are already optimising production processes and benefiting from our smart machines, smart service support and fully-connected smart production solutions. Our machines can be equipped with an OPC Unified Architecture (OPC/UA) interface, offering broader scope for connectivity and enabling moulders to use data to optimise production, make operation decisions quickly, and generate reports. The OPC/UA interface is also Euromap 77 compliant.

TS NF

What will be the focus of your exhibit at K 2016?

Electrified 4:0 at K 2016 is probably the most comprehensive exhibit we have staged to-date, covering the entire key moulding applications. Five machines will be actively running on the stand, demonstrating the speed and precision already being deployed to produce quality packaging, caps & closures, pharmaceutical, automotive and in-mould decorated (IMD) plastic components. In addition, K 2016 will be the world premiere of a new IntElect platform. We are also showcasing three injection moulding partnership installations developed in collaboration with Sepro, Yushin and ONI.

Visit Sumitomo (SHI) Demag at K 2016, Stand D22, Hall 15.

How far down the Industry 4.0 path have the supply chains in which Sumitomo is involved travelled?

Three key elements underpin Sumitomo (SHI) Demag’s ‘Smart Factory’ vision: • Smart Machines equipped with an intelligent and future proof user interface, fully synchronized to external ERP systems, robots and the supply chain; • Smart Service, integrating quality assurance and featuring remote diagnostics and maintenance to increase machine availability; and • Smart Production, with fully connected systems and a host manufacturing execution system (MES) tracking real time production information.

In many respects, moulders that have invested in Sumitomo (SHI) Demag machines in the past five years, particularly all-electric machines, are probably more Industry 4:0

The most rapid IML exhibit at K 2016 the El-Exis SP 200 will produce 4 decorated cups in less than 2 seconds.

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K show 2016 overview

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Packaging Europe | 23 |

K 2016 Essentials Where and when?

Messe Düsseldorf - north, east & south entrances 19-26 October 2016 10:00 to 18:30 daily

Profile The World’s No. 1 trade fair for plastics and rubber

Tickets Day ticket: advance purchase: EUR 49.00 / on site: EUR 65.00 Three-day ticket: advance purchase EUR 108.00 / on site: EUR 135.00 Advance online purchase: https://eshop.messe-duesseldorf.de

Contact Messe Düsseldorf GmbH Stockumer Kirchstraße 61 D-40474 Düsseldorf, Germany Phone: +49 211 4560 7611 www.k-online.com | 24 | Packaging Europe

Cautious Optimism Despite a host of issues to tackle that range from marine waste to multiple forces majeures at materials suppliers, the European plastics industry approaches K 2016 in a good state of health and with cautious optimism. It could even be that something good could come out of the ongoing migrant crisis, as thousands of well-qualified people arrive in Europe in search of new lives and new jobs. But there are still many hills to climb.

T

he plastics industry consultancy Applied Market Information (AMI) said recently that the European plastics industry “finds itself in another period of upheaval and change as it struggles to pull out of the stagnation caused first by the Great Recession in 2008-2009 and the subsequent Eurozone crisis in 2012-2013.” The volume of polymers consumed in 2014 was still some 10 per cent below that used in 2007.

Growth is coming back, albeit slowly. AMI reckons that, given the cautious outlook for most European economies, polymer demand over the longer term is expected to average a rate of just over 1 per cent per year up to 2019.

As has been the trend for several years, recent demand has been stronger in central and eastern Europe compared with western Europe. Most of the countries in the East now have a polymer demand well ahead of where they were in 2007, AMI noted. “The countries of Central and Eastern Europe continue to offer the best prospects for growth in the European plastics industry, although the smaller economies remain vulnerable to external shocks,” it said.

Supply side is content Overall, polymer producers in Europe appear to be upbeat. At Borealis, for example, which made record profits last year, CEO Mark Garrett says integrated polyolefin industry margins were at historic highs. “Despite lower feedstock costs, polyolefin prices did not retreat to the same extent driven by a tight market as a result of solid demand combined with a supply shortfall, in particular resulting from unplanned production stops,” he says. “In addition, imports of polyolefins into Europe have been uncompetitive following the weakening of the Euro. We expect this situation to ease in 2016, but we believe the integrated polyolefin industry margin will be solid.”

At BASF, senior VP for Performance Materials Europe Melanie Maas-Brunner says: “Overall, we look positively at the current state of the European plastics industry.

We have seen pleasing business growth in all our segments in 2015 and we are optimistic that those who have the right technologies, people and facilities globally will stay successful. We expect more demand from industries such as medical, Packaging Europe | 25 |

transportation as well as from consumer industries such as footwear, sports and leisure. The main trends driving those needs are resource efficiency, lightweighting, comfort and energy efficiency.”

Processors are busier Prospects for the plastics processing industry across Europe appear to be improving, with trade associations in several countries reporting growth. In Germany, for example, the sector posted a moderate growth last year, on the back of a record 2014. Even in Italy, where consumption has been flat at best for some time, equipment association Assocomaplast reports a strong upward trend in orders.

German plastics processing sector association GKV says sales rose by 1.3 per cent to just below € 60 billion. Packaging and technical products fared best, building & construction less so. Manufacturers were helped in particular by the good state of the German automobile industry, and also of some European auto sectors returning to growth.

Presenting sectorial results in March, GKV president Dirk Westerheide took some swipes at material suppliers, however. Some major hiccups in supply and very volatile price development of raw materials, particularly polyethylene and polypropylene, affected business development, Westerheide said.

Too much force majeure Plastics processors across the continent last year found difficulties in obtaining raw materials. Major polyolefin plants in Europe stood still for extended periods. Across Europe, there were over 40 declarations of force majeure during a period of just four months at one stage of 2015, putting significant strains on relationships between suppliers and processors. Some processors had to shut down production lines. | 26 | Packaging Europe

Global economic and trade framework conditions made it difficult for plastics processors to obtain materials on international markets. These factors included the relative weak euro against the US dollar, and continued strong demand for plastics in Asia and the US. The GKV has for some time been calling for an abolition of customs duties on imported raw materials, to provide its members with improved sourcing choices. And the European Plastics Converters (EuPC) trade association has said that it will conduct a search for more material to be imported from outside the EU (where more modern production sites exist) “as well as the potential setting up of group purchasing platforms (in compliance with EU competition law).”

Plastics packaging industry associations in Germany, France and the UK were also strong in their criticism of suppliers, hinting that some shutdowns may have been due less to production problems and more to polymer producers’ desire to improve their margins.

Indications are that price volatility should be lower this year, however.

The situation last year led to EuPC establishing the Alliance for Polymers for Europe in order, as EuPC president Michael Kundel put it, to “bring all forces together to fight this unjustified situation.” The aim of the Alliance for Polymers for Europe is to “provide detailed information on the current polymer market and help assist raw material users through its network of national plastics associations, as well as assist companies in requesting suspension of certain EU import duties to relieve shortages on polymer markets.”

The alliance is also initiating a study on the aging of polymer sites in Europe, together with industry and independent experts, “so as to provide more transparency on the future development of the polymer production sites in Europe.”

In February, The Polymers for Europe Alliance launched its online Europe­wide customers’ satisfaction survey to award the best polymer producers for Europe. “We decided to start the Best Polymer Producers Awards for Europe in order to re-establish a good

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communication between users of polymers and their suppliers, which has obviously suffered lately. We simply want to award those producers who support their European customer base,” says Ron Marsh, chairman of the Polymers for Europe Alliance.

“Therefore, we chose what we believe are the five most important criteria for users of polymers when it comes to their suppliers: polymer quality, regulatory compliance, material delivery, performance, communication and innovation.”

Energy costs are also very important for the whole of the plastics industry, and especially in Germany: electricity costs there are among the highest in Europe, due in part to levies designed to support the development of energy from renewable resources. The GKV says continuing increases in surcharges on electricity bills place an unacceptable burden on medium and smaller sized companies. It has called for measures to reduce the burden, noting that under current conditions, many products may not continue to be made competitively in Germany.

Companies across German industry have been particularly vocal in their complaints about high energy prices, and the German chemical industry is also concerned about its falling competitiveness on the international stage, especially versus North American companies who have the advantage of shale oil and gas. This advantage is not as great as it was, with oil prices currently as low as they are, but there is a general consensus that oil prices will creep back up again in the coming years.

Could European shale gas provide a solution?

Many eyes are now on Ineos, whose activities stretch all the way from oil & gas exploration through feedstocks to numerous plastics and chemicals. The company recently chartered eight ships to bring ethane from the Marcellus shale field of western Pennsylvania across the Atlantic. The first delivery landed in Norway in late March, and | 28 | Packaging Europe

shipments to the company’s refinery at Grangemouth, Scotland, are scheduled to start later this year. Europe’s first shale-based polyethylene should come onto the market very soon after.

Ineos chairman Jim Ratcliffe says that shale gas economics revitalised US manufacturing “and for the first time ever Europe can access this essential energy and raw material source too.” He says the US shale will complement the dwindling supplies of gas from the North Sea. The move to import shale gas is intended to be a stop-gap measure while Ineos sets about tapping reserves under the UK, whose government is among the most pro-fracking in the region. It is set to drill numerous test cores this year alone, although it does not plan any fracking in 2016.

The circular economy On top of concerns about materials and energy supply, there is also growing awareness in Europe that more needs to be done about use, re-use, and preservation of precious plastics. Late last year, the European Commission adopted what it says is an ambitious new “Circular Economy Package” (CEP) to boost competitiveness, create jobs and generate sustainable growth. Implications for the European plastics industry are significant.

The Commission says the CEP will “contribute to closing the loop of product lifecycles through greater recycling and re-use, and bring benefits for both the environment and the economy.”

Key actions adopted today or to be carried out under the current Commission’s mandate include a strategy on plastics in the circular economy, addressing issues of recyclability, biodegradability, the presence of hazardous substances in plastics, and the Sustainable Development Goals target for significantly reducing marine litter.

The Commission has also proposed revisions to legislation on waste. Key elements include a common EU target for recycling 75 per cent of packaging waste by 2030 and a ban on landfilling of separately collected waste. “The efficiency of recycling is lagging [growth in consumption] – less than 25 per cent of plastic waste collected is recycled, and about 50 per cent goes to landfill,” says the Commission.

The PlasticsEurope trade association for plastics manufacturers has welcomed the CEP “as a step closer to resource efficiency,” but it has expressed concerns. “The European plastics industry has been calling for a legally binding landfill restriction on all recyclable as well as other recoverable post-consumer waste by 2025,” it says. “Although a 10 per cent target constitutes a step in the right direction, it remains a timid attempt to put an end to the landfilling of all waste which can be used a resource.”

PlasticsEurope considers the new 2025 recycling and preparation for re-use target of 55 per cent for plastic packaging waste as “an extremely ambitious objective;” the average plastics packaging recycling rate in Europe was under 40 per cent in 2014. It says the optimum level for plastic packaging recycling lies between 35 per cent and 50 per cent, depending on the country’s collection, sorting and recycling capacities.

European Bioplastics (EUBP), the trade association for suppliers of bio-based plastics, says that “forward looking sectors with strong environmental credentials and growth potential, such as bioplastics, need to be promoted. Materials used for industrial and commercial purposes should safely enter re-use, mechanical or biological recycling systems by design or intention.” Europe is home to many innovations in biopolymers, most famous of which is probably Novamont’s Mater-Bi, now used for the vast majority of carrier bags in Italy (and for a growing number of other applications in packaging, agriculture, and the food service industry).

“With the right framework conditions in place, the European bioplastics industry could realise its immense employment growth potential while helping to lower the impact on the environment within the EU,” says EUBP. It predicts that by 2025 production capacities of bioplastics within the EU will have grown twentyfold to 5.7 million tonnes, equivalent to around 10 per cent of general plastics production. Up to 160,000 high skilled jobs will have been created in the process.

Swimming in plastics Meanwhile, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the UK-based charity set up in 2010 with the aim of accelerating the transition to a circular economy, has paired with the World Economic Forum to launch the report “The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics.” The report “provides for the first time a vision of a global economy in which plastics never become waste,” and outlines concrete steps towards achieving the systemic shift needed.

According to the report, with most plastics packaging beings used only once, 95 per cent of its value is lost to the economy. It also predicts that, “given projected growth in consumption, in a business-as-usual scenario, by 2050 oceans are expected to contain more plastics than fish (by weight), and the entire plastics industry will consume 20 per cent of total oil production, and 15 per cent of the annual carbon budget.

PlasticsEurope is not ducking the issue. In March, its annual PolyTalk conference in Brussels was entitled “Zero Plastics Waste to the Oceans.” In focusing on the problem of marine litter, the industry has taken the initiative in finding new ideas and solutions to preventing all plastics from entering the ocean, PlasticsEurope president Patrick Thomas (also CEO of Covestro, previously Bayer MaterialScience) says, noting that the association will provide leadership in preventing marine litter and share best practices.

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Machinery makers move on A report on the European plastics industry would be incomplete without at least some reference to the state of the processing equipment sector, which remains a global powerhouse despite strong competition from China. In 2014 (2015 data are not yet available), Euromap members accounted for € 13 billion of the global total of € 32.5 billion in plastics and rubber core machinery; that is 40 per cent. In 2013 the percentage was 41.5. China meanwhile moved up from 30 per cent to 33.5 per cent.

As far as exports are concerned, Euromap members continue to export around four times as much core equipment as Chinese companies, in value terms. Deliveries to Europe and the US have both been rising, while those to BRIC countries have been slowing down. Euromap members account for 40 per cent of core machinery production and half of exports (of which almost half are from Germany, over 18 per cent from Italy, and almost 15 per cent from Austria). Around 43 per cent of Euromap member exports are within Europe.

A new industrial revolution?

Many European machinery companies are likely to have the number 4.0 highly visible on their stands at K 2016, as they push their solutions for “smart” factories that operate within the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The 4.0 refers to Industry 4.0, a term invented in Germany back in 2011 in reference to what was perceived as the fourth industrial revolution – and the German government’s plan to make sure German industry is at its forefront.

Proponents of Industry 4.0 say it represents a paradigm shift from centralized to decentralized production – made possible by technological advances which constitute a reversal of conventional production process logic. This means that industrial production machinery | 32 | Packaging Europe

no longer simply “processes” the product, but that the product communicates with the machinery to tell it exactly what to do.

Some observers may wonder whatever happened to the third industrial revolution— which signalled the rise in the use of digital electronics and IT to further automate production, and which appears to have begun around the same time as the fourth, depending on who you listen to. It will be the job of future historians to delineate the various epochs; maybe they will decide that in fact we are living in an age of permanent revolution (which would be ironic, since the term was coined by Marx and Engels).

“Industry 4.0 is above all one thing: a tremendous opportunity that we want to take advantage of together with our customers,” says Dr Stefan Engleder, CTO of injection technology specialist Engel, which has adopted the term “inject 4.0” to describe its approach to meeting the challenges of productivity, quality and flexibility.

Despite this, Engleder says he does not consider the word “revolution” to be very appropriate. “The changes that we are currently experiencing are more like an evolution,” he says. “For us, Industry 4.0 is not a new idea, but is already long-established daily practice in many areas.” Others in the sector will doubtless agree, but if the slogan helps drive the plastics industry forward towards increased efficiency and sustainability, it will have done its job.

“For plastics processors too, new digital technologies offer new perspectives that are of interest, increasingly also in the corporate sector,” says the GKV’s Westerheide. A GKV survey recently showed that only eight per cent of responding plastics processors were putting significant effort into Industry 4.0, with the vast majority following the trend from the sidelines. Westerheide concludes: “K 2016 will provide an excellent opportunity to explore the advantages offered by the digitization of our industry.”

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Efficiency

Finding Efficiencies Esko, the innovative global supplier of integrated solutions for the packaging and labels, sign and display, commercial printing and publishing industries, presents the first of a two-part guide to conquering packaging and artwork inefficiencies.

PART 1: Identifying and Solving Inefficiencies Your company is almost certainly inefficient; and the larger it is, the more likely it is to have departmental, regional or functional silos that contribute to this.

EU businesses report losing an average of one percent of their revenue each year due to a lack of efficient working practices; that’s a total of around €60 billion lost in revenues every year as a result of inefficient working practices.

Inefficiencies in the packaging and related marketing processes represent an area of huge potential savings for companies producing consumer-packaged goods (CPG) and healthcare over-the-counter (OTC) products. Pausing to acknowledge and identify these inefficiencies may seem difficult however, particularly with Marketing and Packaging teams under increasing pressure just to meet their day-to-day commitments in an ever more demanding environment.

But it is essential that companies take the time to consider how they could make improvements. Your brand is under huge pressure to respond quickly to consumer | 34 | Packaging Europe

demands, to be able to engage and tell the story of the product through visuals, graphics and text across multiple different stock keeping units (SKUs). Packaging plays a key role in achieving this, however the typical inefficient processes surrounding it makes this more difficult and can put a company at an immediate competitive disadvantage.

In this first of a two-part series, we examine the key packaging and artwork efficiency challenges facing companies today and how they can start to identify ways to solve these.

Reaching breaking point The increasing growth in SKUs and shorter product lifecycles is getting out of hand for many companies. Around two thirds (64 per cent) of consumer packaging SKUs are currently refreshed every year, and 82 per cent of companies say that number is growing.

“The simple volume of work that’s going through company supply chains, through their printer suppliers, through their designer suppliers, is significant and increasing,”

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says Kevin Karstedt of Karstedt Partners, a consultancy focusing on helping those in the packaging supply chain to get products to market more effectively. “A company that had ten jobs a week ten years ago, may have 100 jobs going through a week today because there are more SKUs, more products and more diversity.”

This is resulting in process cycles lengthening despite more people being involved. The number of people managing packaging artwork management has grown three-fold; however, artwork approval has increased by 30 per cent (from two to three weeks on average).

The onus is now on brand owners to find ways to create more efficient, more sustainable processes that speed the time to take a new or changed SKU from concept to consumer.

Areas of inefficiency First the areas of inefficiency need to be identified. These may range from out of date processes, such as emailing and postage of CDs, to inefficient review and approval processes.

“Anything emailed is generally looked at as non-efficient,” says Karstedt. “If you have to proactively tell somebody to start something, if you have to pick up a phone or send an email or something that says ‘You can start this’, that’s inefficient. If you have to call someone and ask for something ‘Could you send me this? Can you tell me what logo I’m using? If you have to enquire upstream to anything, the process is inefficient.”

The biggest consequence of inefficiency is probably financial cost. Any waste has to be absorbed in the supply chain somewhere and ultimately this cost will probably come back to the customer, which can leave the company at a competitive disadvantage.

Write-offs due to packaging artwork errors are increasing. Around 22 per cent of packaging write-offs are due to artwork management. “Mistakes seldom make it to the counter or to the customer,” says Karstedt. “They are usually caught somewhere in the supply chain. But the further down the stream it is caught, the costlier it is.” | 36 | Packaging Europe

Identifying inefficiencies Steps can be taken to start identifying the issues specific to your company – where is it going wrong in the process? Where is time being wasted or efforts duplicated?

Tools exist – for example the lean practice of value stream mapping – that will allow you to document what people do, how they do it, what tools they use and what could be introduced to support them.

“Value stream mapping is a great tool for identifying the tasks that are required to get something done, whether it be a manufacturing process or whatever, to identify the tasks and identify the issues around that task,” says John Elworthy, Global Business Development Brand Management at Esko. “It basically gives you a place to look. It gives you the rocks to look under to find the issues.”

Going through a recognised process such as value stream mapping can be extremely valuable in identifying the components and identifying the opportunities within each one.

You should also try to use industry knowledge where possible, for example through internal experts, partners, suppliers and consultants. There will be companies similar to yours who have gone through the same process; tapping into that knowledge can save valuable time.

Identify the quick wins and the big hits. As you understand what’s really going on in your current process, it is then important to classify the wins into short term quick-fixes (there will always be some) and long-term big hits. This will help you to prioritise.

The keys to success: Control and visibility What is the main thing companies are trying to do by increasing efficiency?

“They are trying to gain control,” says Karstedt. “People are saying: ‘Our process is controlling us right now. We need to control the process and we be in charge of it’.

Efficiency

“Control just has so many tentacles to it,” he continues. “Control means cost reduction, control means the lack of mistakes, control means consistency in the way my product looks on the shelf, control means ‘I can distribute my product through any channel that I choose because I have it set up correctly. I can sell this through the internet, I can have it delivered by UPS directly to the person’s home, I can sell it on store shelves, I can sell it anywhere’. If you have control, you have everything at your fingertips, you have all the benefits.”

What gives companies that level of control is having the visibility of the processes.

“Visibility is what gives you the control,” agrees John Elworthy from Esko. “Visibility and control give you consistency, safety and accountability, which means people have responsibility to get things in and make sure things are right and when everything goes right, they are accountable for the success.”

Gaining control and visibility through digital solutions Your mapping stage should result in a clear list of areas for focus and improvement within your packaging / artwork process. The latest digital solutions – such as digital packaging management and asset management platforms – are central to solving the efficiency issues identified.

It is unlikely you can solve everything in one go; it is important to develop a full strategic plan of action to bring incremental steps of improvement over a period of time to help your company to embrace, and welcome the change.

“Companies like Esko are good at helping you implement in bite-sized pieces with a goal in mind, and it has to be done holistically and cross-functionally”, says Karstedt. “You have to have all the different components involved from marketing to legal to production to manufacturing to distribution to accounting to purchasing; all of those people should be involved and it has to be strategically driven from the top.”

Digital packaging management and asset management platforms help companies to build quality and automation into the company packaging and related marketing processes and to have visibility of all assets, communication and interaction with stakeholders, driving quality, regulatory compliance and security and, ultimately, time and cost savings.

“The less you have to touch a job, the less you have to do to it, the more that it’s automated, the less cost is going to be involved,” says Karstedt.

Online collaboration tools and virtual work spaces make it possible to conduct virtual reviews of artwork and labelling, improving visibility of artwork changes in the system. Electronic sign-off and a full audit history ensure transparency and accountability throughout the process.

Users can view – often in hyper-realistic 3D – annotate and compare projects easily, the tracking tools showing who, when and what the status is of each. In some systems, multiple users can even setup a collaboration session connecting everyone simultaneously.

The can also have better asset reusability thanks to centralised storage, improved accountability with version control and history tracking, and improvement in efficiency because of faster document retrieval and data sharing.

“It is important to treat these solutions as a strategic move,” summarises Karstedt.

“Companies have to think: ‘It will be of strategic importance to my company to have full control and full control of my assets from the beginning to the end of the process’.”

Reaping the benefits of improved efficiency There are several immediate benefits companies will see when implementing more efficient processes – from a decrease in artwork errors to a reduced packaging delivery lifecycle and faster time to market.

In the second part of this two-part series we will look at these benefits along with what it could mean to your company in the longer-term as you free-up resources for other innovation.

Esko can help you define how packaging management can streamline your organin sation, and how to go beyond packaging.

Goodman Fielder: Increasing efficiency in artwork approval One of Oceania’s leading Food and Beverage brand owners, Goodman Fielder, enhanced their internal packaging, POS and promotional artwork development process with a tailored WebCenter software solution from Esko.

The business was looking for a solution which could consolidate and centralise the packaging project activity, and store all assets in a cloud-based environment accessible to both internal stakeholders and external design, reproduction and printing suppliers.

Lorna Thomson, Senior Brand Manager at Goodman Fielder said: “Goodman Fielder needed to more efficiently manage the increasing number of packaging designs, allowing us to streamline any changes or updates to the artwork in an efficient manner via standard web-browsers, both in the office and via mobile platforms. WebCenter was chosen due to its simple yet powerful user interface and its seamless integration with our pre-press and print suppliers.”

“Being able to provide a simple process for all stakeholders involved to easily view, review and approve artwork files means that we have been able to reduce our packaging delivery lifecycle, ensuring all comments and corrections are 100 per cent visible and traceable for compliancy purposes” she continued. ““We are looking forward to upgrading to the latest release of WebCenter to take advantage of the latest features such as 3D visuals and the ability to delegate approval responsibility, which will further improve the experience and the efficiency.”

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FachPack Essentials Where and when?

Exhibition Centre Nuremberg, Germany 27-29 September

Opening times 27 September 2016: 09:00 - 18:00 28 September 2016: 09:00 - 18:00 29 September 2016: 09:00 - 17:00

Profile International trade fair for packaging, technology, processing and logistics.

Tickets One-day ticket: EUR 42 Permanent ticket: EUR 47 Advance tickets: https://www.fachpack.de/en/visitors/tickets/ticketshop

Contact NĂźrnbergMesse GmbH Messezentrum, 90471 NĂźrnberg, Germany Phone: +49 9 11 86 06-49 79 www.fachpack.de | 38 | Packaging Europe

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General plan

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FachPack Interview FachPack answers Tim Sykes’s questions on Germany’s biggest annual packaging fair.

Tim Sykes

How will FachPack 2016 compare with last year’s event in terms of the number of expected visitors and exhibitors?

How does this reflect the overall levels of confidence in the German packaging industry at the moment?

FachPack

From 27 to 29 September it will be presenting products and services covering all aspects of packaging, technology, processing and logistics – for industry and consumer goods in equal measure.

At the last event, around 44,000 trade visitors obtained inspiration and concrete solutions from the total of 1,565 exhibitors. We expect that the eleven exhibition halls will again be fully booked and are looking forward to offering the sector its innovation platform again this year. The positive mood of the market was also reflected last year by the number of visitors: 44,022 industry and trade visitors, willing to invest, seized the opportunity to experience the European packaging industry under one roof.

TS

What will be the highlights of this year’s show? What are the special focuses and themes of the exhibition and the parallel conference events?

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FP

At the heart of FachPack is the large number of trends and innovations waiting to be discovered – and not only on the stands, but also in the support program. And once again this year, themes and topics from the sector will be covered: in cooperation with renowned sector partners, the PackBox Forum dedicates itself in the usual way to the triple combination of innovation, inspiration and information. Outstanding and innovative solutions from the entire packaging value-added chain are recognized by the German Packaging Award, the most renowned European competition covering all aspects of packaging, to be held once again this year at FachPack. A new feature however is the award presentation held directly on the first day of the fair. Other proven highlights in the support program include the: • Corrugated Cardboard Forum • “Labels & More” Pavilion • Packaging Design Special Show • German Packaging Award Special Show • “Packaging in Medical Technology and Pharmaceuticals” Theme Park • “Process & Materials@FachPack” Market Place • Tracking & Tracing Theatre • “Human Being - Machine – Future” Theme Park

TS FP

Will you be introducing any innovations to the format of FachPack 2016?

Over 500 new products, processes and services will be presented at FachPack 2016. Our exhibitor and product search new feature offers various selection options. Products and industries that involve the application of current trend themes can be accessed quickly. As a result, exactly the right innovative packaging solutions can be found among all the new items in a very short space of time: https://www.fachpack.de/en/ events/1/trends-and-innovations-/18593

TS FP

What do you think are the most important market conditions and trends to which German packaging manufacturers are currently responding?

Sustainability is a key theme in the packaging sector. Smart product developments enable resources savings in the value-added chain. There are already numerous examples of this in the market, others are in the development pipeline. Innovations – be it in products, processes or services – are an elementary component of FachPack, the European trade fair for the packaging industry. “Even if the term sustainability is today already somewhat overworked, we must not forget what it basically means – and it is indeed much more than just a current trend” says Director Exhibitions Heike Slotta. “This extremely important theme has reached the heart of society. The packaging sector is also making its contribution here: it is developing and offering solutions and alternatives. We will find them all at FachPack in autumn.” The measures apply to the entire value-added chain: packaging is being designed in a recycling-friendly approach in order to save resources and once again free up recyclable materials.

In the mechanical engineering sector digitization is providing the basis for saving Packaging Europe | 43 |

energy and reducing material consumption. And in logistics, products are being designed according to the “Cradle-to-Cradle” recycling management concept, for example pallets and boxes in recycled plastic or corrugated cardboard. In packaging printing in turn, LED-UV technology is saving energy in comparison to conventional UV lamps.

TS

How do exhibitors feel about the broad outlook for packaging in the context of economic and political instability, which has increased as a result of the UK’s Brexit vote?

FP

For FachPack we do not expect consequences. Of course free trade is a decisive prerequisite for flourishing trade fairs and exhibitions. Whether and how the planned exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union will affect NürnbergMesse, mainly depends on how the British economy itself will further develop. | 44 | Packaging Europe

TS FP

Are there any areas of new technology in which you expect to see a lot of product launches at FachPack?

Over 500 new products, processes and services will be presented at FachPack 2016, which can be clustered in several trend themes: • Attractive short runs • Controlling and networking in the logistics process • Handle with care!

• Labelling equipment: peripheral devices with a key role • Networking in production (Industry 4.0) • Packaging machines – adaptable modules • Signals at points of sale

A description of each trend theme and new products within these themes you can find in our exhibitor and product search: www.fachpack.de/en/events/1/trends-and-innovations-/18593

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Knowledge Bottlenecks

Minimising the Risk of Knowledge Bottlenecks Bottlenecks are typically associated with poor job flow on the shop floor. But an even more disruptive bottleneck could be hiding where you least expect: with the knowledge held by your best and brightest in your pre- production workflow, from developing quotes, to dealing with complex estimates, to handling inevitable changes as jobs are prepared.

Print technology giant EFI shares some solutions to the problem.

EFI Packaging Suite

IF

you can relate to any of the following situations, you should start thinking about how you will be able to improve your position to take advantage of the industry’s new requirements.

• Shrinking lead times and more RFQs are dark clouds over your quoting, estimating & planning workflow • It is an achievement in itself to land a new job on the production floor that has been developed, approved by your customer and efficiently and profitably planned.

• Currently you are getting more and more requests for quotes and your customers expect you to make all of their orders a priority and turn them around in record time.

How is your pre-production team dealing with these requirements and how profitable is the balance you are finding between working as fast as you can and maintaining a welldeveloped production plan?

More RFQs are a good thing! With an accelerated workflow, you will be able to respond to a request with an accurate quote in minutes and that greatly improves your chances of winning each job. You will often even be able to negotiate that quote to get it accepted and off to production before your competitors are able to respond.

You’re gambling with future risk by counting on your best experts’ availability in the long run. Your core group of experts may be a well-oiled machine, quickly and profitably getting your quotes accepted and jobs on the production floor. But what guarantees that these employees will still be around 2, 5 or 10 years from now? If you’re not building a process to capture their expertise and build it into your workflow to minimise this risk, what is going to happen as inevitable change threatens your long-standing success down the road? Or if you are thinking more short-term, what impact does an expert’s vacation or illness have on your enterprise?

What can you do?

What can you do? Well, Now is the time to collect and capture your experts’ knowledge.

Turn shrinking lead times into an opportunity! Once you have been able to improve your workflow to accommodate them, you will be working faster and that means accelerating throughput.

Your best employees won’t be around forever. When they leave, you will be able to retain the investment you have in their expertise by keeping it in your enterprise for everyone to benefit from.

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Knowledge Bottlenecks

Gain flexibility with the staff you already employ, whether by allowing less-skilled employees to cover when your experts are unavailable or even by making employees more versatile, able to add more value by impacting multiple areas of your business.

And what if you have difficulty finding qualified new employees and it takes you too long to make them productive? What if you are seeking, for example, an experienced estimator who understands the unique package converting business and production processes?

Chances are that when it is your turn to acquire talent to fill vacancies or keep up with business growth, you won’t be sorting through a stack of qualified resumes. So, unless you are extremely lucky, you will need to devote significant time to train new people and make them productive. And these days, productive may not be enough. You need a team that works faster and smarter than your competition.

What can you do?

Plan for tricky talent acquisition situations by creating an environment that is easy for less qualified people to join. With business and production rules in place tied to a workflow that uses them to automate much of the traditional manual and knowledge-based work involved in estimating and planning jobs, training will be faster and cheaper.

What if you feel future business growth is going to be costly because you lack adequate automation for scalability.

First, examine what does “growth” mean to you? Expanding to additional locations? Offering new products? Purchasing new digital equipment? Hiring new employees to handle a growing amount of work?

Pursuing each of the examples above requires extensive costs and effort to advance or even maintain efficiency and profitability. Without a seamless transition plan, adding any of these things is likely to slow you down and damage profits until you have worked through all the unforeseen issues. | 48 | Packaging Europe

What can you do? Standardise processes so that when you add additional facilities, they can start producing faster and information can be shared between them.

Before you purchase new equipment, use your workflow to test the return on investment (ROI). Input the prospective equipment’s specs and analyse its effects if your current jobs could utilise it.

Your customers are looking for a one-stop-shop for all their print and packaging needs and a workflow built to handle any industry product types will expedite your ability to handle new opportunities. Increasingly complex product requirements are getting trickier to handle and are becoming more frequent Get a new order for a product very similar to one that you manufacture all the time? No problem. But what about an order for something that is brand new for you, requires a new process or forces you to outsource certain steps?

The percentage of requests for nontraditional products is on the rise and relying on the same old pre-production processes is going to slow you down, make profit potential unstable and might even force you to limit your opportunities to simpler, lower margin products.

To handle this, build a bulletproof workflow that knows what you are capable of producing and can show you the best way to do it. Your team needs to understand exactly what the customer needs, but should they also have to know all of the options and restrictions of the equipment and processes you have available to get it manufactured?

There is little time to take a step back and explore the least costly materials and production routes for each job.

People tend to gravitate to the things they are comfortable with. With an inbox full of RFQs, issues, questions, update requests and more, how often are your jobs getting the attention they deserve? Are all possible material options being considered at the same time that all production options are? Or, are your go- to, “comfortable” options used way too regularly? Even with some extra emphasis on making sure the most profitable materials

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EFI Auto-Count for Packaging screenshots

The Auto-Count Next Generation interface provides the production team with a

A real-time detailed analysis of job progress lets your people know where they

real-time visual snapshot of job status.

are based on plan and schedule while distant viewing screens (below) keep the whole team up to date.

and production routes are used, you’re probably not able to effectively look at all of your different option combinations.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to take much time to consider all of your options.

A quality, rules- based workflow will actually show you all of these options and will also show you the most cost- effective combination.

Those new or less-skilled employees will be able to create the same profitable estimates as your more experienced experts if your options, capabilities and rules are well defined in your workflow.

Another workflow point to consider: Your product mix requires you to handle different products with different processes and people.

Do you have certain products that don’t quite fit into your typical workflow? Maybe you have to bring a larger group into the planning of these products or maybe worse, you can only send these jobs to one certain person to work on. However you look at it, if you can’t quickly get all of your jobs ready to go using a consistent workflow, you are likely to face some combination of errors, backups, miscommunication, lost information, and ultimately either low profits (or losses) or unhappy customers.

If you have spreadsheets full of information and calculations or some other systems to handle different situations, it is not scalable. There is no better time than now to start bringing that information into one system.

Relying on certain individuals to lead estimating and planning for certain products is even riskier. If you can capture their knowledge so others can be more productive, you are minimising risk and opening up all kinds of opportunities.

What if you customers make things difficult with orders that keep changing up to the point of production?

Let’s say your quote is approved, the estimate is complete, the job is planned and scheduled. But wait! Your customer wants to double the quantity and use a thicker substrate but needs to know how much it will cost first. And of course the due date is firm. How quickly can you handle this? How many people need to get involved and how many phone calls and emails will be required to make sure your new quote is right? Then what needs to happen to get the estimate corrected and ensure that no information is missed as job | 50 | Packaging Europe

plans and schedules are updated?

Don’t let changes get you down. A customer change means a new opportunity for you make him or her happy. So build a single-source workflow that captures all of your entries, allows you to perform quick what-if tests and tracks all implemented changes in one place.

That way a change at any point along your workflow can be easily updated everywhere that it matters. With built-in notifications and status updates, your team might not even need to pick up the phone!

Is there any one way to address all of these issues?

Packaging enterprises can integrate and intelligently manage their entire customer relationship management including RFQs, quoting, estimating and job planning.

All of these steps can be brought together in one tightly woven, visual environment where information not only flows seamlessly from end-to-end, but also is communicated in the most human friendly way possible.

Consider the possibilities. Let’s say you have a huge investment in the knowledge of your smartest and most experienced employees and your enterprise’s standards and best practices. A workflow like the EFI Packaging Suite allows you to capture all of these things, organise them and build them into my workflow so we can all work smarter, more accurately and cost-efficiently.

Your estimates and job plans will become more predictable and profitable as the accuracy of the information in them increases immensely. The ways you produce estimates and turn them into job plans also will become more structured and consistent based on the rules we build into our workflow.

By using smart automation technology, packaging companies can eliminate many touchpoints and speed up the entire process of moving from RFQ to estimate to job plan.

As a result, you can win more business by responding faster to customers; increase the profitability of each job by being more cost- efficient; and increase revenues by getting more jobs into production faster.

You can bring new employees and existing less skilled employees up-to-speed much faster, working on things that before, could only be handled by my most skilled and tenured employees.

Knowledge Bottlenecks

Bring consistency, intelligence and automation to your workflow by setting up dynamic triggers so that things like pricing discounts or markups are automatically applied for a variety of reasons like product types, order quantities, customer accounts or production machines.

On top of that, the ability to test what- if scenarios with the click of a button, track those results and ensure that changes are reflected in the other areas of my workflow, can give you immediate feedback to understand how even minor changes can help meet a customer’s requirements, increase margins and more.

Relying on future-focused, profit-building packaging workflows helps eliminate the bottlenecks that come from increase sales activity, varying worker skill levels, and many other factors. EFI’s Certified packaging workflows, for example, address real-world situations to deliver higher efficiencies, improved throughput and sustainable process and profit improvement throughout your enterprise.

Each workflow, consisting of a core ERP solution and integrated value-added components, has been designed, built and tested to ensure all integrations have passed EFI’s

rigorous testing and deployment standards. The result is a validated and scalable solution that brings people, processes, technology and data together as one end-to-end, integrated packaging ecosystem.

The EFI Packaging Suite’s certified iQuote workflow components combine a visual, cognitively ergonomic interface with the industry’s most advanced, intelligent estimating engine. By building your unique rules and capabilities into your workflow, packaging companies become a more agile, efficient enterprise able to focus on activities that build value and ready to quickly adapt to capitalise on new market opportunities.

As explained by one user, Jason Schmedding, team advisor at TC Transcontinental Packaging, “We’ve been able to replace multiple management, operation, estimating and inventory systems. The Packaging Suite does it all and integrates it all.”

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EVENTS

LUXE PACK MONACO EXPANDS ITS BORDERS W

ith over 450 exhibitors, 40 conferences, 80 experts, and more than 300 product launches, LUXE PACK guarantees the perfect mixture of creativity and innovation. This three-day show will host the world’s best packaging manufacturers, all selected for their expert industry know-how and/or standout technology.

As avant-garde as ever, LUXE PACK invites all visitors to explore new consumer trends and source solutions for the growing challenges surfacing within the luxury industry.

The show’s best previous highlights are back! Packaging innovation as always will be at the show’s forefront. Also, sustainable developments will be highlighted through the LUXE PACK IN green competition! LUXE FORMULATION, will also be coming back by popular demand. An opportunity for container-content interaction. And new for 2016, Connect to Luxury (C2L), a new showcase consisting of specialized conferences and exhibitors completely dedicated to the digital transformation of the luxury industry.”

LUXE PACK will offer a complete and exceptional immersion into the market’s upcoming trends: business strategy, prospective innovative technological solutions, and creativity. The industry has created a demand for new solutions, therefore LUXEPACK Monaco has broadened its parameters and developed 3 events into 1 singular setting in response to the demand.

For its 29th edition, and committed to its original principles, LUXE PACK MONACO will bring together the best of creative packaging... worldwide.

The ideal opportunity to source quality packaging elements and obtain forward thinking creativity and technological insight…. advancing technology, new applications, new experiences.

The future of packaging LUXE PACK MONACO 2016 promises to be the think-tank for new challenges brands are currently facing. Focused conferences, testimonials, industry feedback, live demonstrations, and expert discussions will address these burning issues.

The exhibition promises visitors a comprehensive and saturated agenda: the Innovation Wall, packaging solutions, smart packaging, advancing technologies, sustainable developments, design trends, personalization, and applied 3D printing demonstrations for luxury packaging products.

LUXE PACK MONACO 2016 takes place on 21-13 September at the Grimaldi Forum.

For additional information visit www.luxepack.com

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3rd International Conference and Exhibition on Biopolymers and Bioplastics

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iopolymers and Bioplastics 2016, which takes place on 12-14 September 2016 in San Antonio, USA, is an International Conference is an attempt to explore the various ways to utilize natural resources for betterment of the future, promising a better tomorrow for the progeny and a better vision for the springing research. Biopolymers and Bioplastics 2016 is anticipated to be one the best scientific conferences in USA. The scientific sessions of this International Conference on Biopolymers and Bioplastics 2016 has been designed on vivacious topics such as Green Chemicals, Industrial Biotechnology, Micro and Nano blends based on natural polymers. Biopolymers and Bioplastics-2016 conference is consisting of well-organized scientific program and effervescent speeches by the expertise.

Market Bioplastics are a form of plastics made entirely or almost entirely from renewable raw materials such as vegetable oil, corn starch, biomass whereas conventional plastics are made from petroleum (oil or gas). Bio-plastics can replace conventional plastics in the field of their applications also and can be used in different sectors such as food packaging, plastic plates, cups, cutlery, plastic storage bags, storage containers or other plastic or composite material items you are buying.

Biopolymers and Bioplastics-2015 is an event delivering the concept of biobased world across the globe. In the present world where the use of conventional plastics, the consequences of plastic products use and the waste management of these products when they become waste, is a current and pressing issue. Concerns focus on the potential impact of conventional plastics they cause to the environment.

The history of Bioplastics is not an elongated one. They are beginning to emerge as a result of needing to be more responsible in taking care of the world we are living in. Thus, the recent emergence of bio-based products rather than petroleum or natural gas based products. Several reasons are associated with the research and development of Biopolymers and Bioplastics. The usage of bio-plastics could markedly increase as more durable versions are developed, and the cost to manufacture these bio-plastics continues to go spill. Bio-plastics can replace conventional plastics in the field of their applications also and can be utilized in different sectors such as food packaging, plastic cups, plates, cutlery, plastic storage bags, storage containers or the other plastic or composite material items you are buying and therefore can help in making environment sustainable.

Biopolymers can be sustainable, carbon neutral and are always renewable, because they are made from plant materials which can be grown indefinitely. These plant materials come from agricultural non food crops. Therefore, the use of biopolymers would create a sustainable industry. In contrast, the feedstocks for polymers derived from petrochemicals will eventually deplete. In addition, biopolymers have the potential to cut carbon emissions and reduce CO2 quantities in the atmosphere: this is because the CO2 released when they degrade can be reabsorbed by crops grown to replace them: this makes them close to carbon neutral.Biopolymers are biodegradable, and some are also compostable. Some biopolymers are biodegradable: they are broken down into CO2 and water by microorganisms. Some of these | 54 | Packaging Europe

biodegradable biopolymers are compostable: they can be put into an industrial composting process and will break down by 90% within six months. Biopolymers that do this can be marked with a ‘compostable’ symbol, under European Standard EN 13432 (2000).Many types of packaging can be made from biopolymers: food trays, blown starch pellets for shipping fragile goods, thin films for wrapping.

Conference Highlights: • Routes to drop-in monomers and bioplastics • Future and Scope for Biopolymers and Bioplastics • Industrial Biotechnology and Biorefineries • Plastic Pollution and Waste Management • Biocomposite materials • Biomaterials and Biopolymers • Production and Commercialization • New-to-the-world Biopolyesters • Biobased Thermosetting Polymers • Biodegradable Polymers • Biopolymer Applications • Biopolymer Companies and Market Biopolymers and Bioplastics-2016 is an event delivering the concept of biobased world across the globe. In the present world where the use of conventional plastics, the consequences of plastic products use and the waste management of these products when they become waste, is a current and pressing issue. Concerns focus on the potential impact of conventional plastics they cause to the environment.

For more details please visit: http://biopolymers-bioplastics.conferenceseries.com

EVENTS

MIAC 2016 V

isiting MIAC means obtaining a full overview of the technology and equipment available to the paper industry sector thanks to the constant participation of the leading companies in the sector which present the latest developments in machines, systems and avant-garde solutions to improve the management of the various stages in the paper production cycle.

The event, which expects to draw 270 exhibitors and over 5000 visitors to Lucca, in Italy, caters to all of the main segments of the paper industry: • Machinery and plants for the production of paper and board • Components and sections of paper machines • Converting machines for paper and board • Instruments and systems for measure, test, control and management • Machinery and plants for water treatment • Plants, machinery and electric control • Chemicals, additives and raw materials • Machinery and plants for drying, filtration and energy recovery • Laboratory, diagnostics, logistics, services and plant optimization

The paper industry and the district of Lucca The paper industry in Italy boasts significant numbers: 165 Paper Mills, 20,000 workers, almost 9,000,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard produced every year, with a turnover of 6.8 billion Euros (the volume of production places Italy in the first 4 positions to European level).

Lucca is the only officially acknowledged “Paper District” in Europe: over 140 Paper Mills and Converters, 6,500 workers, 2,000,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard produced (tissue paper and corrugated cardboard), with a turnover of 3.5 billion Euros. Lucca is also home to major companies that supply technologies, machinery and services to the paper industry sector, with a turnover of more than 2,600 million Euros and over 8,000 workers!

In Europe, Lucca is the number one spot for tissue production (with a 24 per cent market share), Italy is also one of the leader countries in the corrugated cardboard sector.

Participation in the Conferences is free of charge and simultaneous translation service is available. These highly qualified international Conferences are designed to inform concretely the participants from all over the world. For advance registration click: http://www.miac.info/en/conferences/register/

Essential info Entrance to the Exhibition is free of charge and it is reserved for people involved in the paper industry sector.

The Exhibition Centre of MIAC (Lucca Fiere) is modern and offers high level services and infrastructures to Visitors. The exhibition area is provided with a large car park at the very front of the MIAC Exhibition.

Furthermore, the Exhibition Centre of Lucca is located in a strategic position (CentreNorth of Italy) and it is easily reached from all over the world by airplane and motorway.

MIAC 2016 takes place at: Lucca Fiere – Via della Chiesa XXXII, 237 – 55100 Lucca (Italy) Opening times: 12 and 13 October: from 09.00 to 18.00 14 October: from 09.00 to 15.30 Phone: +39 02.21711614 Email: miac@miac.info Website: www.miac.info

Conference programme During the three days of Exhibition take place several international Conferences in order to take stock of the situation regarding trend, future perspectives and new available technologies in the paper industry sector. These include: • MIAC TISSUE CONFERENCE • MIAC ENERGY – ASSOCARTA CONFERENCE • MIAC RECYCLING – COMIECO CONFERENCE Packaging Europe | 55 |

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Quality and customer service Azmec Srl is one of the major Italian players in the design and manufacture of liquid ring vacuum pumps and vacuum compressors. Eugenia Fiusco talks to CEO Claudio Vergani to find out more.

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hen it comes to vacuum technology, each industry has its own requirements. Azmec Srl offers unparalleled expertise in the design and manufacture of systems designed to meet its clients’ specific process needs.

These systems are ready for operation, easy to integrate into process automation, help minimise installation and operating costs, and most of all are designed to meet the most demanding applications.

“Azmec Srl was already involved in the production of vacuum systems when my father and I acquired AZMEC in 1987,” begins Mr Vergani. “At the time, we owned a company located in Merate, near Milano, that manufactured centrifugal pumps; the headquarter of AZMEC is still in Genova today.”

The acquisition of the plant near Lecco gave the Vergani family the opportunity to expand its production line and gain a leading position in the Italian market.

Production lines and applications Azmec vacuum pumps are particularly designed for all those uses which require a large quantity of humid air with medium vacuum capacities, and are equipped with great safety and durability features. The Azmec AL, ALBV, ALCZ and ALC pumps can be used as air or other gas compressors up to an effective pressure of around 1.6 Kg/cmq.

Its current range includes the AL/2000 liquid ring vacuum pumps with flow rates from 180 to 10.200 m3/h, the ALZ/2000 pumps built with two suction vents – which in effect means that the user can have two pumps in one with totally independent and differentiated vacuums, the ALCZ and ALC pumps can reach a maximum capacity of 50.000 m3/h Of course, Azmec also provides all the necessary accessories, from transmission units and pre-separation units to from discharge separators, silencers and so on.

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Leading the large pump market, Azmec’s vacuum pumps are designed to operate in demanding environments such as the paper, power, mining and chemical process industries; they offer durability and reliability at low operating costs.

“We are particularly proud to be working with some of the major companies that manufacture paper machinery, such as the Cartiere Burgo Group, one of Europe’s leading producers of coated and speciality papers,” says Mr Vergani.

Tailor-made pumps Azmec has an internal Research and Development division that works in synergy with clients, calibrating the pumps and compressors to suit their future applications. In particular, specialised staff calibrate products in compliance with the ISO regulations in areas such as pump capacity, vacuum degree, speed, service liquid temperature, temperature and absorbed power.

“Azmec is in charge of the design and manufacture of our production lines. All adjustments and improvements are carried out internally by our R&D department with a view to reduce final costs while preserving our top-of-the-range quality and performance,” says Mr Vergani. “In the future, we might want to expand our production lines, but for now we are focusing on optimising our current lines.”

Geographical presence Azmec Srl is widely present on the international market thanks to a well-connected network of external agencies. “We have worked on developing a network of agencies that represent our brand all over the world including in South America, Egypt, Turkey and Europe, whilst working on maintaining our strong position on the domestic market,” says

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Mr Vergani. Its commitment to engaging with international markets is also exemplified by its regular participation in all the most important fairs and exhibitions in the industry.

Upcoming events include MIAC – the International Exhibition of Paper Industry that takes place in Lucca, Italy, in October 2015.

“Unfortunately, the crisis hit us back in 2008 and put a stop to a growth that had been relentless until then. The main goal for the future of the company is to regain our momentum and keep working to come up with the most reliable solutions for our old and new customers,” concludes Mr Vergani.

Visit: www.azmec.it

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EVENTS

The future of UK manufacturing debate heats up at the PPMA Total Show 2016

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he UK manufacturing industry looks to the future with baited breath following the results of the EU referendum. As the wider UK economy remains unpredictable, the results of the referendum could represent a unique opportunity for the manufacturing sector should businesses consider the tactical, short-term implications and realise the importance of maintaining a focus on long-term strategic planning.

According to KPMG’s EU Referendum advisory, manufacturers should be buoyed by the possibility that in the long term this result could lead to new opportunities for their businesses.

A drop in the value of the pound could make the UK a magnet for trade, especially with the UK government looking to build relationships with the rest of the world outside of Europe. In addition, the need to reshape trade policy may result in quicker decision making, and reduced red tape that has previously hampered manufacturing when looking to export goods.

Speaking about the future of the UK manufacturing sector, the Rt. Hon Lord Francis Maude, former Minister of State for Trade and Investment will join visitors at this year’s PPMA Total Show to open the 2016 exhibition and deliver the opening address on both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Appearing on the PPMA Total seminar stage on the first day of the show (Tuesday 27 September) Lord Francis Maude will discuss the outcome of the recent EU referendum and reveal the future plans for the government’s ‘Exporting is Great’ campaign.

The PPMA Total Show 2016, which takes place on 27–29 September 2016, at the NEC, Birmingham, will not only see headline speakers like the Rt. Hon Lord Francis Maude but a range of industry experts who can offer insight and advice on the future of the UK manufacturing industry. Since the PPMA shows returned to the full control of the association in 2013, the size of these events has increased by circa 25% year-on-year. The latest edition – PPMA Total 2016 – is already 50% larger than the first show of the new regime in 2014. With over 400 exhibitors, the event has already firmly established itself | 62 | Packaging Europe

as the industry event not to be missed with 2016 set to be one of the biggest and highly anticipated events yet.

Speaking about its return, Grant Jamieson, Chairman, PPMA Group of Associations, said: “The PPMA Total Show brings together buyers and sellers at one of the most visually dynamic exhibitions which showcases the latest processing and packaging machinery, materials, industrial automation and vision innovations. The event provides an ideal meeting place for decision makers from across a range of industries to network with key manufacturers and distributors, all set against a back drop of innovation and industry expertise.”

Focus on: Food Hygiene, Waste and Innovative Packaging Designs Also confirmed to speak at this year’s PPMA Total Show, Emma De-Alwis, Hygiene Specialist at Campden BRI will highlight how contaminated food products and food hygiene problems that go undetected along the supply chain have a serious negative impact on the UK manufacturing industry. Addressing another highly topical issue for UK’s food manufacturers, Claire Shrewsbury, Packaging Programme Manager for WRAP, will take to the stage to address the number of government programmes focusing on food and packaging waste that promote both environmental improvements and the cost benefits to industry, including current projects with GlassRite Wine, and the benefits of developing recycled food grade PP processes.

In addition, Ashwin Moorthy, Head of Engineering & Innovation at Nampak Plastics, will take to the stage to discuss the latest packaging innovations in the FMCG world, and how packaging can both protect products and extend shelf life whilst being environmentally friendly. Joining Ashwin, additional speakers confirmed for the 2016 exhibition Ben Clarke, Training & Education Manager at GS1; and Nick Kesterton of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE).

Manufacturing skills gap under the spotlight According to business group EEF , three-quarters of companies say they have faced difficulties finding the right employees in the last three years. The skills shortage is putting productivity growth at risk and adding to pressure on manufacturers as they battle a host of challenges in domestic and overseas markets. The struggle to find the right people with the right skills is also being compounded by the recent news from the manufacturing sector that over three quarters of industry professionals believe that not enough is being done to make manufacturing an attractive career choice to young people. This is despite the fact that nearly three quarters of companies (69%) surveyed in the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) Manufacturing Barometer 2016 revealed that they currently have two or more vacancies for young people.

Addressing the ingredients for success and highlighting the opportunities for an engineering future in food and drink, Emma McLeod, Principal Engineer for Process Solutions Global Chocolate R&D Team at Mondelez International, will give an inspiring insight into the engineering opportunities in the largest industry in the UK. Emma will discuss her own career starting as a factory process engineer through to her current role in global research and development. More specifically, she will discuss how Mondelez are responding to the skills gap ranging from capturing knowledge from experienced employees before they retire to mentoring young engineers from the beginning of their career to build their skills quickly to become chartered professional engineers.

Exhibitors and visitors interested in hearing more about training and apprenticeship opportunities can pop along to the PPMA BEST (Business Education Skills and Training) stand (B138) to find out more. The charity, established by the PPMA Group in 2014, encourages young people to enter and develop a career in engineering within the processing packaging, robotics, automation and industrial vision supply industries through education, training and support.

Demonstrating the latest innovations in manufacturing Attendees to Hall 5 at the NEC in September can also find out more about the latest trends and innovations taking the industry by storm. With returning exhibitors, including Bosch Packaging Technology, Schubert, and Festo, already confirmed to join the line-up, organisers are confident that the 2016 show will be bigger and better than ever before.

Also returning to the PPMA Total Show 2016, Rotech, designer and manufacturer of offline advanced carton feeding systems, will be launching its new coder. As pouch attributes, such as size, ease of opening, increased use of sustainable material and the ability to customise packs are driving more companies to switch from rigid packaging, Rotech is set to debut its double-speed coder. Rotech is also unveiling the latest developments in its pouch feeding and coding system that can personalise codes at twice the speed of its current offering.

Speaking about the decision to return, Richard Pether, Director at Rotech said: “We’ve decided to return to the PPMA Total show again this year, because we can see that the event is “on the up” once more and its annual slot at the end of September makes perfect sense.

“We have a new product launch planned for the 2016 show, which is a key milestone on the project plan. The exposure that the show gives us, with both the visitors that come onto our stand and the media interest in the show, means that it’s a key method for promoting our product range.”

Building on the theme of eradicating contamination, Fortress Technology will be unveiling the latest version of its Halo automatic test technology at the show. It can save manufacturers thousands of pounds a month, by reducing the frequency of manual testing.

The solution automatically checks that a metal detector is identifying ferrous, non-ferrous and stainless steel contaminants and tests the reject system. For food suppliers, it offers a more robust, objective and auditable testing procedure, satisfying the most demanding retailer Codes of Practice.

Also returning to the 2016 event, Loma Systems & Lock Inspection will display its range of in-line inspection systems used to identify product defects and contaminants

for the food industry. Speaking about the exhibition ahead of its return to the PPMA Total Show 2016, Toby Kemp, Global Marketing Manager at Loma Systems & Lock Inspection, commented: “Loma Systems has generally exhibited every year at the PPMA show, as it is a great place to meet up with important customers involved in the packaging industry. At the 2016 PPMA Total show we will be showcasing some of our latest product inspection developments and giving customers the opportunity to meet with our technical and application experts.”

The show is a good business platform that allows us to catch up with existing customers, understand what is happening with the industry in general and what are the latest trends in machinery and technology. It provides one of the only meeting places for the processing and packaging industry as a whole, where people can see the latest machinery innovations.”

Debuting at the PPMA Total Show 2016, new exhibitors TIPA Sustainable Packaging will reveal its flexible food packaging that behaves just like an orange peel. TIPA, a developer and manufacturer of breakthrough bio-based, fully compostable, flexible packaging, will showcase its next generation of sustainable, flexible food packaging that provides the same properties as conventional plastic packaging. The team will be available on stand B92 to discuss the opportunities for food packaging that can be disposed along with food waste – in the food waste stream or by using a composter.

Speaking about the motivation behind the innovation, Daphna Nissenbaum, CEO & Co-Founder, said: “I believe the majority of people would like to treat their packages as a natural part of their kitchen waste. TIPA was founded with the purpose of providing a holistic solution to significantly reduce the enormous amount of non-recyclable waste currently generated by the flexible packaging industry. Flexible packages have now become one of the most popular packaging types in the world and this continues to spread due to its supreme functional properties. TIPA’s breakthrough technology combines these same supreme properties, while enabling the packages to decompose back to nature post-usage.”

New PPMA Group CEO, Andrew Mint, who joined the association on the 1st February 2016, added: “The PPMA Total Show 2016 is set to be biggest yet and the show is a great opportunity for businesses to get their brand, products and equipment in front of a high profile audience and celebrate the innovation that the industry has to offer.

“The show is a fantastic platform to highlight the latest innovations whilst also bringing some of the industry’s biggest issues to the fore such as the skills gap. I’m looking forward to seeing some the most exciting recent technological developments in our industry on show, as well as hearing from some of the industry’s leading figures at the PPMA Total seminar theatre.”

To register your attendance at the show please visit: http://bit.ly/28QsHuF . For more information on the PPMA Total Show 2016, please visit http://www.ppmatotalshow. co.uk/ or join the conversation on twitter @PPMATotalShow #PPMATotalShow or the PPMA Total Show LinkedIn page

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BUILDING THE BRAND

EXPERIENCE IN THE

E-COMMERCE SECTOR

The ultimate role of packaging in e-commerce is to protect a product ordered online throughout the entire distribution process to the consumer’s home. However, as e-commerce evolves, the challenge for brands is to deliver improved brand value. This extends beyond the product itself and relates to the whole pack experience.

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ut how can packaging deliver brand value? DataLase, market leaders in inline digital printing of products and packaging, takes a look at the ‘unboxing experience’ of online shopping. Mark Naples, VP business development Europe and APAC, examines how brands can increase their premiumisation and customisation to engage consumers.

“When it comes to online purchases, brands have less touch points to impress customers compared to the in-store purchase. Therefore, it’s important they utilise every opportunity to create a brand impact that sets them apart from competitors, as well as a memorable moment for the consumer.”

According to a recent survey from Dotcom Distribution, 52 per cent of consumers are likely to make a repeat purchase from an online store that delivers premium packaging. The survey also found four out of ten consumers would share an image of an online delivery via social media if it came in a unique package. This act of online recommendation results in customer loyalty and promotes brand awareness.

Mr Naples comments: “Today, consumers are less interested in purchasing products to meet just their basic needs. They are much more interested in engaging with brands whose values they agree with. Brands are beginning to understand this and are | 64 | Packaging Europe

positioning packs to meet this evolving consumer need; a sector which has traditionally been dogged by the boring brown box approach.

“Building the consumer’s anticipation in an exciting and engaging manner as they are opening a pack in their home is key. The initial packaging, rather than the contents, can be the centrepiece of the brand experience.”

The solution for e-commerce retailers and brands is to create customised secondary packaging that stands out. Revolutionary inline digital printing technology from DataLase enables high speed, inline digital printing of products and packaging, ideal for this exact scenario. It also eliminates the need for costly labeling, offering a more sustainable approach to online packaging.

The unique print solutions from DataLase combine its core colour-change materials technology with the latest generation of laser print engines to deliver high speed, high resolution, on-demand, digital printing that is a high performance alternative to conventional print methods.

The technology relies on a unique additive which is incorporated into a material or patch applied to a pack. When exposed to CO2 or Near InfraRed lasers, it generates a colour change reaction in the pigment.

Fundamentally the DataLase solution facilitates real-time marketing capability on a pack or product through its highly responsive delivery mechanism at the point of packing and filling. The DataLase inline digital print maximises consumer interaction and brand owner value around key events and promotions within 24-48 hours of the requirement.

This changes the game in the execution of real-time marketing on pack for brands especially in the e-commerce sector.

Mr Naples adds: “Brands are now able to tap into human emotions and feelings by developing new marketing initiatives and campaigns that haven’t even been considered before because the technology hasn’t been available. DataLase is now bringing this capability to the industry. We are able to meet the online distribution demands of today and tomorrow.”

DataLase inline digital printing can be used to interpret and respond to the preferences of individual shoppers by customising graphics, images or codes on every individual pack. Personalised variable data messages and graphics engage consumers and encourage them to participate in competitions and promotions. The variable print can also be used to gain insight to their shopping behaviour.

Mr Naples continues: “For brands and retailers, using DataLase technolgy means they have more ability to do more things real-time. From adverts to personalised messages, competitions to variable data codes, the solution allows packaging to entertain and engage consumers at the point of receipt. DataLase can help to deliver the single most satisfying interaction between consumer and brand at the ‘moment of truth’.”

DataLase inline digital printing technology can be used across the FMCG market place, from food and beverage to home and personal care applications, and

is suitable for a wide range of packaging formats. Current commercial applications in Europe include corrugated cases, folding cartons, labelling and flexible packaging.

“Building a strong brand builds a loyal customer base,” comments Mr Naples. “The internet has turned people into online shoppers with some ignoring brand loyalty if the product is available at a lower price elsewhere. To try and combat the switching mentality, it’s about standing out from the competition with a well thought-out brand to define how customers see a business and product. Customised packaging helps achieve that.

“By rethinking the possibilities of e-commerce packaging and going beyond the initial protective quality requirements, DataLase helps stretch the brand’s emotive and lifestyle assets through inline digital printing. The opening experience becomes much more than a sale. It engages consumers in a new, more meaningful way that begins to build enduring relationships.”

DataLase today has offices in the UK, North America and Japan and is seeing the development of a range of market applications on a global basis. The new DataLase Variprint technology delivers a new level of pack differentiation with promotions and key variable data messages able to stand out from traditional black coding and marking style graphics featuring monochrome colours such as blue, green and red.

The future looks bright for DataLase delivering multi-colour, highly effective, flexible inline digital printing capability to maximise brand owner and retailer marketing effectiveness.

To find out more about DataLase and its innovative inline digital printing solutions, please visit www.datalase.com DataLase VARIPRINT enables YOU to custom print this text in any language at high speed, YOU can also include your best before date and batch number

Mark Naples, VP business development Europe and APAC

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Labelexpo Americas L

abelexpo Americas 2016 takes place at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Rosemont, Illinois, 13–15 September for its 15th edition. The continent’s leading trade show for the label printing industry, Labelexpo Americas 2016 is on track to be the largest edition yet and will have a renewed and significant focus on package printing.

Offering visitors a range of topical and valuable new feature areas, Labelexpo Americas was first held in 1989 and is an important industry resource for print professionals, brand owners, label and packaging designers and associated graphic industry suppliers. Covering nearly 200,000sqft, the show is again heavily supported and endorsed by official bodies: the TLMI, FSEA, AMETIQ, Acoban, AIMCAL and AIPIA. Convening over 400 exhibitors, many with enlarged and upgraded booths, there will be more working machinery on display than ever before and product launches aplenty including new kit due commercial launches for the American market by Codimag and HP. Participating exhibitors include AB Graphic, Avery Dennison, Bobst, Domino, Durst, EFI,

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Events Zakład Tworzyw Sztucznych “ArtGos” S.A. “ArtGos” Joint Stock Company is a leading manufacturer of plastic products: toilet seats and various household goods, as well as garden, construction, furniture and kids’ accessories.

The company places a great emphasis on modern technological processes and innovation, which are demonstrated by the products that distinguish themselves from the competition as originally and modernly designed. This is possible thanks to the team of passionate people focused on the permanent progress. The company continues to invest in further development of the machine park: in modern injection molding machines and the equipment, which enables to take specialized tooling services.

The company’s great advantage is well expanded product development department involved in the design of products and molds. The company successfully executes the B2B orders.

High levels of both manufactured products and other actions taken by the company is guaranteed by the certified quality management system according to ISO 9001: 2008. The company focuses on continuous technological progress and achieves the success by offering products and services in line with the customers’ needs and expectations.

Visit: www.artgos.pl

Epson, Esko, ETI, Flint Group, Fujifilm, Karlville Development, Mark Andy, MPS, Nilpeter, Omet, RotoMetrics, Screen USA, UPM Raflatac and Xeikon.

Adapting the show’s content in line with market place and consumer trends, 2016’s edition will offer its traditionally informative and educational conference program with 16 individual sessions and several more in depth master classes and a workshop. The workshop will focus on shrink sleeves while the three master classes, which are being run in association with the Label Academy, will highlight conventional label printing processes, design and origination and digital label and package printing. Show visitors will be able to follow the inaugural Linerless Trail, while 2016 will also see the Digital Finishing Experience make its debut with daily presentations taking place during the show’s three-day run.

Tasha Ventimiglia, Labelexpo Americas event director for Labelexpo Americas commented: “We’ve seen from our other shows, such as Labelexpo Europe, how increasingly important having a digital and a package printing capacity has become for

label producers, so this year’s show really reflects that move with its exhibitor profile and educational content. As usual, we will be seeking to empower the buyers visiting the show by bringing them up to speed on emerging trends, showcasing the newest developments this fast moving market offers and giving them first-rate accessibility to all the products, services and solutions that can help keep their businesses up to speed and competitive.”

An early bird discount rate is available until 2 September with expo-only passes costing from $60 and single conference sessions from $155. Half day conference sessions can also be booked for $255, the whole day at $455 and for both days from $755.

Further discounts apply for members of TLMI, ACOBAN, AIMCAL, AMETIQ, FSEA and FTA. Registrations and accommodation bookings can be made online by visiting www.labelexpo-americas.com Packaging Europe | 69 |

Sustainability

Israeli start-up TIPA created an innovative flexible packaging solution, which behaves similarly to an orange or banana peel when thrown away, to offer food and beverage brands a viable alternative to recyclable rigid plastics and non-recyclable flexibles.

Sustainability Awards Review

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or the second year running, Packaging Europe was rather overwhelmed by the quantity and variety, and the implications of the sustainable innovations and initiatives that were nominated for our Sustainability Awards, the winners of which

were announced in the July edition of Packaging Europe magazine. These included examples of great packaging development and design and smart collaboration.

In the instance of the winner of our overall Best Innovation award, Magic Add, we

Marketable sustainability! Greencore Group used Cryovac’s Sealappeal ovenable

Iggesund adopted a philosophy that ‘many small steps add up to large ones’. While there

packaging solution for its line of convenience products. Sealappeal OSF offers

have been numerous multi-million euro investments, the company also made many

real peelability, enhanced hermeticity and outstanding transparency – resulting in

smaller investment decisions with significant environmental implications, including a

products that stay fresher longer while delivering a more appealing presentation.

wooden bridge linking the mill at Iggesund with the wastewater purification facility on the adjacent island of Skälön.

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Sustainability celebrated the back engine that generates unique smart codes in unlimited quantities – an enabling technology that reminds us that, as packaging grows smarter, the industry is no longer restricted to the realm of physical packs and machinery. In our selection we strove to present a cross-section of the industry’s achievements, in the

process stimulating debate and encouraging an environment in which new ideas and cross-fertilisations are ever more welcome.

Over the following pages we present a recap of some of the fine achievements recognised in the Sustainability Awards.

Working with supplier Ceramicx, LINPAC succeeded in achieving drastic energy

A victory for collaboration. Dow’s Packaging and Specialty Plastics business worked

reductions on its expanded polystyrene (EPS) packaging lines.

with industry leaders Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) and Accredo Packaging to produce the first ever recyclable Dishwasher Pods packaging for the North American based brand Seventh Generation.

The Story Behind the Success

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ack in July Paper-Like™ from Bemis scooped a runner-up award in the Packaging Europe Sustainability Awards. Here Bemis shares the backstory of the benefits the solution brought to a customer in Ireland.

Customer: The number one brand in Ireland for sausages, rashers and cooked meats

The Application: Reclose packaging with Paper-Like™ printing for sliced processed meat.

The Challenge: The customer wanted to reboost its current brand using Paper-Like™. Having a paper look and feel without using paper and having packaging with UV and AF

Advantages: Bemis Paper-Like™ printed film combined with its recloseable PET sealant technology, integrating UV barrier and AF coating, presents a standard machinability offering standard line speed, perfect winding, perfect film flatness, great seal integrity and an intertie to H2O. This unique solution offered productivity and logistic advantages: • Less reel change compared to a paper containing substrate • Increased square meter volume per pallet • Combined with Bemis printing capabilities, any window type could be designed

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More about Paper-Like™ Paper-Like™ offers a traditional touch with a twist. It is a paper packaging alternative feature that offers a considerable weight reduction in comparison with paper laminates, leading to material savings, reduced transport cost, and lower eco-taxes.

Depending on local infrastructure, it may additionally offer improved recyclability over laminate materials.

As the brand name suggests, Paper-Like™ is a flexible plastic solution with the look and feel of paper. It can be applied on all flexible materials − BOPA, PA, PET, and BOPP, and is suitable on all processing machines: thermoforming, tray lidding, and flow pack.

In addition to the environmental benefits associated with weight reduction, PaperLike™ boasts what Bemis claim as a number of competitive advantages in relation to paper laminates. While offering the look and feel of paper, it retains the efficiency of film laminates: easy to seal and good flatness allowing higher production outputs and lower leakers.

In addition to the environmental and cost advantages, custom-branded PaperLike™ offers brand owners and retailers a chance to make their products stand out from competitors, with a visual and tactile impression that can be decisive at the point of purchase. High resolution rotogravure printing technology can create a unique branded paper look. Paper-Like™, available in several standard designs (cloudy paper look or lined paper look - brown or white), offers an attractive artisanal appearance which provides a ‘Great First Moment of Truth’ - sustainability underpinned by an attractive business model.

Visit: www.bemis.com/europe

Bio-Based

Sustainable Solid

Board Solutions SOLIDUS SOLUTIONS, the largest pan-European integrated solid board operation, is a proud winner of the prestigious Packaging Europe bio-based sustainability award 2016, for its solid board enriched with tomato plant fibres. Libby White spoke with Saskia Cooman, business developer, and Remy Notten, marketing and sales director, about the solution behind the win and the company’s forward-thinking strategy for developing sustainable packaging.

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roviding its innovative solid board solutions to fish customers in the north of Norway to producers of strawberries in the southern parts of Spain, SOLIDUS SOLUTIONS comprises of five large board mills and five converters. Its major market is Europe, and it also delivers to the US and South America, where it takes opportunities to develop further. With over a century of experience and knowledge to build on, today SOLIDUS SOLUTIONS has a strong focus on providing bespoke and sustainable solutions for the fruit & vegetables, fish, flowers, and meat & poultry sectors.

Mr Notten explains the dominance on these markets of solid board packaging is due to certain advantageous characteristics: “The material is very resistant to humidity, and you can freeze products immediately in it as well. Our solid board can be supplied with a moisture protective PE layer, ensuring moisture does not influence the integral strength of the boxes. This makes them suitable for humid and cooling conditions. A solid board box is robust and compact and retains its maximum

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strength even under humid conditions.” It is an environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative to the usual polystyrene and plastic crates. After all, solid board is 100 per cent recyclable and made from renewable resources.

per cent which means it is a very environmentally friendly way of packaging products. There are many interesting opportunities for developing more sustainable solutions.”

New developments

A winning solution

SOLIDUS SOLUTIONS is constantly working on new developments, such as bagin-box solutions. Mr Notten comments, “We have developed a bag-in-box solutions suitable for motor oil for example. We are also developing solutions in our focus sectors such as for fresh fish. SOLIDUS SOLUTIONS also focuses on developing sustainable methods of waste disposal with solid board solutions that are reusable.

“We of course receive a big demand in requests for sustainable solutions. Our solid board is made from a base of cellulose fibres which is an eternal source of raw material. Recycling of board is also at a very high level of around 75 to 80

SOLIDUS SOLUTIONS’ skilled team of product engineers developed fully-sustainable solid board packaging that is enriched with the recycled fibres of tomato plants.

This means that tomatoes can now be packaged for retail using their ‘own’ plant fibres, a highly attractive concept for both consumers and growers.

Saskia Cooman explains, “We wanted to develop a valuable, sustainable solution. A few years ago, the tomato growers in the Netherlands were going through a difficult period during the economic crisis. To turn this around, there was a focus on developing sustainable and innovative solutions. We worked together with the

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growers closely who we already supplied our solid board packaging to. We are always looking for alternative raw materials to recycled wood fibres.”

Four years ago, a special project group was established consisting of knowledge institutes, the growers, a university, a green waste converter, consultant specialists, and SOLIDUS SOLUTIONS to investigate the possible technology needed to use tomato plant fibres in solid board.

Every year, 85 million kilos of tomato plants are grown on approximately 1800 hectares in the Netherlands. Usually the life cycle of these plants ends when they are composted, resulting in the loss of the valuable elements contained in the plants such as protein and cellulose. SOLIDUS SOLUTIONS however has pioneered an innovative method of applying this plant residue in a highly efficient manner to produce solid board which can itself later be recycled. Every hectare of tomato plants can produce

100,000 tomato boxes (trays of 6kg), which is exactly the amount of packaging needed for the 600 tonnes of tomatoes that are grown on the same hectare. This means that this year’s crop can provide next year’s packaging – a perfect example of maximum use.

The tomato board packaging has yielded quantifiable environmental gains, since waste paper and tomato plants become recyclable sources for solid board, and the board can later be collected as waste paper. Compared with the old situation, this innovation enables a reduction of CO2 emissions between 250 and 54,500g CO2 eq. for 1000kg board, or approximately 200 boxes for 6kg of tomatoes (depending on whether a limited or broad process scenario is used). This equals up to 420 kilometres by car.

This innovative bio-based solid board has been used in packaging for Silky Pink cocktail tomatoes for Duijvestijn Tomaten, a producer of sustainably-grown tomatoes, and to produce consumer packaging for 0.7 to 1kg vine tomatoes for Harvest House. Harvest House supplies a range of retailers including HelloFresh, the international online ordering service for fresh ingredients. The very first packaging enriched with tomato plant fibres, a 6kg tomato tray was produced for The Greenery. SOLIDUS SOLUTIONS recently also produced new 1.5 and 5 kg tomato boxes using this unique board for Naturelle, a wholesale specialized in organic products and affiliate of The Greenery.

The solid board packaging enriched with tomato plant fibres is fully recyclable, and at least as strong as regular solid board, meaning that tomatoes packed in the tomato plant board are well protected during packing, storage, cooling, and transport to the consumer.

Saskia Cooman concludes, “We successfully introduced the first tomato board packaging on the market last year. We are currently optimising the technology used for a certain capacity, and energy usage etc to be able to offer a regular production process. We receive attention from companies all around the world and are looking forward to developing this solution further.”

Visit: www.solidus-solutions.com

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All About

Aluminium Foil The European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA) is the international body representing companies engaged in the rolling (in all thicknesses up to 0.2mm – the ISO standard maximum) and rewinding of alufoil and in the manufacture of aluminium closures, alufoil semi-rigid containers and of all kind of flexible packaging. Founded in 1974 it has its roots in associations dating back to the 1920s, and today its more than 100 members include companies in western, central and eastern Europe.

Libby White spoke with Mr Guido Aufdemkamp, Executive Director, to find out more about its most recent activities.

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AFA’s growth has always made sense, with strategic expansion into specialised groups over the decades, ensuring it meets the needs of all of its members. Today the association comprises of five main groups: Closures, Container, Rewinder, Roller and Flexible Packaging Europe (FPE). The association’s activities on behalf of its members include the compilation and sharing of statistical information, market research, generic PR, and promoting aluminium foil and developing the interests of the foil manufacturing and converting industry with third parties.

Sustainability issues are high on the agenda for both aluminium foil and flexible packaging and activities include environmental lobbying for flexible packaging on European level. Food contact is another area in which the association is active. EAFA also promotes the European foil and flexible packaging industry internationally and creates relationships with sister associations around the globe.

Activities As a leading voice in the industry, the EAFA’s renowned Alufoil Trophy is demonstrative of the many innovative potentials of aluminium foil. The competition is open to products which are either made from aluminium foil or contain aluminium foil as part of a laminate, structure or packaging system, as well as aluminium closures.

Categories cover every aspect of aluminium foil usage across many diverse markets, particularly those for packaging and technical applications. This year, 65 entries across the five major categories produced 10 outstanding winners, plus an Overall Excellence winner.

EAFA is currently running an innovative campaign to demonstrate the value of aluminium closures and their benefits and convenience. Young professionals in Brussels are being invited to ALUNCH, being held near the European parliament throughout April and May. To pay for their lunch, they simply need to bring along some aluminium bottle closures. All closures collected will be sent for recycling.

Mr Aufdemkamp stresses that 45 per cent of aluminium closures in Europe are recycled. He says, “The beauty of aluminium closures is that they can be collected within two waste streams. In the UK we support an Alupro campaign together with British Glass called ‘leave your cap on’, to highlight that metals can be extracted from the glass stream.”

The EAFA often facilitates other campaigns to help with networking.

Within the last ten years or so, the EAFA has had a strong focus on sustainability. It has been able to demonstrate from a number of various studies, the resource efficiency of aluminium foil, as well as products containing aluminium foil. On a global scale, EAFA’s initiative early last year turned into a self-standing global organisation for aluminium foil rollers: GLAFRI. This is essential to ensure members can create one voice with regards to promoting aluminium foil all over the world and with regards to a sustainability narrative. Mr Aufdemkamp comments, “Having one approach and body is very important to customers who are for example multinational companies and will rightly expect the same answers for foil in all regions of the world. By promoting it internationally, we can give the same answers all over the world and unify the sector.”

Representation The EAFA prides itself on providing public affairs for the sector, mainly apparent in its flexible packaging Europe category, which is very active in food contact issues and legislation, conformity declarations, and migration issues, etc.

The association is present at numerous exhibitions, such as interpack and the Aluminium Fair in Düsseldorf. Mr Aufdemkamp is pleased to share that with the establishment of its Closures Group, it has also been active and present at the largest international wine fair, the ProWein, in Düsseldorf.

Vocally active in the circular economy package discussion, the EAFA takes a strong stance on promoting the resource efficiency of aluminium foil, and it works alongside other trade bodies and industry representatives towards this common goal.

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Another attribute of aluminium foil that the EAFA is keen to endorse is the sustainability framework of the material. Mr Aufdemkamp comments, “We focus on promoting the sustainability of aluminium foil, and aim to show this translates much further than its recyclability. We support the concept of resource efficiency as a whole, from the very beginning – not with just the goal of creating a product that can be easily recycled.”

Advantages of aluminium foil The EAFA is committed to promoting the advantages of aluminium foil, such as its absolute barrier properties, and guaranteed quality of packaged goods by preventing the loss of valuable aromas, as well as providing a 100 per cent barrier against light, oxygen, moisture and contamination. Mr Aufdemkamp comments, “We continuously promote aluminium foil to make it visible in consumer’s minds as it is often hidden in combination with other materials.”

He stresses the importance of research and life cycle assessments to find proof rather than relying on common perceptions. He says, “We carried out a particular life cycle assessment through an independent third party lca specialist institute comparing the energy efficiency of producing household foil with cleaning a reusable plastic lunchbox in a dishwasher. The common opinion was that the lunchbox would perform as more environmentally friendly, however the assessment proved contrary to this belief.” This surprising outcome shows that aluminium foil should not be taken at face value, and the EAFA will continue to provide accurate data to better understand and inform consumers of the benefits of aluminium foil.

With a healthy and growing demand in Europe for aluminium foil, Mr Aufdemkamp concludes on its popularity and use, “In particular with the growth of flexible packaging, aluminium foil will continue to grow alongside this sector due to the properties it can add to this particular packaging. Aluminium foil is often recognised on the shelf in seasonal periods - seasonal goods in the run up to Easter and Christmas stand out with aluminium foil packaging.”

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Federfin Tech Srl Federfin Tech srl was born from the desire to create a technically advanced streamlined aluminium capsule producer, oriented towards innovation in a continually evolving sector. The company’s management is able to utilise its 30 years of experience in the closure field to create entirely new products. It is dedicated to total customer satisfaction whatever the request, establishing close and cooperative relationships for the production and marketing of new products and solutions.

Its cooperation with important commercial partners and research offices at an international level has resulted in a notable increase in knowledge, which can be translated into the development of highly innovative, unique products.

Federfin’s focus is directed towards the constant evolution of its product line using the most advanced production and marketing techniques, all with the close involvement of stakeholders (i.e. clients, internal and external human resources and suppliers). Its production department contains the most modern, hi-tech machinery but at the same time it remains highly flexible when it comes to multiple change-overs depending on the closure format required. It is continually working to improve its performance when it comes to quality and efficiency.

The strong spirit of cooperation throughout the team is based on transparency, the sharing of objectives, and constant circulation of information between the various company units by means of a highly advanced IT system. Federfin can boast a highly skilled technical team with a wealth of experience, able to guarantee immediate technical and professional assistance to its customers wherever they are in the world. The 360° service offered to customers encompasses rapid response, dynamic ability and flexibility in confronting every challenge presented, as well as adaptability to changing market trends. Its highly qualified customer service team can advise customers on the type of capsule most suited to their needs, working closely with them on the creation of new products, through preparation of estimates all the way up to delivery and after-sales services.

When it comes to sales the company exports worldwide, with commercial offices in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Russia, Mexico and the US enabling it to stay close to customers and meet their every need. In every facility, the most rigorous standards of hygiene are maintained in order to meet the demands of HACCP and ISO 9001/2000 with the aim of ensuring the client receives the highest quality products from every point of view.

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Contital plays a bigger role in European market Contital is experiencing a highly positive period, both reinforcing its position in the European market and launching new innovations for bakery and pastry industries. We had a little chat with the Commercial Director, Pasquale Pollice, about the path the Company has taken.

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ontital is one the leading European companies in the aluminium food tray industry. The Italian company is part of the Laminazione Sottile Group, and started its manufacturing activities in 1992; in these 25 years Contital has constantly grown in terms of production capacity and market share.

From the initial manufacturing of semi-rigid wrinkle wall aluminium trays, the company has expanded its portfolio, launching new lines for both Consumer and Professional ranges, including PET containers, rigid and semi rigid smooth wall trays and even microfiber cloths.

“This growth should not be seen as a consequence of our industrial and commercial capabilities only; it’s the reward for a job built on a very solid ethical base. Our activities are focused on respect for the environment, our employees and our customers, considering our products not just as goods but as solutions to bring benefits into our customers’ lives,” said Pasquale Pollice, Contital Commercial Director.

Increased focus on sustainability Recently, Pasquale Pollice has been appointed Vice-President of the EAFA Container Group (European Aluminium Foil Association). This public role means a major opportunity for Contital to make a stronger contribution to the European campaigns promoting aluminum containers and foil, and to participate more and | 88 | Packaging Europe

more in the debate on the topics of sustainability, recycling and the fight against food waste.

“Concerning the ‘Stop food Waste’ campaign, we think an increased awareness of the shortage of natural resources and the need to improve food storage systems are the main areas for modern society to focus on. As packaging producers we have the duty to invest, both in technology and innovation, in order to extend the shelf life of the food, enabling it to be stored for a longer time without any artificial additives.”

Focused on the idea of creating a sustainable and innovative product, Contital has developed a new line of circular containers, named ‘Happy Day’. The idea can be summarised in three R letters: Rigid, Reusable, Recyclable. The container has been created with the bakery and pastry industries in mind, to cook salty and sweet cakes and pies in the oven.

“Happy Day is a product which perfectly reflects Contital’s vision. We wanted to create a new aluminum tray range, but it should be rigid and reusable, maintaining full recyclability. Compared to traditional cake pans, Happy Day guarantees uniform cooking on sides and the bottom, owing to a patented manufacturing process. Yet, in the bare or copper colour version, its elegance could satisfy the aesthetic needs of important pastry firms, becoming an essential part of the product marketing.”

Starting from the idea of extending Contital’s product range to support professionals with the right tools for their job, a new line of microfiber cloths was also born.

“I must say that, here again, this line has been conceived to satisfy customers’ needs, constantly maintaining the purpose of creating an environmentally friendly product. We chose microfiber as raw material because of its special texture: it allows for deep cleaning using less detergent and its resistance makes it reusable many times. These features can contribute to reducing waste and the emission of pollutants into the environment.”

Brand new addition The last innovation in Contital’s portfolio is happening right now, with the launch of Bake-eeze®, an anti-sticking container range that marks a revolution in the aluminium container sector.

The product is the result of the cooperation between the R&D department of Laminazione Sottile Group and Contital, to develop a new line for industrial bakery and pastry companies. The concept was developed following many requests from customers, owing to the fact that in industrial baking some foods often stick to the container after the cooking process. This forces manufacturers either to adopt different solutions that slow down production, or to sell a final product with a possible lower appeal, since its aesthetic could be ruined when the consumer removes the food from the tray and part of the food (e.g. croissant, pie) remains on the container.

“The innovation of Bake-eeze consists in treating the surface of the aluminium containers with a vegetable lubricant, through a patented manufacturing process.

The lubricant is already approved in Europe as a food additive and is widely used in the food industry as a glazing agent.”

The advantages of Bake-eeze, both for industrial food producers and consumers, are:

Increased aluminium resistance to corrosion The thin and slight layer of lubricant, remaining on the container after moulding, guarantees high resistance to corrosion. This means the container is more resistant to aggressive foods compared to bare aluminium ones. This has been proven through laboratory oxidation stability tests.

Health benefits The anti-sticking properties of the containers allow the user to avoid the usual practice of greasing the trays with butter, margarine or various oils. This means the Bake-eeze enables the production of healthier food, with less saturated and unsaturated fats.

“Bake-eeze is something we had been asked for many times in the past by our customers. The process could be extended to all kinds of Contital Professional line containers and trays, both wrinkle wall and smooth wall, rigid or semi rigid. Yet, it could be applied in the future to consumer ranges too (e.g. Ready2Eat and PrestoFatto). Now we’re very eager to distribute it to our consolidated client base and to approach eastern Europe and other markets that are relatively new to us.”

Visit: www.contital.com

High anti sticking property Laboratory tests carried out with foods more inclined to stick (e.g. omelette) and industrial production carried out by some customers demonstrated that, when removing the food from the Bake-eeze containers, there’s no trace of it on the bottom or on the sides of the tray.

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Barriers without boundaries

Metalchimica is a global leader in the design and manufacture of packaging for a broad range of industries from cosmetics and pharmaceuticals to agrochemicals and food. Philip Yorke takes a closer look at a company that continues to set the standards in quality and innovative packaging solutions.

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etalchimica was founded in Pineto, Italy in 1982 by Giovanni Sacchini, who launched the production of containers with up to a 5 litre capacity. The success of this business allowed his son Fabrizio to expand the company during the 1990’s and to grow into the global player that it is today. The expertise that the company has developed in the field of plastic materials has allowed it to specialise in the planning and creation of items for both liquid and solid industrial products.

The company guarantees the high quality that it has become renowned for thanks to its use of innovative technologies and state-of-the-art equipment, as well as the professional competences of its highly qualified staff, who are able to meet the requirements of the most demanding clients.

Leaders in Coex production techniques Innovation has always been at the heart of Metalchimica’s business strategy and the company constantly invests in new technology to support its ambitions. Today Metalchimica is able to decorate any type of plastic material of any shape up to 1 litre and thanks to its expertise is able to promptly and professionally meet individual customer needs. The company creates multi-colour silk screen pad printing including the all-round printing technology and hot-stamping prints even onto complex shapes.

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In addition, the wide range of zero-toxicity paints further enhances the product and thus guarantees the accuracy of each product in precise detail. Today Metalchimica is the leader in Coex bottles and jerry can manufacturing, which is the technology that allows the production of multi-layer plastic containers to be made with Evoh or polyamide with a minimum thickness that provides the essential barrier layer function. The first barrier container was patented in 1993.

Thanks to these innovative solutions the container becomes resistant to aggressive agents to plastic, such as solvents or impermeable gas, thereby increasing the shelf life of products sensitive to oxygen and it also preserves the fragrant essences of the product that would otherwise quickly migrate outwards from traditional containers.

Enhancing shelf-appeal Metalchimica is able to decorate any type of plastic material and a wide variety of solutions are available that can personalise and enhance the aesthetics of the product, which in turn will optimise the shelf appeal of any product. Among its many decorative manufacturing options available are traditional and UV silk-screen printing, hot-foil printing, metallic

finishing, lacquering, painting, labelling, pad printing and sleeving among many others. In addition the company offers a wide range of colours and visual effects, as well as soft-touch tactile effects and braille printing and this can all be done with zero-toxicity paints.

The company is also producing both cylindrical and oval tubes, ensuring the highest flexibility in terms of run sizes to also satisfy niche market requirements. It is able to create glossy and satin finishes on all diameters with cap decorations and safety seal if required. In addition, Metalchimica has the ability to print the entire tube body from the shoulder cut up to the tube’s open-end and to totally lacquer it, with three different print technologies that include offset, silk-screen and hot printing without reserve. This can be done using all masters, including iridescent, pearly and metallic colours if required.

Showcasing innovation Metalchimica has been a global leader in its packaging disciplines for more than 30 years and specialises in the production of PP, PE, PETG, PVCPMMA and biodegradable monolayer and Coex articles through a variety of technologies. These include single-stage

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PET transformation, injection moulding, offset printing, silk-screen printing, hot foil blocking and pad printing and sleeving.

In order to meet expectations in terms of innovation for the most demanding national and international companies, Pack Innovation – a startup of Metalchimica Group – researches and develops innovative solutions for pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food plastic packaging. Among the latest launches is an antimicrobial treatment, patented as a revolutionary formula to protect the container’s surface until the end of its life from invasion by microbial agents, thereby reducing the spread of many bacterial, viral and fungal infections.

The company is equipped with a virtual design area with solid modelling and with the ability to create 3D samples and prototypes. The utmost flexibility and customer care has made Metalchimica a privileged partner of the most important multinational groups. The company is also certified, as you would expect to ISO 9001: 2008.

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Focus on sustainability Metalchimica takes its social responsibilities seriously and has an environmental and sustainability programme in place to minimise waste and reduce its energy consumption. The company produces recyclable containers that maintain the original material properties used in manufacturing unaltered and can be disposed of in domestic, retail or public disposal compost sites. What’s more, the special additives used to activate the enzymes, rapidly break down the plastic molecule chains making it bio-degradable over a short period of time.

The company’s commitment to environmental protection is also reflected in its production processes which results in the recycling of more than 1200 kilos of plastic every day. Furthermore, Metalchimica self-generates part of the production process required to n run its lines through an impressive photovoltaic system.

For further details of Metalchimica’s innovative products and services visit: www.metalchimicagroup.it

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Shaping packaging’s future Sarten is one of the leading companies in the European market in the manufacture of metal cans and plastic packaging for food, cosmetics and a broad range of industrial applications. Celebrating 45 years of success the company is now one of Europe’s biggest packaging companies. Philip Yorke takes a closer look at Sarten’s operations to discover what drives the company and enables it to continue to expand and gain market share.

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ounded in 1972, Sarten is the biggest integrated packaging producer in Turkey and one of the largest and most progressive in Europe. In addition to supplying packaging to the food industry, the company also produces metal and plastic packages for lubrication oils and chemical products, as well as aerosol cans and twist closures. Today Sarten provides packaging products to more than 2000 companies across 80 countries worldwide. The company services its diverse customer base with 15 state-of-the-art production facilities, 13 of which are based in Turkey. In 2015 Sarten produced over 160,000 tonnes of metal products and more than 15,000 tonnes of plastic products, which generated sales of over €300 million.

Technology frontrunner Sarten is the market leader and technological frontrunner across the metal and plastic container, with its R&D facilities in Silivri and its headquarters in Istanbul, from where it also supplies machinery and manufacturing moulds for its 15 factories. Sarten’s R&D department was established in 2005, has achieved major

industry awards and has evolved to set the industry standards at its state-of-the-art Technology Centre.

A programme of continuous investment has meant that it has developed automation and innovative initiatives designed to reduce production costs and to increase quality and productivity. In addition, it works to improve occupational health and safety at its 15 modern manufacturing facilities.

The company has also recently invested in two high-tech printing machines, with one capable of printing in seven colours and the other able to print eight. They are the most advanced KBA machines on the market and have the largest capacity in Europe. Furthermore, Sarten has invested in new production lines for its twist closures and easy-open ends.

“We’re continuously investing to increase our production capacity in order to meet the increasing demands of our customers and to be able to offer them the best solutions. Also, through our R&D department we are exploring the opportunities created by new technologies in order to improve our efficiency and quality,” said Zeki Saribekir, Sarten’s CEO.

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Expanding global footprint The main industry sectors Sarten serves are food, paint, lubricants, chemicals, household products and cosmetics. More than 75 per cent of the company’s sales are for the domestic market, with the balance being for its export markets. Key export markets include the Middle East and North Africa, Russia and the CIS countries. Globally the company enjoys direct sales to over 80 countries. Today Sarten is continuing to expand into new markets including South Africa and the USA, and plans to open more new manufacturing plants strategically located close to its key customers.

Alongside its standard range of products, the company is able to integrate special procedures into its main production line in order to satisfy specific customers demands in its diverse global markets.

A strong on-going investment programme is underpinned by the increasing regional demand and the company’s success in growth markets such as the Middle East and North Africa. Its ability to continue to gain market share in booming markets is a direct result of its investment in new plant and technology, as well as its innovative packaging solutions.

Turkey offers the same low-cost incentives as its Asian counterparts, but with the added advantage of being in the same time zone and able to guarantee faster, ‘just-in-time’ deliveries. Furthermore, as long as Sarten continues to offer its customers innovative products that meet the highest standards, it will always have the competitive edge.

With its headquarters located in Istanbul, Sarten has 13 state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Turkey and two others, one in Russia and another in Bulgaria. In total, Sarten has over 120,000 square metres of production area in covered facilities and a further 270,000 square metres in open area plants. As a dedicated regional player, Sarten’s manufacturing locations highlight its focus on its neighbouring countries.

The company expects its domestic market to continue to see strong growth with similar forecasts for Russia and many other European countries.

On-going investment Sarten’s plastic packaging mainly involves PET bottles and is able to produce a range of designs from 50ml up top 30,000ml with thin wall packaging and plastic caps and closures that are 100 per cent leak-proof. Plastic twist-off caps and other items are also available and, in addition, the company’s products and processes all meet the ISO 9001:2008 quality certification.

Sarten has invested heavily in R&D and has introduced many new products and services to meet the growing global demand for its products. These include shaped aerosol cans and cosmetic packaging as well as many unique tailor-made solutions.

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State-of-the-art facilities

Zeki Saribekir, CEO

For further details about Sarten’s innovative packaging products visit: www.sarten.com.tr

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Corrugated plus Since joining the well-established Dunapack in February, respected Greek family-owned quality corrugated packaging manufacturer Viokyt Packaging SA is poised to reap the benefits of extensive investment and a widened global network. Emma-Jane Batey spoke to sales director Vassilis Exarchos to learn more.

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“Our packaging solutions do not just meet the packaging needs of our customers but, frequently, also meet their marketing requirements. We can provide innovative, versatile packaging solutions that protect customers’ products and also optimise their appearance on the shelf.”

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ased in Schimatari, Greece, family business Viokyt SA has been producing high quality corrugated packaging for more than 40 years. The company was acquired by the Dunapack Packaging Division in February 2016, and along with it the company’s 50,000m2 production capacity and its reputation for excellence in corrugated packaging across central and eastern Europe.

With its significant investments in technology and people in the four decades since its establishment, Viokyt represented an appealing prospect for its new owner.

Leading market position in Europe Dunapack Packaging Division is part of the Austrian Prinzhorn Holding and specialises in high-quality printed corrugated packaging solutions produced from recycled paper.

With an annual production volume of around 1.656 million square metres of corrugated packaging, Dunapack Packaging ranks among the leading European packaging manufacturers. In total, this international packaging expert has a workforce of more than 3488 employees across 10 countries (Austria, Hungary, Germany, Ukraine, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Turkey and Greece).

Prinzhorn Holding currently has 5700 employees in 14 countries and thus ranks among the European market leaders in the recycling, paper and packaging industry. With an annual turnover of €1.262 billion, the group is currently number three in this market segment. The family owned Prinzhorn Holding, headquartered in Vienna, is structured into three divisions: Hamburger Recycling Group (collection and trading of waste paper);

Hamburger Containerboard (manufacture of corrugated raw paper); and Dunapack Packaging (corrugated packaging solutions).

Dunapack Viokyt’s sales director Vassilis Exarchos spoke to Packaging Europe to explain how the acquisition has created new opportunities for the benefits of both parties.

Mr Exarchos said: “The acquisition has been quickly followed by impressive plans for continued expansion and modernisation across our plant in Schimatari. The upgrading of our facilities will see a new 2.5-metre corrugator enable us to increase our production capacity threefold, to approximately 160 million m2 per year. This has been a very exciting time for us as we have been able to capture the family spirit of Viokyt while harnessing the financial strength of our new owners.”

The Viokyt family spirit is certainly an important ingredient in its success. Mr Exarchos continued, “Quality has always been important to Viokyt, ever since the company was founded in 1973. Quality has continued to be what sets us apart from the competition and is why we have been a welcome addition to the Dunapack portfolio. By offering a solid handle on the corrugated packaging market across central and eastern Europe, we will continue to provide the type of high quality corrugated packaging that we have become famous for.”

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“Quality has always been important to Viokyt, ever since the company was founded in 1973. Quality has continued to be what sets us apart from the competition and is why we have been a welcome addition to the Dunapack portfolio.” packaging, fruit and vegetable trays and shelf-ready packaging, Dunapack Viokyt fulfills its customers’ needs by producing cardboard boxes with embedded cells, pouches ranges from 3 litres to 28 litres and wine bottle cases for up to six bottles. Mr Exarchos noted, “Our packaging solutions do not just meet the packaging needs of our customers but, frequently, also meet their marketing requirements. We can provide innovative, versatile packaging solutions that protect customers’ products and also optimise their appearance on the shelf.”

A company well known also for its appreciation of its corporate social responsibility, it is ‘extremely sensitive towards the environment and feels strong solidarity with the wider local community’. Consequently, Dunapack Viokyt’s recycling programme is impressive and its workforce is loyal. Having invested in a double ISOBAR and water deck system in 2013, its energy footprint was reduced considerably, with continued plans to improve wherever possible across the organisation.

Dunapack Viokyt’s best selling product is its flexo packaging in more than four colours: its high quality printing up to seven colours is certainly a feather in its cap. Mr Exarchos said, “We are known not just for our corrugated packaging but also the quality of our printing. We actively participate in the market of the customers’ product and we attach great value on the perception of the product and its shelf appeal. This is where the

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recent investment has been most concentrated as we know that this is our unique selling proposition, particularly as we have been doing this for more than 40 years, but without standing still.”

Invest and develop Indeed, Dunapack Viokyt’s investment in 2016 will soon come to practical fruition as it expects to have the most technically advanced new equipment up and running in its upgraded facilities by the end of the year. Mr Exarchos pointed out that the actual details of the investment and the new equipment have yet to be publicly released, but he is clear that the investment will be of great interest to both new and existing customers.

“Our new investment and new product development will harness what we have learned over the past 40 years and will make the most of the financial investment of our new owners. With the global potential we now have as part of a large multinational group, coupled with the extensive, unrivaled experience we have of the Greek and neighbouring countries’ packaging requirements, we know that 2017 and beyond will be very interesting years for us. Our future is not yet written but it’s been a very good story so far n and we are sure it can only get better!”

Visit: www.dunapack-viokyt.gr

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ALL4PACK Paris: Celebrating Creativity

ALL4PACK Paris, formerly the EMBALLAGE & MANUTENTION exhibitions, is all set to hit the Paris Nord Villepinte on the 14-17 November 2016. To reflect the increasing integration along the entire production chain, the popular and complementary exhibitions have evolved into ALL4PACK Paris to become the global marketplace for Packaging, Processing, Printing & Handling. This marks a strategic move in response to buyers’ expectations and reinforces the event’s key position for the EMEA region at an international level.

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hrough its scale and the exhaustive nature of its range on offer, ALL4PACK Paris is capable of bringing professionals from nearly 100 countries together in one place, making it a major meeting place for all industry players. To help all these people develop high quality ties at the show, the exhibition is stepping up its efforts in 2016. Attendees can benefit from an array of new incentives, such as a brand new and free to use service which uses an online platform to forward plan business meetings between exhibitors and visitors.

A fresh focus ALL4PACK Paris is confirming its international ambition by focusing on the EMEA region, which offers the greatest potential for the majority of exhibitors. The 2016 edition will focus in particular on the African continent.

The main theme of ALL4PACK Paris is ‘Let’s be creative!’ With a programme packed with exciting and insightful features and events, ALL4PACK will plunge its attendees into a visiting experience hallmarked with innovation, as illustrated by the creative process of industry players.

ALL4PACK Paris will be offering an unprecedented range of content, addressing today’s most pressing themes for industry professionals: connected and ultra-smart packaging, health, safety and transparency issues, eco-design and zero waste, and e-commerce.

The exhibition will offer a multitude of show features to give the expected 98,000 trade visitors the opportunity to gain insight into trends and learn more about the challenges facing the industry today and tomorrow. This represents a high-value source of forward-looking information.

An expanded programme The fact that the two exhibitions have been held jointly since 2010 is a testament to the relevance of this synergy, with MANUTENTION’s range providing the perfect complement to the EMBALLAGE end-of-line sector. Since then, buyers on the market have shifted towards a global purchasing policy, which includes packaging, processing, printing systems and intralogistics solutions. The new ALL4PACK Paris brand makes this expansion of the exhibition’s range clearer and ensures consistency with industry developments, positioning itself as the international reference trade event for the packaging and intralogistics sector.

Comexposium, organiser of the exhibition has streamlined the proceedings with a new name and expanded range, a simpler and more transparent pricing system, a | 102 | Packaging Europe

new setup in Halls 5a, 6 and 7 with a simplified layout, and a programme of unprecedented lectures and events to promote and understand innovation.

For example, in Hall 5a, the Forum will be devoted to technical talks and workshops about the Packaging industry and the supply chain 4.0, in association with trade bodies ASLOG, CISMA, GEPPIA, SECIMEP and SYMOP. Among the themes addressed will be the digitalisation of the supply chain, automation and robotics to improve firms’ industrial competitive edge. This event will provide an opportunity to foster dialogue and networking between professionals around lessons learned and tangible solutions.

Perfect platform for showcasing solutions ALL4PACK has asserted its status as the definitive crossroads for innovation. Attendees will benefit once again from the renowned PACK INNOVATION, revealing trends and acting as a showcase for new solutions. In Hall 7, a dedicated space will present innovations and the discovery of all the most recent solutions offered by exhibitors. The selected products will be displayed in a showcase throughout the show, and the most outstanding will receive a distinction from the Pack Experts Committee in the form of an Innovation Award.

In a world exclusive, ALL4PACK will play host to ‘Exposition 10/10’, the international competition dedicated to packaging and presented by the Pentawards. This look back in time will showcase the ‘greatest hits’ from among the exceptional packaging solutions distinguished for their creativity and originality by the Pentawards judging

panel over the past ten years. This is a unique opportunity for professionals to discover 100 packaging solutions from 26 countries, sorted into 10 categories, thus offering a global vision of the most creative and best-in-class from over the last decade.

Best Pack 4.0, an event which offers a blend of foresight, changes in use and design, at a time when connectivity is the buzzword for packaging of the future, will also be a highlight of ALL4PACK. Design students from four international colleges in Canada, France, Italy and the Netherlands will offer a fresh and forward-looking view of technological progress-triggered developments which await the packaging world. They will offer their contributions to answer the question: “Starting from existing and already utilised technologies and those that will emerge in the short or longer term, what is your forward looking vision for utility and life cycle scenarios of the Connected Packaging of the future?”

The TV Stage will provide coverage across the four day event as a unique platform for analysis and exchange, broadcast on YouTube via ALL4PACK Paris’ WebTV. All the exhibition’s highlights will be discussed by experts, stakeholders and influential figures from the industry.

There will also be a dedicated test zone area set aside for AGVs (automated guided vehicles) and other wheeled and mobile equipment, to allow exhibitors to demonstrate their machines to visitors.

Building on a successful and distinguished canon of past exhibitions, ALL4PACK looks set to impress visitors further this year.

Key figures • From 14 to 17 November 2016, Paris Nord Villepinte - France, Halls 5a, 6 and 7 • 1,600 exhibitors and brands represented, 50% of which are international • 98,000 professionals expected to visit, 35% of who are international • 100 countries represented For more information, visit our website: www.all4pack.com

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Why corrugated

packaging keeps your

produce fresher Packaging Europe | 105 |

(*) Decrease is shown as log cfu/ cm2 - number of colony forming units per cm2 versus T (time.)

Keeping fruit and vegetables fresh and appealing is important – but can be challenging – for retailers and their suppliers.

Recent studies showed corrugated packaging can keep fruit fresh up to three days longer than returnable plastic crates (RPCs), and now new scientific work has revealed how.

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his new research is the second study by the team from the University of Bologna’s Department of Agricultural Food Sciences in Cesena, Italy. The first study investigated the exchange of microorganisms between packaging and fruit, and proved that this cross-contamination is more extensive in RPCs than in corrugated packaging. The research involved packing fruit in both materials and then tracking the cell loads of the target microorganisms in various circumstances.

The new, second study built upon the results of the previous study, investigating the reasons for the difference in cross-contamination levels between RPCs and corrugated packaging. To investigate this, the Bologna scientists inoculated samples of corrugated and plastic materials with different types of bacteria, yeast and mould and then studied their survival capabilities. The team observed how microorganisms survived longer on plastic surfaces than on corrugated. The longer microbes survive, the bigger the risk of them contaminating the packed produce.

Methodology The Italian researchers introduced both spoilage microorganisms (which affect shelf life and the quality of fruit) and pathogenic microorganisms (which can cause foodborne disease) onto corrugated and plastic surfaces and took samples at regular intervals. While the level of microorganisms decreased over time on both packaging materials, the fall was significantly faster on corrugated compared to the plastic crate samples.

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The study then explored why microorganisms perished more rapidly on corrugated surfaces than on plastic ones. Their work revealed how microorganisms get absorbed and trapped in the corrugated fibres, then die there from lack of nutrients and water. The RPC samples, however, showed an impenetrable surface incapable of entrapping. This allowed microorganisms to remain longer on the surface, increasing their potential to contaminate packed fresh produce.

To understand the fate of the microorganisms, the microbiologists used an electron microscope to study the contaminated corrugated surfaces. They saw microorganisms – from the 0.7 micron Listeria monocytogenes to the 10 micron Saccharomyces cerevisiae – trapped inside the corrugated fibres and unable to reach the surface. With a lower level of superficial contamination on corrugated packaging, the ability of microorganisms to cross-contaminate packed fresh produce would be severely reduced.

The team also used the electron microscope to examine the contaminated plastic surfaces. They found that the smooth, continuous plastic surfaces could not be penetrated and therefore trap microorganisms. On top of that, they found tiny cuts and scratches that would be difficult to clean using industrial processes and could easily fill with organic matter – particularly in worn RPCs. In combination with humidity and suitable environmental conditions, this organic matter would allow microorganisms to multiply.

Professor Lanciotti

These tests were carried out under the same environmental conditions for both packaging materials, with the corrugated stored correctly prior to testing.

Conclusion Clean packaging minimises cross-contamination and, ultimately, slows fresh produce deterioration rates. Since microorganisms survive longer on plastic surfaces than on corrugated, this means superficial contamination and therefore the risk of contamination is lower for the latter, making paper based packaging cleaner and safer than RPCs. Through this research, Professor Lanciotti and her team (primarily Dr Francesca Patrignani and Dr Lorenzo Siroli) have strengthened the results of the previous study, which concluded cross-contamination is less likely to occur in corrugated than in RPCs. It shows that corrugated, by entrapping microbial cells, has only a

Jan Gramsma, Market and Environment Director - FEFCO

very minor role compared to plastic material in the cross-contamination of fresh produce with spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms.

Jan Gramsma, FEFCO’s Market and Environment Director, said the findings added to the growing weight of scientific research showing how corrugated keeps fruits and vegetables fresher for longer. “Corrugated’s unique capability to trap microorganisms gives it a clear edge when it comes to ensuring foods keep their quality,” he said.

This latest research from the University of Bologna confirms that corrugated packaging is the better choice. It has revealed exactly how corrugated reduces spoilage bacteria levels, which then minimises cross-contamination, preserves the quality and extends the shelf life of fresh produce.

Visit: www.corrugated-ofcourse.eu

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Revolution in automation evolution The Alvey Group is a leader in the field of tailor-made industrial automation technology products. These are designed to significantly increase efficiency in plants where the handling of secondary packaging, semi-finished or finished products is involved. Alvey is a dynamic and ambitious company that continues to produce innovative solutions in response to some of the industry’s most pressing challenges. Philip Yorke reports.

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ith its roots in France, Belgium and the Czech Republic, the Alvey Group has been enhancing business automation and efficiency for more than 50 years. In the field of industrial automation, progress is constant with technologies and management systems are improving and new automated systems being developed by companies such as Alvey.

The Alvey Group has participated in this development process from the outset. It’s motto: ‘We Help You Adapt and Evolve’ is not just a slogan; it is a way of life at Alvey.

The company specialises in tailor-made industrial automation projects. Its wide portfolio of industrial services and systems include stacker cranes, conventional and robotic palletisers, de-palletisers, case conveyers, pallet conveyers and other material handling equipment. This is complimented by its special software package, Maestro+, in addition to its expert knowledge and the skills of its highly-qualified team.

Ground-breaking innovation The Alvey Group recently announced a technological innovation that could fundamentally change the way that companies supply and install conveyer systems, and in the process cut installation time by as much as 50 per cent. The new technology | 108 | Packaging Europe

developed by Alvey is called EvoLink and consists of programmable boards and supervisory software, which are designed to pilot components such as conveyers.

The advantages of the EvoLink solution include faster installation, flexibility for later changes, simplicity of programmes and enhanced programming potential. In the unlikely event of an EvoLink board failing, it can easily be replaced by a spare one which will programme itself automatically upon connection. Furthermore, inherent in the design of EvoLink is safety, and the product features a dual safety circuit allowing a safety-stop to be connected to any board in seconds. When a safety-stop is actuated, the precise location of this event is visible on the supervisory screen. Alvey officially launched EvoLink at the CeMAT trade fair held in Hannover, Germany this year.

Building Industry 4.0 “Faxes are now obsolete since the e-mail arrived,” group managing director Maarten van Leeuwen remarked. “Although it is still very much in use, it is not used as much

anymore by the younger generation, who prefer Facebook and other instant messaging services such as WhatsApp. “Industrial automation has followed this evolution, be it at a somewhat reluctant pace due to the size of the investments involved and the need for optimal reliability. We can compare the PLC-based automation of most factories with the architecture of mainframe computers, which users access by simple terminals with limited possibilities.

Van Leeuwen added, “With the advent of Industry 4.0 factories will fundamentally change. Industry 4.0 means many things, but among others it means embedded IT and communication among devices, thus allowing real-time monitoring, management and, crucially, embedded feedback loops. All this is combined with much faster implementation and reduced costs.

“Fundamental to Industry 4.0 is the appearance of the embedded IT. It means that intelligence is brought forward, out of the PC and straight to the device in question – for example the SEW drive that offers models providing local programmable

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logic. Others including Alvey in fact go further and fit entire modules such as pieces of conveyers with programmable devices.”

“We begin with obtaining as complete an understanding of our customer’s business as possible. However, that is not enough, as we also need to understand where his business is going in the foreseeable future, so that we can build a scalable system which is small enough at the start to safeguard the return on investment, yet can grow when the customer’s business expands.”

Systems that will grow with customers Alvey is active in two main business areas: Palletising and what the company calls ‘Logistics Solutions’. The latter relates to the handling, sorting and transportation of goods. In this sector, the challenges as the company sees it are the unpredictability of volumes, peaky volumes, the rapid change of SKU’s and operator skills. So how does Alvey respond to such challenges?

“We begin with obtaining as complete an understanding of our customer’s business as possible,” Mr Van Leeuwen said. “However, that is not enough, as we also need to understand where his business is going in the foreseeable future, so that we can build a scalable system which is small enough at the start to safeguard the return on investment, yet can grow when the customer’s business expands. Which usually it does and much faster than forecast.

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“No two logistics centres are the same as indeed no two Alvey solutions for them are either. A second ‘must’ is the need to apply the right technology to meet the right challenge. This means that our logistics solutions typically include a mix of technologies, with some areas fitted with conveyers and some may be open or have static racks. In some areas picking is done by list and in others by light or voice. In this business one size fits all does not exist. From all this it follows that Alvey in isolation, cannot design a single logistics system correctly. To come up with the right solution there is only one way and that is in-depth dialogue in openness and trust with the customer.”

For further details of the wide range of innovative automation solutions available at the Alvey Group visit: www.alvey.eu

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Custom built automation for the closure industry With its headquarters in Laval, Quebec, in Canada, MMC Packaging Equipment Ltd has become a leading supplier and manufacturer of state-of-the-art turnkey post-moulding systems for caps and closures manufacturers. Elisabeth Skoda spoke to Anthi Balafoutis, the company’s VP for international sales and marketing, to find out more about the company’s unique product offering, customer focus and its upcoming appearance at the K 2016 in Düsseldorf.

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MC Packaging Equipment Ltd was founded in 1968 under the name of Montreal Milling Cutter, a tool shop, and slowly migrated into the manufacturing of equipment. In 1991, the current president and his father formed MMC Packaging as it is today with its new mission: to provide custom automation solutions to the closures industry.

“We are a global supplier with over 1000 systems worldwide. Located in Laval, Quebec, MMC employs over 70 engineering, sales, production, customer service and support staff. 47 per cent of our employees have been working at MMC for over 10 years – we have a great dedicated team,” Ms Balafoutis is happy to report.

Solutions for the closure industry For over 25 years, MMC has been designing and supplying leading edge, post-moulding automation equipment specifically for the caps and closures industry. In a market that is constantly looking for innovative caps and closures, the dynamic MMC team takes time to understand cap manufacturer’s special machinery requirements and has the capability to develop new and improved methods for specific after-moulding functions.

MMC Packaging is also a source of expertise in providing services related to the manufacturability of new closure designs with respect to the automation process. “That is why we strongly encourage our customers to implicate us from the design stages of the closure. We have a lot of experience with the specialty closures side of the cap industry: | 112 | Packaging Europe

in a way every cap/closure is unique and unique means a custom built machine with its specific after-moulding functions,” Ms Balafoutis explains.

Impressive range MMC’s product portfolio includes lining (wadding) machines, which are designed to stamp out lining material disks from rolls of material and install the disks into caps.

Ms Balafoutis outlines the different methods for liner insertion: “There is the traditional punch and die technology, the rotary die cutting technology and also pre-cut disk inserting machines that captures disks from magazines.”

In addition, MMC offers assembly machines for multi-piece closures, such as sports caps, child resistant closures and custom designs; closing machines for closures with various hinges and latching features such as flip-top closures, single-door or twin-door closures and custom designed hinged closures; slitting and band folding machines that score the side wall of plastic closures such as beverage closures and sports caps and vision systems to capture closure and liner defects and to reject them.

“MMC also includes in its product line the multi-purpose frame that can be adapted to some of the operations mentioned above. A cost-effective machine in a compact design that meets the same high standards for quality, technology, reliability and robustness as the rest of our product line. This has also become the platform in most of our customers’ custom projects.”

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In-house product innovation Ms Balafoutis is keen to point out that MMC is the only manufacturer of automation equipment with in-house vision expertise.

“We have enhanced several features of our Quality Through Vision (QTV) and are expanding our vision product line to meet our customer’s needs, be it on-board or standalone inspection.”

She highlights a new precision lining machine as an example of the company’s innovative prowess. “As part of our continuous improvement program, our engineering team has recently developed the LM-270LX which is a high-speed entry-level precision lining machine.”

Another innovation MMC had been working on Is the ICON, which was premiered at the K-2013. “ICON is a PC-based controls system that provides real-time data in an integrated manner and hence optimizing machine uptime for our customers. With ICON, MMC is at the forefront with its industry partners with respect to technological advancement.”

Upcoming trade shows MMC Packaging will attend the K Show in Düsseldorf in Germany in October for the third time. “It is a great platform for showcasing our latest innovations. We will have on display our new products which I invite everybody to come and see,” Ms Balafoutis says.

The company also will showcase its expertise at two major plastic caps and closure conferences, in Chicago, USA at the end of August and in Barcelona, Spain in November.

Focus on partnerships Ms Balafoutis is proud of the company’s strong customer-focused approach. “We deliver what we promise: this may sound cliché but we have well established processes that our team follows rigorously. For example, we translate our customer needs into technical requirements that we verify at each phase of a project progress through our quality gates and up until factory acceptance trials; what this means for our customers is that they are getting what they ask for: Turn-key automation solutions and durable equipment that run | 114 | Packaging Europe

non-stop from the moment it is installed at the customer’s plant; expert technical support from the Project Management to our after sale - our MMC team goes the extra mile to ensure satisfaction throughout the lifecycle of the machine. The key word here is partner.

We take the time to listen to our customers.”

Ongoing investments R&D is an inherent part of MMC’s new corporate vision: to be distinctive partners of innovative technologies.

Ms Balafoutis outlines three ongoing R&D programs: “Our QTV development program is aimed at offering new products and at developing new advanced inspection algorithms; the ICON development program works at adding new functionalities such as an integrated maintenance plan and advanced reporting capabilities to our ICON platform; the HSSBF development program is aimed at developing a complete high-speed slitter and band folding solution for the beverage industry.”

She is keen to point out that the company’s turnkey solution will not only comprise of the automation equipment, but will also include the prefeeding, the inspection and the discharge systems. All of these three programs will be displayed at the K 2016 tradeshow.

Looking ahead MMC is looking forward to continuous organic growth in the future through expanding its customer base and developing new products, in line with the company’s new corporate vision.

“Of course, we have our eyes open if MMC comes across an opportunity that will help us grow and be leaders in our field, we won’t say no to new challenges,” Ms Balafoutis says.

In the coming years, MMC is looking to stay on its successful path, to keep a close proximity with its customers and continue on following and understanding the challenges of the industry. “Therefore, no matter how the industry is evolving, MMC will be ready to adapt to the new caps and closures trends,” she concludes.

Visit: www.mmcpackaging.com

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Improve hot melt efficiency with remote monitoring Remote monitoring systems can give operators and plant managers the data they need to improve efficiency and optimise performance of hot melt adhesive equipment.

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very portion of a packaging line has an influence on line efficiency. A bottleneck occurring on just one machine can shut down the whole line. For an operator, overseeing multiple aspects of the production line – or even multiple lines – can be stressful. When a malfunction occurs, he has to act quickly: find the machine that is holding up the line, investigate the issue, and then fetch the appropriate tool and fix the issue himself. If he finds the problem is outside his capabilities, he has to call for maintenance help – which could take a while to arrive.

All of these actions take time. Meanwhile, the downtime minutes are piling up – even into hours – and productivity and profitability are going down.

Easily find root cause of problems Remote monitoring helps to reduce that lost time. Operators can receive instant email or text message notifications when the hot melt dispensing equipment has stopped running. These messages could include the reason for the malfunction.

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Moreover, the maintenance team can have access to this remote monitoring information. If they see that their intervention is necessary, they can already be on their way to take the appropriate steps to fix the issue, without waiting for contact from the line operator or plant manager. When this kind of efficiency-promoting tool is available, downtime is reduced, and throughput and profitability are increased.

Monitoring adhesive usage Another top concern when it comes to efficiency is adhesive usage. The objective is to keep adhesive usage as low as possible while ensuring that the machine forms adequate seals. However, operators can change hot melt equipment settings, so that the optimal amount of adhesive is no longer being used.

Here too, a remote monitoring system allows access to adhesive tracking information on nearly a box-by-box basis. This can help operators know when the changes they have made have impacted adhesive usage.

Access to this information can also be given to the management team, who can receive notifications or sign in from any internet-connected device to track adhesive

consumption, temperature, and other performance-related factors. With this information, they can check whether adhesive use is within its optimised band, if and when operators have made unnecessary or inefficient changes, and when issues have occurred with the equipment. This tool helps to minimise adhesive usage and maximize overall quality, saving costs and improving the efficiency of the packaging line.

Graco’s remote monitoring solution LineSite® is Graco’s remote monitoring solution for its InvisiPac® Hot Melt Systems.

Designed to be easy to use, it enables the tracking of InvisiPac machines on the plant floor in real-time from a smart phone, tablet or computer. This data can be used as a powerful business tool to cut costs.

LineSite checks temperatures and reviews critical performance metrics. It automatically sends customisable email alerts for system events or alarms. Operators are empowered to respond instantaneously to potential faults and diagnose them remotely. Management receive a clear overview of how much adhesive each line is using. System operating data is provided in an intuitive, graphical format. Moreover, LineSite can monitor machine diagnostics to prevent issues from happening in the first place and causing unnecessary downtime.

The customisable, downloadable logs that LineSite collects and compiles can also be emailed automatically and directly to Graco, so that problems can be quickly investigated, uncovered and solved before they cause significant delays or downtime.

The bottom line is that LineSite saves money. It provides the information needed to catch and address potentially costly long-term trends, and implement cost-savings initiatives on production lines.

Available as a complete package LineSite is composed of three wireless components. The LineSite Monitor is attached to the InvisiPac (one per InvisiPac unit) and records the data on the machine’s GCA network. The LineSite Gateway is installed on the factory floor within range of the monitors. It receives information from the monitors and relays it to the server. A LineSite Repeater is installed on the factory floor when an extension to the wireless range is needed. An average range is about 90 metres, although this varies depending on line of sight and obstacles such as walls.

A LineSite starter kit is available, including the gateway, server, Ethernet switch and cables, at a reduced package price.

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SPECIALITY films success India-based Max Speciality Films, with its headquarters in Noida near New Delhi, manufactures a vast range of BOPP films for a number of applications including flexible packaging (for processed foods, confectionery, FMCG and industrial goods), labelling and graphic arts. Elisabeth Skoda spoke to the company’s CEO, Jaideep Wadhwa and the head of international sales for graphic films, Rashi Chaturvedi, to find out more about the company’s recent appearance at Drupa 2016, and how it stands apart from the competition.

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ax Speciality Films was founded in 1990 and since then has been going from strength to strength. It is part of a $2 billion group active in varied industries, such as insurance, healthcare, senior living and polymer films.

“By installed capacity we are the fourth largest company in India, but I believe that we dominate the mindspace of the flexible packaging manufacturers and brands – we are the partner of choice for companies who want to develop their flexible packaging solutions further,” Mr Wadhwa points out.

The company is proud of its senior leadership. Many senior staff members started with the company when it was founded and are still working there.

“Our team is widely recognised by everybody in the industry as a stellar group that helps the company differentiate itself from competitors,” Mr Wadhwa says.

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Speciality focus Around 35 per cent of company sales are into the Speciality market. This comes after investing heavily in infrastructure over the years, tailoring it to value added and Speciality businesses.

“We offer specialised niche products and not just something that is available from all BOPP companies in the country. In the period between Nov 2015 and Nov 2017, we have been looking at an investment of up to £35 million to further hone our focus on the Speciality portfolio,” Mr Wadhwa adds.

Max Speciality Films is proud to have achieved ISO 9001-2008 and ISO 14001-2004 certifications, DSIR certification for its R&D Lab and a Grade AA BRC/ IOP Food Safety certification from the British Retail Consortium. MSFL’s Quality Lab is the first in India to secure NABL accreditation.

Amongst the company’s customers are major flexible packaging manufacturers such as PPL Huhtamaki and UFlex, and international brands such as Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mondelez and Ferrero.

Mr Wadhwa identifies Max Speciality Films company culture and employees as its key strength and USP. “Infrastructure and equipment and even products can be duplicated.

But our ability to work with partners on what they need, taking into account a long term view and planning ahead is our big strength. Another major factor is service. We are focused on how we respond to customers. We are willing to do whatever it takes to help our customers meet their objectives. If there is a problem, we resolve it quickly. Our culture is one of partnership, innovation and customer service.”

Winning the World Star Award three times, most recently for its MSFL High Matt Anti-Skid film in 2016, is another testimony to the company’s strengths.

industrial goods. High performing and Value added Packaging films range includes Low SIT, High barrier films, Coated films, Special surfaces like cold seal, matt, antifog and lap sealable films.

In the area of labelling films, Max Speciality Films offers a line of label films exceeding industry standards in all aspects of composition and performance. The films add shelf appeal and offer a cost advantage in Wrap around, In-mould and Pressure sensitive labelling applications.

Finally, the graphic lamination films portfolio offers extra strong bonds, improved optics and the choice of multiple special finishes. These thermal lamination films come in a variety of substrates, gauges and finishes that promise both greater appeal and longevity and are available in Classic, offering a traditional range, and Elite, described as the cream of lamination films.

Product range

Drupa success

Max Speciality Films product portfolio is divided in Packaging, Labeling and Lamination. Firstly, there is the company’s BOPP packaging film portfolio. BOPP has applications across industries that require special features in flexible packaging, delivering post-harvest conservation, nutrient preservation, damage-free distribution, shelf appeal and other industry specific advantages for processed foods, confectionery, FMCG or

Max Speciality Films presented its innovative solutions at Drupa 2016 in Düsseldorf, and made sure the booth stood out and showcased the comprehensive product range in their best light, as Ms Chaturvedi explains.

“We highlighted our ‘Super Effects’ theme i.e. multiple specialized finishes, specially engineered films for extra – strong bonds, improved optics etc. We offered a lot of visuals

Jaideep Wadhwa, CEO

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on our booth. Our aim was to demonstrate to our customers how well our films perform on all kinds of substrates. Drupa was about showcasing the depth of our portfolio. The show was a big opportunity for us to connect to our global partners, to understand them and their special requirements in order to come up with even better customised products and appropriate solutions for them.

The Company launched a range of nylon films along with an exclusive range of embossed films at this edition of Drupa.

“There was great interest from visitors in our Elite range of films like super silk, scuff free, digital, UV printable, stampable and gluable, cavitated and many more. Also, the newly launched embossed range pulled many enquiries for different finishes like linen, leather, sand, alu brush. The holographic portfolio displayed covered different patterns in both transparent and metallised.” she adds.

Drupa was an important inflection point for the company, as Mr Wadhwa points out.

“We have recently doubled our capacity for lamination films, and while we already have a very strong and loyal customer base across Europe and other parts of the world, we wanted to showcase all of our new products and wanted to reach out to other customers that weren’t so familiar with us. The company is now a major player in the global lamination business and our participation reinforced that position. We were very happy with the result, the

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response to our products and the number of enquiries. We came away with important leads in all three of our product categories and positioned ourselves in the way we wanted to.”

“We are very confident that we will boost our sales, by venturing into new areas and new geographies. Drupa was full of great business opportunities for us,” Ms Chaturvedi adds.

Both look towards the future with optimism. “I think it is important to stay on course.

We have embarked on a journey of innovation and customer service, anything we do now and in the short term is to boost those two areas. We need to continue to invest and to continue to develop new products and develop them faster. In the last three years, we launched 56 new products, and it is important that we get these products to all customers who could benefit from them,” Mr Wadhwa says.

“On the customer services front, we will continue to further develop infrastructure, in India as well as globally to become even more responsive to customers, to have the ability to work with customers on new product development in all geographies, and be able to deliver quickly in all geographies. We are very confident about the strategy we rolled out a few years ago and I am convinced we are on the right path,” Ms Chaturvedi concludes.

Visit: www.maxspecialityfilms.com

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