Innovations in flexible polymer packaging

12.05.2021

On April 8, a webinar of the Rosupak Expert Club took place. The topic was “Innovations in flexible polymer packaging: market development trends and modern technologies”. The event was organized by Bobst with the support of VMG company.

The speakers of the online seminar were representatives of three factories of the Swiss company Bobst Group: Mrs Christina Toffolo, Mr Vladimir Fannstil, Mr Dennis Hughill. As an invited expert from the Russian manufacturers of flexible packaging was Mrs Olga Lukyanchenko from "Packetti-Group". The event was administered by Mr Dmitry Remizov, General director of VMG.

Mr Vladimir Fannstil, Bobst Bielefeld expert on wide web flexographic CI machines, shared the data from the research company Smithers, according to which the flexible packaging market will continue to grow by an average of 3.4% by 2026 and reach 400 million tons. The main share, as in the whole world, is the production of food packaging — 75%.

He also noted that not only the volumes will change, but also the trends in the production of flexible packaging: the appearance and composition of the packaging are changing. Sustainability is rapidly becoming an integral part of the global packaging industry. Therefore, the manufacturers are paying more and more attention to new environmental requirements. First of all, this is a reduction in costs at all stages of production, a transition to more environmentally friendly substrates and monomaterials suitable for processing.

Flexographic printing inline

Mrs Christina Toffolo, Bobst Firenze specialist for narrow and medium web systems in line, spoke about how digitalization of traditional flexographic production can keep a competitive advantage over digital printing houses in terms of fast and low-run label production. For example, when a brand owner needs test samples of labels before fully bringing their product to market.

For short runs of label products, Bobst offers Master M3, M5 and M6 functional machines based on a digital platform with Digital Flexo, Excellence technologies and extended ECG color gamut. The introduction of these technologies in production allows you to quickly switch from circulation to circulation without stopping the press and get a number of advantages: full automation of the printing process, digital quality control, accurate reproduction of colors on the Pantone scale using 7-color ECG printing, ink consumption is reduced by 25% , printing of short runs and complex jobs in one run, saving time and materials during changeovers, which does not require washing the machine and replacing aniloxes.

Bobst Barrier Solutions

Mr Dennis Hughill, Bobst Manchester Director of Sales for Vacuum Metallizing and Coating Equipment, continued the theme of sustainability with a talk on barrier solutions for environmentally friendly flexible packaging. For large brands, a transition from resource consumption to caring for the environment has become a priority. Ideally, a transition to recyclable materials and high barrier monomaterials (PP and PE). For example, Nestlé has already begun to actively use eco-friendly paper-based structures for packaging production.

Dennis said that the main trend in the market for the development of environmental solutions is the simplification of packaging, i.e. replacement of traditional triplex structures with duplex ones, as well as reuse of packaging, in extreme cases, the use of biodegradable materials for packaging recycling. For the last year, 800 technological tests have been performed at the Bobst Manchester Center of Excellence on mono-materials or biodegradable materials. Particular attention was paid to the tests on paper with an emphasis on barrier properties.