Global packaging automation technology developer SMC says while moves to monolayer plastics, paper-based packaging, and less plastic, are all necessary to grow the circular economy, all throw up technical challenges for the industry.
SMC says as sustainability concerns continue to soar, “plastic pollution remains one of the top concerns”, and will “propel the packaging industry to make ethical and conscious decisions”.
Craig Sheppard, sales and marketing director from SMC Corporation Australia New Zealand, said, “Ethical packaging is more than a buzzword. Using materials that are easy to recycle or reuse, such as monolayer plastic, or paper, and reducing the quantity of materials used, is key.”
He adds that while many manufacturers are embracing ethical packaging, production costs remain a concern, he said, “In addition, these efforts bring their own set of technical challenges when it comes to packaging machines – be it for primary or secondary packaging.”
Sheppard cites a new report, ‘The technical challenge of sustainable packaging’ by Jorge Salgado, Food and Packaging industry manager for SMC Corporation Spain, which highlights the challenges that manufacturers face, and how to overcome these.
“Less material or new material: the problem is the same. Processes must be more accurate, better controlled, and easy to set-up,” Salgado noted. He highlighted the recycling difficulties of multilayer plastics, which results in much post-consumer waste being incinerated or buried in landfill. By contrast, monomaterial films are fully recyclable as all layers are made of the same type of plastic.
However when transitioning from multilayer to monomaterials, the manufacturing process requires several adaptions. Salgado said, “Today, operators have to manually adjust their process and to do tests before launching the full batch... operators need a real know-how as there is no modelling tool enabling [setting of] parameters such as time, temperature, pressure, according to the material property.”
While paper-based packaging can break down within months, compared to the decades – or even centuries – that plastics take to degrade, there are issues, according to Sheppard, who said, “In term of process, sealing is a challenge as it involves accurate adhesion technologies. The biggest problem might be however the cardboard particles which may generate failures and loss of performance.”
Using less plastic altogether is an idea gaining pace, and involves the redesigning of packaging to reduce the quantity of material. Sheppard said, “Here, manufacturing tolerances are smaller and precision, and repeatability, are essential.”
According to SMC the switch to sustainable packaging will involve improved precision and control of the processes to anticipate any problems. It will also require a speed-up in production changes.
SMC points to several technical innovations it has developed in order, it says, to address overall product quality. It says that start-up rejects are often the result of the plastic wrap, foam packing, or labels attracting dust and dirt, causing misapplication or contamination to pharmaceutical and food packaging. Industrial ionisers are the primary tools for static elimination, neutralisation, and control. “We offer bar, nozzle, and fan types to accommodate each application requirement,” said Sheppard.
For plastic bottle blowing and sealing, temperature control is one of the key parameters to maintain quality. SMC offers a range for the sealing of products which can be controlled digitally, to minimise production rejects.
The company says increased performance will be achieved with digital control. Sheppard said, “The solution for addressing performance is digital sensors and connected devices. As components move towards digitisation this will assist production change overs and reduce set-up time with configurations that are already saved. These same sensors and components help to implement effective predictive maintenance and check the whole system performance in real-time.”
SMC is a member of the Australian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association (APPMA).
