thin wall packaging | conference report
Chris Smith reviews the injection moulding technological and market developments discussed at AMi’s thin wall Packaging conference
thin wall packaging users are seeking more from less
considerable growth opportunities exist for thin wall plastics packaging producers to offer alternatives to traditional materials such as glass and metal, as reduced carbon footprint joins cost, performance and design flexibility as key brand owner selection criteria, according to john nash, director of AMi’s consulting operations.
Speaking at AMi’s thin wall Packaging conference,
held in cologne in Germany in december of last year, nash said thin wall packaging – including injection moulded and thermoformed products – accounts for around 30% of the european rigid plastics packaging marketplace and amounts to a total polymer demand across the continent in the region of 3m tonnes. thin wall packaging has traditionally been a market
characterised by low margins with packaging buyers driven by pursuit of the lowest prices, which favours high volume throughputs and highly efficient manufac- turing operations. nash said in the commodity packag- ing areas of dairy, disposables, meat, fish and poultry or
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fruit and vegetables, producers have tended to focus on factors such as speed of delivery, materials expertise and product cost to secure business. Achieving higher margins will require innovation in cost control in production and throughout the supply chain. one of the key supply chain issues is material usage
– both for reasons of economics and sustainability. Frédéric dreux, global capability leader rigid plastics at Unilever spoke about how the SliM technology developed by Veriplast (now part of the Paccor Group) for its spreads packaging had achieved considerable weight savings while also providing a package that was better received by customers for its aesthetics. SliM (Super light injection
Moulding) uses the Mucell microcellular foam moulding technol- ogy developed by trexel, which introduces nitrogen gas into the polymer during
April 2012 | injection world 47 Innovation
holds the key to adding value in packaging says
AMI’s Jon Nash. Unilever’s embossed
Planta spread tub (below) is just one example
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