GLOBAL PACKAGING

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GLOBAL PACKAGING
RESEARCH
The international packaging
research and education newsletter
Focus on inclusive pack design
Major retailers and brand-owners
including Nestlé are increasingly turning
their attention to the issue of inclusive
packaging design, and are being made
more aware of the financial cost of not
making products more accessible to
consumers challenged by old age
or other disabilities.
easy-open, reclosable systems for Tesco and
Marks & Spencer pouches, underlines the
importance of close collaboration between
materials suppliers and designers.
Emily Boniface, designer at the Nestlé
Product Technology Centre in York, UK,
describes how her team used
tools such as gloves and
goggles to replicate
the limited manual and
visual capabilities of many
consumers. A new pack
for Black Magic chocolates
was designed, incorporating
“eight small changes”.
Macfarlane easy-open system
“Inclusive design
is the next big
challenge. We cannot
ignore the ageing
population, and if
we design for the
older consumer, we are
designing for all,” says Mark
Caul, technical manager for packaging at UK
retailer Tesco, paraphrasing geriatrics expert
Bernard Isaacs.
“As a retailer, we often have to use what
we’re offered as an industry standard,” he
adds. “We can challenge the supply chain,
but there’s a commodity element to it.”
Making packaging more inclusive has to be
a joint effort among retailers, their suppliers
and packaging companies, he maintains.
Macfarlane Labels, which has provided
“We prototyped a new design in-house and
benchmarked it against the previous pack
and other products,” says Boniface. These
were compared using the inclusivity tools.
“The time difference was substantial. It took
around a fifth of the time to open the carton
and access the product.”
A tool from Cambridge University allowed
Nestlé to calculate that the new design
accessed over 1.8 million consumers who
would otherwise have been excluded.
www.nestle.co.uk/innovation/
inclusivedesign
IAPRI dates for 2016 and 2017
IAPRI has announced the dates for next
year’s Conference in Brazil and the 2017
Symposium in Switzerland.
The Conference will take place at the
Institute of Food Technology, CETEA, in Sao
Paulo, Brazil, 12-15 June 2016. The 2017
Symposium will be jointly hosted by the
University of Applied Sciences – Vaud
(HEIG-VD) and Nestec Ltd (Nestlé) in
Lausanne, Switzerland, 9-12 May 2017.
See our IAPRI 2015 preview p3.
www.iapri.org International Association of Packaging Research Institutes
This issue:
News
1
Inclusive design
IAPRI 2016 & ‘17
2 Comment
Oxo-biodegradables research
News in Brief
announces Symposium
3 ITENE
keynotes
Working Groups
Scholarship presentation
Prize sponsor
Technology spotlight
4
Plasma coating: a flair for barrier
Member profile
6
Virginia Tech: a unique take on
unit load and packaging science
2
News
Comment
Oxo-biodegradables research
Return to Valencia
Michigan State University (MSU) School
of Packaging has been fighting the
corner of peer-reviewed, published
research against what could be
described as ‘muscular marketing’ in the
area of oxo-biodegradable plastics.
As was the case with Melbourne last year,
for many of us the June Symposium in
Valencia will be a return. ITENE hosted
the 2003 Symposium, too, and we are all
looking forward to being back in the heart
of the Mediterranean city this summer.
My first thought was that 12 years is not a
long time. But then I reflected on just how
much research has moved on in that time.
Of course, IAPRI itself has changed,
including far more representation from the
growing Asian and Pacific Rim economies.
Quite rightly, this movement is being
reflected at Board level.
New barrier and nano-technologies,
along with other innovations for tailoring
shelf-life extension, are receiving far more
attention, as is a new generation
of bio-materials.
But it is in the area of sustainable supply
chains that we have seen some of the most
emphatic shifts in focus. We are hearing far
more debate around the question of food
waste, where packaging has a positive role
in protecting food, preventing waste and
allowing consumers to manage portion
sizes better.
At the same time, packaging research
has led the way in finding bio-based
alternatives to oil-derived plastics,
for example.
Even so, we still need to make the case
for packaging as a guarantor of less
(rather than more) waste and lower total
environmental impact.
I look forward to seeing you all again
in Spain!
Thomas Goedecke
IAPRI President
The peer-reviewed ‘Evaluation of
Biodegradation-Promoting Additives for
Plastics’ was published in Environmental
Science and Technology in March. In the
paper, joint lead authors Rafael Auras and
Susan Selke state: “Biodegradation was
evaluated in compost, anaerobic digestion
(AD) and soil burial environments. None
of the five additives tested significantly
increased biodegradation in any of
these environments.”
In a press release, the UK-based
Oxo-biodegradable Plastics Association
(OPA) replied that it was “amazed” by
the research.
OPA member and supplier of one of the
additives used, Symphony Environmental
says it does not claim that its additives
work in either AD or composting.
School of Packaging director Joseph
Hotchkiss says: “The burden is on those
Rafael Auras
who disagree to repudiate the findings
based on peer-reviewed science, not
trade association press releases.”
Ramani Narayan of MSU’s Department
of Chemical Engineering & Materials
Science, who has researched the topic
but was not involved in this project, adds:
“The study was funded by brand-owners
to [determine] once and for all whether
additive-based polyolefins undergo
any significant biodegradation (not
abiotic degradation) in typical
disposal environments.”
www.packaging.msu.edu
News in Brief
Finland’s Lappeenranta University
of Technology (LUT) has become
the latest member to join IAPRI. The
university prides itself on its pioneering
work in science, its engagement with
environmental issues and its strong links
with business. www.lut.fi
Nominations are invited for a new
IAPRI Board member, as Dan Goodwin
is coming to the end of his term this
June. Any member who wishes to
apply should contact Marie Rushton at
marierushtoniapri@gmail.com.
The nomination must be supported
by two full members other than the
nominee, and should be submitted at
least one month before the General
Meeting in Valencia in June.
VP global beverage processing and
packaging at PepsiCo Denise Lefebvre
was interviewed by US magazine
Packaging Digest in February. Lefebvre,
who is a Rochester Institute of
Technology (RIT) Packaging Science
graduate, has led redesign projects for
Tropicana and Gatorade. Her advice
to would-be ‘captains of packaging’?
“Show and explain the possibilities of
packaging,” including “how to use it as a
lever to drive growth and productivity.”
For the latest industry-related
information and insights, follow IAPRI on
Twitter at @iapripackaging
www.iapri.org International Association of Packaging Research Institutes
News
ITENE announces
Symposium keynotes
Monday 8 June
IAPRI board meeting
Welcome reception
Tuesday 9 June
Host for the 2015 IAPRI Symposium
ITENE has announced two of the keynote speakers for the Valencia event
(8-11 June), with more to follow.
130 submissions from the most promising
packaging researchers, representing 27
countries worldwide,” says MD of ITENE
Javier Zabaleta.
Registration
One of the speakers will be Steffi Friedrichs, director of the Belgian-based
Nanotechnology Industries Association.
The future impact of nanomaterials on the
properties and capabilities of packaging,
as well as the regulatory issues, make this
an exciting field.
Of these 130 submissions, 19 full papers
have been entered for the peer-review
stream.
Registration
The second speaker to be announced is
Rafael Gavara, research scientist at IAPRI
member the Institute of Agrochemistry
and Food Technology (IATA), part of the
Spanish Council for Scientific Research.
When it comes to the oral Symposium
presentations, the organisers are spoilt for
choice. “We have received no fewer than
The prize recognises the Symposium
presentation from younger researchers
judged to demonstrate the most promise
for the future.
The Symposium is taking place in the
Bancaja Cultural Centre in the heart of
historical Valencia.
For the latest updates on the
Symposium see: http://iapri.itene.org
Says secretary general Marie Rushton:
“Through its generous sponsorship of this
prize over the years, Lansmont has shown
that it understands the importance of
encouraging the original work of our less
experienced researchers in the
packaging field.”
Working Group meetings
Working Group (WG) meetings will, as usual,
run alongside the Symposium but – as at
other recent events – on the final day,
Thursday 11 June.
The meetings of the Distribution Packaging,
Dangerous Goods, Flexible Packaging,
Packaging and the Consumer and Sustainable Packaging WGs will follow the final
Symposium sessions, the IAPRI General
Meeting and prize ceremony.
Valencia tour & dinner
Wednesday 10 June
Symposium & Poster session
Official dinner
“The Scientific Committee, consisting of
20 high-level experts, is currently evaluating all these research contributions, and a
high-quality programme is expected,” says
Zabaleta. A draft programme is due to
be announced.
Prize sponsor
IAPRI corporate member Lansmont
Corporation is once again sponsoring the
prize for ‘Most Promising Research’, due to
be awarded on the final day of the IAPRI
Symposium in Valencia.
Symposium
These WG meetings always provide a great
opportunity to put forward joint proposals
and develop projects for the coming year.
Delegates pre-registering for the
Symposium will automatically be put on
the mailing list for further information
regarding the WG meetings, and will be
asked to notify specific convenors if they
are interested in attending.
Thursday 11 June
Symposium
IAPRI general meeting & prizes
IAPRI Working Groups
Scholarship
presentation
The IAPRI Student Exchange Scholarship
continues to create new possibilities for
those starting out in research, with
current recipient Isabell Conrad of
Fraunhofer IML scheduled to give a
presentation in Valencia on her work
so far at CalPoly, California.
The scholarship programme, which is
sponsored by IAPRI corporate member
PepsiCo, supports students who are
enrolled in one member organisation and
can justify travelling to another organisation in order to further develop
their research.
Conrad will provide an update on her
MSc thesis ‘Increasing Cross-Company
Value through using Smart Packaging
Technologies’, which includes an examination and evaluation of the German
Smart Reusable Transport Item (SmaRTI)
system and interactions between primary,
secondary and tertiary packaging in the
supply chain.
The IAPRI Board will initiate the process
of identifying next year’s scholarship
contenders from September this year.
www.iapri.org International Association of Packaging Research Institutes
3
4
Technology spotlight
Plasma coating: a flair for barrier
Plasma-enabled coatings are able to apply fine barrier layers to flexible and rigid plastics
packaging. Now researchers are finding even smarter ways to protect those coatings,
engineer additional functions and even – allegedly – allow selective gas permeation
For a technology which is triggered by an intense burst of energy,
plasma-aided coating has been fairly sluggish in its rate of
development. Systems still tend to rely on in-vacuum activation,
and because of this and other limitations, it has been difficult to
drive costs below given levels.
role here,” says Schiller. “Reducing coating costs and improving the
barrier are both very important.”
In fact, much of the innovation in this area is coming through
combinations with other more traditional technologies.
Plasma-activated fine coatings on the inside of plastics bottles,
particularly polyethylene terephthalate (PET), offer extended
shelflife for products such as juices and other soft drinks, teas and
He adds: “We’re moving towards multifunctional films, but it’s still
difficult to talk to industry about commercial applications.”
In Germany, sister organisation to Franhofer IVV, Dresden-based
Fraunhofer FEP specialises in vacuum thin-film technologies,
including organic electronics, electron beam and plasma
applications. It is currently researching combinations of thin
functional layers, typically applied under vacuum, with roll-to-roll
coating under atmospheric conditions. To this end, it is due to
install an atmoFlex pilot plant from supplier 3D-Micromac, with
commissioning taking place in the second half of 2015.
One idea is that the curing of protective coatings over the
functional layers can be performed by techniques such as electronbeam crosslinking rather than higher-temperature drying.
Plasma-activated clear barrier coating
He explains: “Of course, plasma-activated transparent barrier
coatings have been around for many years, and the technology is
moving forward only very slowly. Our approach is to convert some
films using plasma technology which cannot be created using
other vacuum technology.”
beers. The SiOx-based system from KHS Plasmax in Germany has
recently been enhanced to create Plasmax +, incorporating a top
coating to protect the oxide layer against higher-PH or highlycarbonated products.
‘Our approach is to convert some
films using plasma technology which
cannot be created using other
vacuum technology ‘
According to MD Bernd Kempa, a half-litre beverage which
achieved a shelflife of up to four months with standard Plasmax
might be expected to extend its life up to six months with
Plasmax+.
One specialism is the coating of polypropylene (PP) and oriented
polypropylene (OPP) films – including relatively cheap substrates.
FEP has, for example, worked with equipment suppliers to develop
applied web coating systems for Latin American film converters.
Unlike some of the other proponents of plasma-based bottle
coating in the decade up to 2010, KHS has continued to innovate
with its system. Last year, the company was talking about installing
its first machine block bringing together stretch-blowmoulding
and coating. The next step could be a single block which includes
filling, too.
Of course, much – if not most – of the applications that FEP works
with have nothing to do with packaging. But printed electronics,
with potential uses in packaging, constitute one area where
projects are ongoing. “You need a good barrier film, but cost plays a
Fraunhofer FEP specialises in coatings for flexible substrates but,
asked about plasma coatings of this sort for rigid plastics, Schiller
says: “The technology has been shown to be viable, but in the end
it will always come down to performance and cost.”
www.iapri.org International Association of Packaging Research Institutes
q
Director of the flexible products division, and deputy director of
FEP, Nicolas Schiller says of the institute: “For vacuum coating, our
main selling point is plasma-activated technology. When it comes
to atmospheric coating, our strength is in electron-beam coating
of lacquers.”
6
Technology spotlight
5
So how are these options shaping up in terms of performance?
Roberts will not speculate as to the barrier materials used.
“In the past, there have been issues about the repeatability of
the coating,” KHS’s Kempa admits. “But our systems today include
patented technologies to identify uncoated bottles.” In addition, he
says, onboard process controls are now much tighter to ensure that
parameters stay within the correct range.
He notes that, although demand for ‘sandwich’ layer high-barrier
materials such as polyvinylidene chloride (PVdC) and ethylene
vinyl alcohol (EVOH) is still growing globally, concerns about cost,
recyclability and wider sustainability issues are fuelling interest
in alternatives.
The Plasmax system, which uses microwave energy to ignite the
plasma under vacuum, is available at output speeds between 5,000
and 48,000 bottles per hour (bph).
At Fraunhofer FEP, Schiller is aware of the interest in selective gas
permeability, but has not done specific research in this area. “Maybe
we should look into it, and whether our own technologies can be
applied to this area,” he says.
When it comes to production cost, speaking late last year, Kempa
put the figure at 15 euros per 1,000 bottles on smaller lines and less
than half this on the highest-output installations.
But perhaps the most interesting development has nothing to do
with system costs or performance, but how it is marketed. For a
couple of years, KHS has had its FreshSafe website, rebranding the
‘In the past, there have been issues
about the repeatability of the coating‘
technology to consumers in order to bring out its benefits. Then, in
2014, Turkish beverage company Doganay Gida became the first to
promote those benefits – particularly the joint attributes of PET and
glass – to consumers via TV advertising for its Limonata product.
Kempa believes that European consumers are also ready to hear
about those advantages when it comes to shelflife and
flavour preservation.
At the same time, plasma-activated and other barrier coatings
could themselves be ready for some radical change.
UK-based gas permeability test equipment supplier Versaperm also
carries out its own contract testing for clients worldwide. Much of
the company’s activity over the past decade has been related to
the barriers required in modified atmosphere packaging (MAP)
for food.
But technical director Chris Roberts says: “Now we’re receiving
more enquiries about testing PET for oxygen and CO2 barrier.” This
might begin with tests on barrier-coated sheet and later progress
to bottles.
His team believes that coatings suppliers are developing materials
offering selective gas permeability. This might, for example,
allow oxygen to penetrate the packaging but not allow CO2 to
escape. Research in other areas, such as fuel cells, has involved the
development of semi-permeable barriers, Roberts reports.
He draws a parallel between this activity and the growth in
sophisticated barriers to support MAP over recent years, allowing
red meat, for example, to remain in a high-oxygen atmosphere
while not allowing the protein to dry out.
Graham Porcas, director of Plasmatreat UK, was involved with
Plasmax “in the early days”. The company’s plasma technology is
used two ways: to treat surfaces so that other coatings can be
applied, or to directly apply a coating via plasma treatment.
While Plasmatreat does supply low-pressure/vacuum plasma
coating equipment its main product range is based on
atmospheric plasma principles. “We use low-pressure systems
for applications where it is necessary to contain the process due
to the use of potentially harmful precursors, or where there may
be an advantage in having a batch – rather than continuous –
process,” says Porcas. “Nowadays, most of our customers prefer the
atmospheric route.”
New options appear to be opening up when it comes to barrier
coating materials, their properties and their cost, how they are
applied – singly or in combination - and how widely they
are accepted.
www.fep.fraunhofer.de
freshsafepet.khs.com
www.plasmatreat.co.uk
www.versaperm.com
ICE 2015
Fraunhofer FEP demonstrated its capabilities at the ICE converting show in Munich in early March, where it exhibited as part of
the Fraunhofer Polymer Surfaces Alliance (POLO).
At the same show, Fraunhofer IVV presented its concept for a
series of active oxygen barriers using scavengers integrated
into films or coatings. Other active packaging concepts include
ethylene scavengers and systems for absorbing water vapour,
engineering in-pack humidity levels which stop food drying out
but also inhibit microbial growth.
Other areas of interest for FEP include the integration of Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) and anti-counterfeiting
technologies into multi-layer packaging.
Elsewhere, it applies its electron-beam expertise to hygiene
functions, such as disinfecting and sterilising pack materials.
Despite identifying this growing interest in selective permeability,
www.iapri.org International Association of Packaging Research Institutes
6
Member profile
Virginia Tech:
a unique take on unit load and packaging science
The Center for Packaging and Unit Load
Design (CPULD) at Viginia Tech (Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University) in
the USA has evolved with the changing world
of packaging, particularly when it comes to the
role of sustainability. Today it offers a unique
combination of scientific perspectives – from
its long-term focus on pallet and unit load
performance to a newer interest in eco-design.
CPULD’s collaboration with CHEP
USA has been among its most
fruitful. “When CHEP came into the
USA, they were working with us
to help develop the pallet that is
currently the most popular pool
pallet in the country,” he says.
Meanwhile, Horvath calls the PDS
“one of the greatest collaborative
efforts between the state, federal
government and private industry
in the field of wooden pallets”.
CPULD may be a new member of IAPRI, but its
origins go back to 1976, when it was established
as the William Sardo Pallet and Fastener testing
laboratory. Its work developing design and
testing guidelines for wooden pallets resulted
in the Pallet Design System (PDS) which director
Laszlo Horvath calls “the most commonly-used
pallet design software globally”.
In 2004, the lab changed its name to the Center
for Unit Load Design, reflecting the principle of
System-Based Unit Load Design. “According to
this principle, pallets, packages and materialhandling equipment should be designed
considering the interaction between these
components,” he explains.
Students at CPULD
A further name change came in 2011. “The Center expanded its
focus toward secondary and primary packaging, and changed
its name to the Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design,”
says Horvath. “We incorporated expertise related to packaging,
marketing and bio-plastics development, in addition to protective
packaging design.”
CPULD is a part of the Sustainable Biomaterials department, which
in turn comes under Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources
and Environment. “Our mission is threefold: education, research and
outreach,” he says. “We have significant collaboration with industry
in each of these areas.”
This works on the level of contract testing, where the ISTA-certified
lab has partners including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Miller Coors
and MeadWestvaco.
But sponsorship plays an important part in research, too. “We
established an Industrial Affiliate Program in which we have a
group of eight large companies which are co-sponsoring research
to increase the sustainability of the whole supply chain through
more efficient unit load design,” says Horvath.
His team played a key role in
developing Virginia Tech’s BS
degree in Packaging Systems
and Design and provides
hands-on experience throughout
the course. As part of the
Sustainable Packaging Design
Trainee programme, students
spend three months during the
summer working as lab technicians
at CPULD, earning an ISTA-certified
lab qualification in the process. They then work part-time in the lab
throughout the year.
Students also take two design and innovation classes where
they are required to work on cost-saving or damage-reduction
projects with packaging companies. “Part of the uniqueness of the
‘CHEP was working with us to help
develop the pallet that is currently
the most popular pool pallet in
the country’
program is that all students hired by the Center are sophomore
level students,” says Horvath. “Our goal is to select the best students
early on and help accelerate their professional development.”
Biomaterial development is a new area for CPULD. “We are working
on various projects including cellulose-based foam development
for the military and natural fibre-based composite developments
for industry,” he says. “We’re hoping we can create more sustainable
unit loads by making the raw material more sustainable.”
http://packaging.sbio.vt.edu
www.iapri.org International Association of Packaging Research Institutes
IAPRI was established in 1971 as an international membership association to promote packaging research. It is a unique global network
which allows organisations to communicate and develop ideas, exchange experiences and in many cases reduce duplication of effort.
For more information please contact: IAPRI Secretary General, Marie Rushton e: marie@iapri.org
To contribute to the next issue of ‘global packaging research’, please contact Editor Paul Gander e: paul@gander123.plus.com
Published by Whitmar Publications on behalf of IAPRI