FachPack 2007 From September 25th to 27th, 2007, the triple exhibition (FachPack for packaging solutions, PrintPack for pack- aging print and production, and Logintern for internal logistics) opens its doors in Nuremberg, Germany. 1,300 exhibitors are expected, and over 33,000 visitors. As an appetiser COSSMA brings you here news of some of the latest trends in plastic and packaging and looks at a few of the new pro- ducts that will be on show. The capper has up to five double workstations

s usual at least one third of important to distinguish between A the exhibitors will be medium biodegradable plastics and plastics sized manufacturers of pack- made from replenishable resources. aging, packaging materials and pack- There are plastics made from replen- aging aids. They will be sited togeth- ishable resources which are not er with packaging machinery manu- biodegradable, and on the other hand facturers in a high profile location. there are biodegradable materials Historically two out of three visitors made from fossil materials. Biodegrad- said that they were particularly inter- ability or biological raw materials ested in this aspect of the exhibition. alone do not automatically confer an Single-trip plastic packaging is still ecological advantage. About 4 percent growing in popularity. It is lightweight, of total oil and gas consumption goes adaptable, easy to handle, and can be today into the manufacture of plastics. made in almost any shape. R&D work Replenishable resources are already in the chemicals and plastics indus- being used in the plastics industry tries is regularly resulting in the devel- where they offer economical and tech- opment of new materials with new nical advantages. properties, and now are en- In Europe the worldwide annual us- joying rapid growth rates and carving age of plastics is 48.5 million tonnes. out for themselves a firm place in the Bioplastics, at 0.05 million tonnes, are packaging market. almost insignificant. Nevertheless Plastics are probably the most suc- their share doubled from 2005 to 2006. cessful packaging materials. According The use of replenishable resources to to the German plastic packaging feder- manufacture bioplastics is limited by ation they have a 40 percent share and the availability of land to grow the nec- are the most widely used packaging essary crops. Government subsidies materials. In the last 30 years the use of for certain crops – such as rapeseed for plastics has more than doubled. bio-diesel – can restrict the reliable production of replenishable raw mate- Bioplastics usage growing rial resources to other areas. right across Europe Leading retailers in the UK, Italy, The high price of crude oil is once Switzerland and the Netherlands are again bringing bioplastics into the already using packaging made from spotlight. Previously most develop- bioplastics. The companies concerned ments were not cost effective for mass also believe that offering this type of

applications in the packaging industry. packaging to their customers gives Etifix photo: When talking about bioplastics it is them a marketing advantage. Al- Ī Plastics enjoy a boom a enjoy Plastics

PRODUTION EVENTS www.cossma.com

though the materials are based on as well as the placing and heat sealing tailed instructions or prize draw condi- starches, polylactic acid and other re- of discs, which are tions, Multi are the answer. plenishable resources and can be sometimes used in combination with A Multi , also known as a Twin la- processed on conventional plastics the . Various monitoring sys- bel, a Peel-and-Reseal label or a Peel- converting machinery they are still on- tems in the form of sensors and cam- and-Read label, consist of at least two ly treated as an extension of more con- eras ensure reliable operation, and car- layers, one on top of the other. Using a ventional materials such as PE, PP or ry out checks such as counting the num- pull-tab the top layer is partially lifted PET. The barrier properties of the new ber of , checking for skewed to expose the details on the lower lay- materials still do not meet those of assembly and checking the torque that er. This top layer can be opened and more conventional plastics. has been applied top the closure. When resealed several times. a format change is required all of the ap- Etifix will be presenting the new New products on show propriate parameters are called up from Etimat labelling range, which is used We have picked out for our readers the machine’s memory bank. The cap- for labelling very narrow cylindrical some of the more interesting ideas per runs at up to 120 cpm. containers or other articles. The Eti- from among the new products that can To produce high quality self-adhe- mat EV Twin for tubes and al- be seen at Fachpack: sive labels, which place high technical lows two different product types to be The Linocap capping machine from demands on the production equip- labelled with the same kind of label, Kugler is suitable for applications in ment, the machinery at Ulrich Etiketten and with extremely rapid changeover cosmetics manufacture. It has up to five includes 16 machines. For times. Also new are the Twinkling and double workstations and a modular clients who require to display large Metallic labels . Here special pigments construction that allows the fitting of amounts of text, such as product de- are used to produce striking shimmer stoppers, screw caps and spray pumps scriptions in various languages, de- and glitter effects. AM