Messe Düsseldorf, the home of packaging and processing mega trade show Interpack, welcomed 143,000 visitors from 155 countries in May. As expected, the event set new standards in connecting the industry on a global level and creating a vibrant marketplace.
Welcome Home. This was the slogan that resonated on signage around the showgrounds and, indeed, it was a happy homecoming. After a six-year pandemic-induced break, our industry revelled in the fully fledged return of the world’s biggest packaging and processing trade show – with a size and scope that is unparalleled, and delivering an experience of epic proportions.
Representing PKN, videographer Steven Pam and I made the trip along with close on 900 Aussies and Kiwis, joining the throngs of visitors in the aisles of 19 halls, for a seven-day immersion in the top trends and technology shaping the world of packaging and processing.
Sign of the times
On walkabout, the first thing that strikes you at Interpack is the enormous investment and creative effort ploughed into the exhibits – even on the smaller stands, the level of care taken in presentation and messaging is impressive.
I always take an interest in the slogans and taglines amplified by stand graphics, they talk to the mood and trends of the time. Here (and pictured over the page) are just a few that stood out on our rounds. Seen on a bulk container display: “Sustainability is not just action, but a mindset’; on a metal (aluminium) packaging exhibit: ‘If you’re looking for a second chance, we give you endless’; also in the metal packaging zone, images of turtles and dolphins were used to drive home the emotive ‘Microplastics kill the oceans’ message. Then, on a plastics raw materials supplier promotion: ‘Circular packaging, tomorrow won’t wait’; on a film supplier’s stand, a simple yet powerful ‘Yes, we care’; and in one of the many examples themed on the evolution that the circular economy represents, the r representing recycled materials is used in ‘Ready for the Circular rEVOLUTION’.
Reading between the signs, it’s fair to say sustainability/ circularity was the dominant theme of the show.
Show-stopping stand
One of the most impressive displays at Interpack was the multi-storey stand of intermediate bulk container (IBC) specialist Schütz, where visitors could experience, through large-scale integrated LED technology and multimedia displays, the economic and environmental advantages of Schütz products and services.
All IBC exhibits were equipped with the new Schütz Info-ID, a QR code that can be scanned to quickly obtain detailed product information on a mobile device.
An innovation highlight was the much-discussed Green Layer series of packaging. For the middle layer of the IBC inner bottles, drum bodies and jerry cans of this product line, Schütz uses 30 per cent high-quality, natural-coloured recycled material, which is recovered through its worldwide collection programme (Schütz Ticket service) for emptied packaging.
Axel Schaefer, head of Commercial Product Management and Marketing at Schütz, told PKN that in keeping with this commitment to sustainability, the company has developed further product innovations to help minimise the CO2 footprint of packaging using recycled material.
These include a newly developed, eco-friendly full plastic frame pallet, specially designed for the safe and smooth transport of IBCs in modern automated warehouses.
Schaefer, joined by Australian CEO Alan Barham, also discussed Australian-specific developments, including the EVOH G2 Double Bung drum (120 litres) developed specifically for the AgChem market.
“The extremes of temperature fluctuations experienced in the Australian climate, which can cause expansion or contraction of volatile liquids, can cause distortion of the drums, which we have solved by developing a double bung system,” Barham explained. “So now we have a vent on one bung and a normal dip tube and valve on the other bung. The vent allows the air to escape when the pressure changes in the drum.”
Schaefer said demands differ across markets, for example in Europe’s AgChem markets a lot of the products are transported in smaller sized jerry cans. Schütz is able to customise IBCs and drums to suit specific market needs.
Schaefer also pointed to a new IBC on show, developed originally for the American AgChem market, the Ecobulk MX 560-litre. It’s a compact all-rounder that offers optimum filling volume with a lower container height, that also has potential in Australia, especially for the flexibility it gives farmers.
Barham said that there is a fair amount of interest in IBCs from the Australian wine industry, especially among small batch wineries. He says an IBC can deliver similar outcomes to ageing wine in a barrel in a more cost effective way.
“There have been some trials done with 1000-litre IBCs, but what the MX560 allows is for a winemaker to divide up a vineyard where they have perhaps got a really small batch of excellent quality grape, that normally they would have to harvest and put in a thousand-litre IBC, and now be able to make a more sophisticated wine in this smaller batch container,” Barham said.
XR experience
Another eye-catching stand was that of tna Solutions, which gave visitors to interpack 2023 the chance to step off the event floor and into a virtual factory, with an XR show that featured director, and well-known Australian industry figure, Nadia Taylor, in cameo.
The company’s extended reality (XR) technology enables remote commissioning, installation and maintenance of production lines, reducing carbon footprint and downtime. At Interpack, visitors were able to experience how advanced technology will transform the way the industry approaches complete processing line integration.
Thanks to tna’s state-of-the-art software, coupled with the very latest VR headsets, this completely immersive experience allowed the user, including this PKN reporter, to embark on an interactive journey around a production line, to be transported there, and to experience the sensation of looking at the environment through 360 degrees.
Nadia Taylor told PKN the XR representation speaks to a need in the industry to leverage the virtual space to better deliver for customers and the environment. She said, “digitalisation is fuelling the future of the processing and packaging industry”.
Experts from tna were on-hand to guide users, and to discuss how the technology can be used in the real world to achieve both efficiency and sustainability gains.
This article was first published in the July-August 2023 print issue of PKN Packaging News, p31.
