Sustainable Converting Converting
sustainability primer By Tom Kerchiss of RK Print Coat Instruments
C
onverting encompasses a wide range of processes and applications. Although many traditionalists view paper, board, film and foil for label and packaging as converting per se, in recent decades converting is associated with electronics, automotive, aerospace, defence, medical/medical diagnostics, and so on. In many instances converting processes are associated with product manufacture, but of course: one area of commonality is that products have to be packaged. There are a number of areas of concern that links them all, one of which is sustainability. Let’s look at sustainability issues for the food- packaging converter. What do we generally want from a pack?
Viewed at its most simplistic there are five basic requirements expected from a pack. O Contain. O Protect. O Inform. O Promote. O Transport.
However, most likely, and sooner rather than later we will have to add environmental compliance of which made from sustainable sources (where possible) is but one part to the current list of basic requirements. Governments, environmental lobbyists, media and eco-groups seek to impose measures in response to growing demands for more sustainable products. At the same time not withstanding that there is a need to balance those objectives taking into account economic and social interests.
Rather than looking at these requirements with pessimism they are from RK Print Coat Instruments perspective: being viewed positively
as drivers of opportunity and growth. Converters are looking for materials and packaging that they can print and convert and which adds very little to the processors environmental footprint. There are a number of promising innovations, with many of them for commercial reasons subject to confidentiality. Paper based barrier materials are currently an area up for consideration. Paper is being developed for holding something considered unthinkable for paper that is liquid soap. Soap containers mostly made from cardboard that do not get soggy or wet when in contact with liquid and which after a given time can be recycled is one product example.
Efforts are being made towards the commercialisation of bio-based or biopolymers for packaging films and coatings. Biopolymers can be produced from natural substances, polysaccharides and proteins or by polymerisation of monomers from biomass such as PLA from lactic acid. Biopolymers can be produced by a variety of microorganisms. Packaging and print is the sum of many parts, the inks and the coatings, not to forget adhesives, fillers, waxes and additives. To meet sustainability and other environmental objectives strictly speaking each and every component that goes into the manufacture and presentation must be made from sustainable resources. This will take time and will involve considerable R & D, monitoring and quality control. Determining how inks, resins and other components interact with one another and over time is just one element of production that needs to be considered. Substrate manufacturers have their work cut out and it’s reasonable to state that all methods for achieving sustainability have limitations. For
instance the use of multi-layers is said to lower the amount of packaging material used with barrier properties integrated within separate layers, but multi-layered materials are difficult to recycle, necessitating incineration. For these reasons demand tends to be focussed on bio- based materials from renewable resources -that can be chemically, mechanically or organically treated and recycled.
RK Print Coat Instruments VCM bespoke pilot/ production coater is enables product developers and others to obtain a system configured for trialling and running the specialised type or range of materials and technologies that the customer wants to run. As the VCM is a built to customer specification it can be optimised accordingly with higher specification drives, tension and web control equipment. The heavier framework also makes it possible to run wider and heavier substrates, at the same time allowing considerable flexibility to expand or modify the machine as developments or applications change.
Mention must quickly be made of another system, the VCML-Lab/Pilot Coater. With a working width of 300mm the VCML-Lab/ Pilot Coater can print, coat and laminate on all types of flexible substrates and on a reel-to-reel basis. Various coatings including inks, varnishes, adhesives and even paint that make use of water- based inks (or even solvents, when necessary) can be applied. An important sales clincher for many customers seeking such as machine for developing new products and trialling the unfamiliar is that the VCML-Lab/Pilot Coater offers short run production capability.
Xwww.rkprint.com
30
December/January 2022
www.convertermag.com
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