18 Plastics in Packaging © 2017 Sayers Publishing Group • June

THE PACKAGING CONFERENCE

K nowing the ‘state of the business’ is animportant part of managing any enter-prise in the ever-competitive PET

world.At The Packaging Conference, which was

held recently at Tampa Bay in Florida, GaryHemphill, vice president of Beverage MarketingCorporation (BMC) and Steve Ates, managingdirector of SBAcci (Strategic Business Analysis)analysed beverage consumption trends in theUS and global supply of PET resin and itsconstituents.

Most notable in the consumption data isthe fact that bottled water volume in the UShas overtaken carbonated soft drinks for thefirst time, explained Hemphill.

It may have been affected by the decline inthe consumption of tap water, which increaseddramatically with the onset of the 2008 reces-sion but has shrunk back significantly since2014.

“The 2016 consumption of LRB (LiquidRefreshment Beverages) in the US is projectedto grow by 1.8 per cent, continuing theprevious two year trend,” explained Hemphill.“Beverage categories with health and wellnessattributes are outperforming those without,and are expanding by numerous new productintroductions. They also benefit by commandinga higher price point. Plastics bottles seem tobe the greatest beneficiary of the growthtrend.”

Manufacturing capacity for PET resin isalmost double that of a decade ago, accordingto SBAcci’s Ates, standing at 32 milliontonnes.

“The capacity utilisation level is only 75per cent in the US, and even lower in Asia,with the latter likely to dip further during thenext few years,” he said. “These commercialrealities make it likely that continuous ratio-nalisation and vertical integration will becomeroutes to being more competitive.”

Downstream, manufacturing costs at theconverter level continue to decline as a resultof improvements in machinery, mould andprocessing technology.

Preform injection moulding machinerymanufacturer Husky Injection Molding Systemssaid that productivity and running timeshave increased by five and three per centrespectively, while energy, maintenance andlabour costs have dropped by 30, 40 and 60per cent respectively.

The Canadian manufacturer also revealedthat the maintenance of moulding uniformityresults in the ability to run weights tighter tothe low end of the specifications and minimiseadditive content, such as a barrier layer.

A recurring topic through the conferencewas consumer engagement. Internet shopping,by its nature, involves more online searches

for information about products, and this trendnow extends further with the use of smartphones. As such, product information likehealth claims, safety, ingredients and socialimpact are sought by consumers.

This trend, says Larry Logan, senior mar-keting and brand executive for Digimarc Cor-poration, combined with legal requirementsdue to new legislation and FDA mandates,has prompted the creation of the Smart Labelsystem. This initiative, with more than 30member companies already signed up, willhave assembled information for more than36,000 products by the end of this year.

Logan added: “At the same time, having acommon database leads to a consistent formatfor the organisation and the presentation ofthat information. The ability to read a printedcode like UFC and QR, or communicatingwith the package using RFID or NFC (NearField Communications) triggers connectionsto the specific database of the suppliers’ web-sites.”

Following on from those enquiries withdirect response is the next level of customerengagement (between suppliers and con-sumers), and the underlying infrastructurefor this interaction includes the Internet ofThings (IoT), data collection and mining.Methodologies needed to connect the variousparts together were discussed by Prateek Lal,

managing director of Pennsylvania-basedblister technology producer Adept Packaging.

“The IoT is estimated to grow by 240 percent in the next five years,” he stated. “Con-nected smart packages are likely to amount tosome 7.8 billion units and customer engagementand ongoing communications create an oppor-tunity to influence and introduce customersto additional attributes of the products theyuse.”

Naturally, sustainability is another recurringtopic in packaging. While the use of bio-basedmonoethylene glycol (MEG) has been wellestablished through its use in the PlantBottleby Coca-Cola, attempts to develop bio-basedpurified terephthalic acid (PTA) continue.

Alternatively, there are attempts to substi-tute the PTA with other bio-based chemistry,such as bio-succinic acid (SA), to produce aPET equivalent.

Chris Ellen, vice president of sales forBioAmber Canada, says his company intro-duced bio-SA as not only a drop-in replacementbut also as a potential substitute for some ofthe PTA whilst producing bottle-grade resinsin a conventional PET manufacturing process.

“Cost and energy savings are likely as lessSA is needed when replacing PTA and targetingthe same end product performance, while SAincluding ‘PET’ can be processed at lowertemperatures,” he explained.

Business opportunities andtechnology met in Florida recentlyfor a conference that aims to keepthe packaging supply chain up tospeed. Dan Weissmann wasthere to hear the latest news

Business opportunities andtechnology met in Florida recentlyfor a conference that aims to keepthe packaging supply chain up tospeed. Dan Weissmann wasthere to hear the latest news

Playinga partPlayinga part

Plastics isbenefitting from

the health andwellness trend,

says GaryHemphill

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Plastics in Packaging © 2017 Sayers Publishing Group • June 19

New solutionsReducing food waste from three per cent tobelow one per cent with the extension of shelf-life from three to 14 days has been demonstratedby wrapping fruit and vegetables in flexiblefilms.

So said Lamy Chopin, the global develop-ment leader for food and speciality packagingat US-based Dow, although he tempered thoseviews by saying that the post-consumerrecycling of flexible packaging materials is atall target to reach.

As such, Dow has been working to makethese materials more recyclable and recoverable,said Chopin: “What makes the flexible filmsused in such packages complicated to recycleor to recover is the different resins used in thevarious layers, which are combined to achievethe desired performance. By moving to asingle resin family or through the use of com-patible resins in all layers, recycling can beachieved successfully.”

To this end Dow has developed the Retainpolymer modifier, which makes PE and EVOH(commonly used as a barrier layer) compatible,the Opulux coating to increase thermal resist-ance, and Innate PE film with an enhancedbalance of toughness and stiffness. Usingthose as building blocks for flexible packagingfilm will enhance the ability to recycle, Chopinbelieves.

Still an issue, however, is the collection ofpost-consumer flexible packages, which Dowis addressing through pilot projects in anumber of communities.

“Special bags are distributed to households,which are asked to put all packaging materialsinto them that are excluded from the establishedrecyclable collection stream. These are thencollected separately for recycling,” said Chopin.

As for pouches, Dennis Calamusa, presidentof AlliedFlex forecasts that the use of stand-upformats will reach 222 billion units by 2018,with 55 per cent consumed in Asia Pacific.

The case for pouches was developed byMike Kresbach, vice president of marketing at

Bemis, who said that ecommerce demandsnew packaging strategies to deal with thereality of package handling, in a distributionsystem that delivers a multitude of productsin a single box directly to the customer. Ulti-mately, it involves products of varying packtypes, sizes and shapes, all bundled togetherfor delivery.

It is unlikely that a tight arrangement,which prevents undue stresses and damage,can be achieved routinely. Failure of one pack-age, like liquid leaking from a bottle, will endup contaminating the entire shipment. Here,flexible packages are likely to be the preferredmode.

Taking the food waste issue further waschief technology officer of Crown Holdings,Daniel Abramowicz, who estimated that some1.3 billion tonnes of food produced (more than40 per cent) is lost to spoilage. The quantity ofgreenhouse gases generated by spoiling food issaid to be highest in China, and closelyfollowed by the US.

Abramowicz believes that processed pack-aged food can significantly extend the usefulshelf-life of all products while also providingroute to use 'visually damaged' products, whichare rejected when such products are to be soldas fresh off the shelves. It also makes foodmore suitable for distribution to remote loca-tions.

HRSflow, the hot runner division of Italianfirm INglass SpA, supplemented a discussionon coffee capsules and pods by demonstratingthe prototyping and testing of thin-wall con-tainers, including pods.

In conjunction with PTI Europe, HRSflowis offering customers a full evaluation of quali-fying products. HRSflow provides the mouldand hot runner knowledge, and application ofconformal cooling and processing experience,while PTI offers market knowledge, productdesign, expertise in the application of barriersolutions and, again, processing. An insertedunit mould provides an efficient vehicle fortesting various designs.

Finally, Tech Long introduced aluminiumbottles that are made from a PET/al/PET lam-ination, with the PET layers eliminating theneed for an internal coating. Starting from thelaminated structure rather than plain alu-minium or coil stock is said to make the manu-facturing much simpler and also increases lineefficiency. The technology for the cold or hot-filling of these bottles is being developedalongside Foshan Ding Zhong Company.

On the material front, some old conceptsreappeared, including the blending of PENand PET to answer unmet needs in the PETbottle arena, such as high-barrier for smallsize CSD bottles, higher temperatures for hot-fill, and microwaveable packaging.

"Such blends can also offer performancewhere higher chemical resistance is sought orthe mechanical strength needed for aerosolbottles," said Frank Embs, innovative businessdeveloper in PET packaging for Indorama."PEN, with its higher mechanical properties,significantly increases glass transition tem-perature, natural UV blocking, and lowerspermeability when blended with PET."

While material can be formulated to suitall blow moulding processes, of most interestis the point that the blend is offered for theextrusion blow moulding of hot-fill bottles,which is not achievable with any of the existingEBM PET grades.

More information from: Adept Packaging adeptpkg.comAlliedFlex alliedflex.comBemis bemis.comBeverage Marketing Corporation beveragemarketing.comBioAmber Canada bio-amber.comCrown Holdings corwncork.comDigimarc Corporation digimarc.comDow dow.comHRSflow hrsflow.comHusky Injection Molding Systems husky.coIndorama indorama.comPTI Europe plastictechnologies.comSBAcci sba-cci.comTech Long tech-long.com

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