Vikram Fotedar spoke to Daniel Bossel, global product manager, Bosch Packaging Technology at Fachpack about the new PME 4001 ZAP vertical FFS that uses coated paper roll stock which can be recycled into paper streams
Vikram Fotedar (VF): Before we get into the first in the Bosch PME 4001 ZAP form-fill-seal machine, tell us more about your approach to sustainability.
Daniel Bossel (DB): Our approach to sustainability is a 6 ‘I’ mission. These are Improve, Integrate, I myself, Inspire, Invest and Innovate. And it’s important that we work on every point.
VF: Why do you call it a mission?
DB: I would give you examples to describe some of the aspects, why it’s a mission. Let’s start with ‘I-myself’. We have machines that use up less energy as it’s important to have a clear carbon neutral approach in our factories. As this is our target, I myself need to be sustainable in my daily life like in other countries and regions.
Talking about ‘Integrate’, we are into machine building. So, for the appropriate sustainable model it’s important to integrate the customer or the product and the packaging material. So, this is a triangle – machine builder, packaging material supplier, and also the product to our customer.
Likewise, it’s for Product, because we need to save food; ‘Improve’ is naturally to reduce ecological footprint for equipment.
VF: What about heat sealability of paper itself?
DB: Here we need some natural heat to have some small layer inside. It can be starch or polyethylene. But we need to put something to seal or to make it heat sealable.
VF: Regarding the ‘Improve’ aspect, I understand that going forward the new generation of machines would be better equipped to handle the mono polymer films. But what about machines already in the market? Are you also able to upgrade them to be able to perform in this manner?
DB: If the customer wants to change their machine, we are able to upgrade the old machines using new tools. Let’s say if the machine is being used since last 10 years, we can retrofit it with the latest developments.
VF: Is the polyethylene layer separable in this case and is this done by the thermal lamination process or is this done by extrusion coating or by adhesive lamination?
DB: It is done after laminating. First we have the paper, sent to converter for laminating PE process. And after that it is formed. And after forming you can cut it.
VF: Post use, can one separate the PE out from the paper?
DB: No this is difficult. Our task is to ensure that 95% of volume of packaging is paper and we are targeting 5% of layer, according to German regulatory standards. It will be recyclable if it is less than 5%.
VF: Now as a machine builder which direction do you think the market is going towards? Is it more towards the polypropylenes or the polyethylenes?
DB: I believe if you will ask people who are into recycling, they will say polyethylene. Its better efficiency and in some cases depending on the product we will also have PP for products like biscuit, depends on the industry. It depends on which industry or which position you will take but both will be clearly in a sustainable step to the right direction.
VF: How would one be able to incorporate oxygen barrier inside the polyolefin. That is the reason, we need multi film packaging in the first place?
DB: This is the balance we need to find. If you have the economics, you have the price of the film, you have the speed of the film, your buyer of your products and you have your consumer habits. If the end user or the consumer wants to buy once a week, we need to have buyer. We see people buying stuff very often. This changes the shelf life requirements. We need to have clear picture to have the best mix.
VF: Is there anything else you would like to add which could be interesting for our readers? Particularly in the Middle East?
DB: In the Middle East, we are working very hard to give full service from India from our site and what we can offer is to test materials, to find out the best parameters, to not lose the total cost of ownership, not to lose speed and quality and this is our job to guarantee that with our machine which type of packaging the material you want to use. We can support and work with our customers to achieve the best turnover and sustainable solution.