PACKAGING | TECHNOLOGY
Closing the material cycle in packaging
Materials suppliers and injection moulding machine
manufacturers are collaborating to make the circular economy in plastics packaging a reality, writes Mark Holmes
A wide variety of industry-wide initiatives are underway to help meet circular economy targets in plastics packaging. These include advances in microcellular foaming technology to further reduce the weight of thin wall packaging, to greater use of recycled and biomaterials, as well as initial product design with recycling in mind. Sustainability and environmental considerations
are top of the agenda at Trexel, specialist in microcellular foaming technology for injection moulding applications. “Brand owners and convert- ers are developing lighter products and converting to more energy efficient processes to reduce resource consumption in support of a circular economy,” says Leo Devellian, Business Develop- ment Manager. “The potential to light weight packaging products provides a tremendous untapped opportunity to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing a plastic injection moulded part weight results in almost an equivalent propor- tionate deduction in carbon footprint. For example, a 10% reduction in part weight typically translates into an 8-9% lower carbon footprint. The positive impact is due to both a reduction in the feedstock that the thermoplastic is derived from, usually natural gas, oil or bio-based alternatives, and the
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energy savings as a result of less polymerisation, transportation to the converter, melting, cooling and transportation again to the end market. Environmental impact is further improved due to the reduction of mass to be recycled back into the circular economy,” he says. “In addition to light weighting, adoption of highly
efficient moulding processes remains another underutilised opportunity to reduce carbon foot- print. Conventional thin-wall injection moulding is inherently energy intensive due to the ultra-high injection pressures and clamp forces. The industry’s embrace of energy efficient hybrid and all-electric machines has been an important step in the right direction. Further progress can be achieved through the implementation of more efficient processes including injection-compression and microcellular foam moulding. These processes eliminate the fundamental inefficiency of filling and packing a thin-wall component with a ‘remote’ screw through a small gate. Injection-compression and microcellular foam moulding pack the cavity at a low uniform pressure from within the mould, instead of by a remote screw, thereby lowering injection pressure, clamping force and energy consumption.” Trexel recently introduced two products to
Main image: This 1 × 8 container mould was built for a customer by StackTeck Systems in 11 weeks
July/August 2019 | INJECTION WORLD 31
PHOTO: STACKTECK
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