Egypt Bobst will join forces with Dow, Brückner Maschinenbau, Hosokawa Alpine and Elba to present state-of-the-art solutions utilising a new generation of polymers to achieve mono-material packaging designed for recyclability, at the upcoming K 2019 show. Bobst will be located at Hall 4, Stand A39.
“The plastics industry is starting to undergo one of the biggest transformations it has ever seen. Packaging encompasses almost 40% of plastic use globally, it is our duty to address this challenge and invest our innovation capabilities to bring high performance industrial solutions and gain a competitive advantage” commented Stephan Maerz, head of BU web-fed at Bobst.
He added, “This is a challenge which needs to be addressed in a fast-paced and collaborative manner. Partnerships are critical as we need to demonstrate how sustainability transformation can minimise environmental impact while maintaining economic viability. We are at the beginning of a long journey with big challenges ahead which drives fast-paced innovative research, something all partners in this collaborative project thrive on.”
The project involved using different high barrier mono-material structures to provide packaging designed with recyclability in mind. Each solution had to be thoroughly tested to guarantee all industry requirements were met in terms of processability, barrier, safety and optical quality. The different types of mono-material standup pouches (MDO PE, BOPE, BOPP and CPP) which will be displayed at K are the outcome of considerable investment and intense research by the partners.
Dow as resin supplier are the first step in the production chain, Romain Cazenave, EMEA marketing director at Dow commented ”Partnerships, like this one are the future of our industry. For the past few years we have been investing in collaborative models through our PackStudios and we are delighted to see the results of it and be able to prove that high barrier can be combined with design for recyclability”.
For extrusion, two partners were involved, Brückner Maschinenbau for the production of the biaxial stretched polyolefin based films and Hosokawa Alpine for the production of MDO PE. Hosokawa Alpine is a leading supplier in the field of blown film extrusion with more than 20 years’ experience in MDO (Machine Direction Orientation) technology.