INNOVATION | THIN WALL MOULDING
Right: Arburg says a geomet- ric structure moulded on the bucket’s inside helps lessen vacuum effect when stacked and contributes towards compression resistance
conveyor system. The melt flow rate (MFR) is 70 in this specific application, according to an Arburg spokesperson. The containers have a wall thickness of just
0.63mm, leading to material savings of up to 35% compared with similar 5-l containers. As is apparent from the photograph (right) – looking where the sun shines through the bucket from behind – the containers have a geometric pattern moulded on the inside. This is to contribute towards compres- sion resistance and also to limit the vacuum effect when pails are nested in each other, by allowing increased air flow. Labels are produced with digital watermarking from the Holy Grail 2.0 project, making the pails recyclable anywhere that PP can be recycled. Counterfeiting in the luxury food and drinks industry is a multi-million dollar industry. The pandemic added to the problem: there was a high demand for premium products but, at the same time, there were interrupted supply chains, receiving fewer physical audits. This created a situation ripe for opportunists and bootleggers, who took advantage of the disruptions. Sumitomo (SHI) Demag has been looking at how specialist closure and thin wall moulders are applying the latest injection moulding precision and IML techniques to step up their fight against the creative food and drink fakers to mitigate risks and safeguard brand integrity. In a recent survey of senior food and drink
executives conducted by assurance specialists Lloyd’s Register, only one-third admitted to vetting suppliers against a recognised GFSI standard. One in five declared that no checks were made as part of sourcing decisions. Yet, despite these prevalent risks, 97% stated that they had been affected by food fraud in the last 12 months. Few in the industry regard authenticating products as their highest priority. Looking at the UK food and drink market, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag UK packaging specialist, Ashlee Gough, notes that it remains one of the worst markets for counterfeiting – when food and drink products are deliberately packaged to deceive consumers. The UK Food Standard Agency’s National Food Crime Unit estimates that the combination of
Tamper evident closures is one method deployed by packaging manufacturers to counteract fraud in the
IMAGE: ISTOCK/ BERT_PHANTANA
24 INJECTION WORLD | March 2022
premium drinks, wellbeing and pharmaceutical markets
adulteration, substitution, theft, misrepresentation, illegal processing, waste diversion and document fraud costs £11.97bn (€14.33bn) per annum. Seizures of counterfeit products provide a good
indication of the scale of the problem. In 2020, Operation Opson IX seized 12,000 tonnes of illegal and potentially harmful products, including 1.2m litres of alcohol. In a concerted effort to crack down on groups
profiting from illicit versions of branded spirits and premium foods, manufacturers are making labels more difficult to copy and bottles harder to refill. “One way to counteract counterfeiting and product tampering is through the innovative design of packaging that cannot be easily copied,” says Gough. “Until recently, this may have involved putting shrink or foil sleeve around a luxury drink brand, for example. Closure moulders especially are stepping up their efforts and investing in dedicated cells to produce high quality and anti-refill closures made up of a number of complex parts.” Due to the intricacy of these closures, moulding precision is paramount.
Significant investment in high quality tooling,
automation, machinery and expertise can be anoth- er major deterrent, says Gough. “Realistically, few counterfeit operators would make the level of investment required to replicate this level of technical precision.” Other covert packaging methods to deter counterfeits include concealing unique identifiers, such as a QR code, holograms or tags within the IML. While these can assist with track and tracing, Gough claims that they only really help to validate the origin of a container and tend to be more widely deployed by luxury food, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and wellbeing brands.
www.injectionworld.com
IMAGE: ARBURG
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46
