EAFA rewards alufoil market innovation

Entrants to the Alufoil Trophy 2012 highlighted advances being made in the market, according to Antoinette Devine, who headed up this year’s judging panel.
 
The competition, organised by the European Aluminium Foil Association (EAFA), attracted 52 entries across five categories and ranged from household goods to packaging, on through to automotive applications and a survival product.
 
The competition is open to products that are either made from alufoil or contain alufoil as part of a laminate or structure. Categories cover almost every market for packaging, as well as many other technical uses, encompassing: consumer convenience, marketing and design, product preservation, resource efficiency, technical innovation and overall excellence.

In the consumer convenience category, a three-sided sealed pouch (pictured, above) containing a chicken sausage pâté from ELAG Verpackungen, Ampac’s Swiss division, was rewarded for offering a packaging format not normally used for a meat paste product. The Poli Paté packaging’s shape and high-quality print finish enhance visual appeal but the key factor is its convenience and ease of product delivery, with the pouch made from a three-layer aluminum laminate and incorporating a resealable spout. In addition, it is hot filled at 85 degrees C, greatly increasing the product’s shelf life. The concept opens up new possibilities for “on the go” convenient snack style products, according to the judges.

Another consumer convenience winner was Constantia Flexibles’ laser perforation opening aid for stick packs (pictured, below), which offer easy and clean opening for dosage stick packs, primarily used in the pharmaceutical sector for oral applications of both liquids and powder. Using the PET/alu/PE-LD easy-tear laminate and laser perforation allows 100 percent of the aperture to be opened.

Tibon coating technology developed through a collaboration by Plus Pack, Danapak Flexibles and Tibon Technology also won in the consumer convenience field.

Two products won in the marketing and design category, with Leeb’s Enexy alufoil wrap praised for clever design and the use of an Alu/PE solvent-free laminate, offering a pack shape and graphics that meet the need for “on the go” products. Cofresco Frischhalteprodukte’s Toppits/Albal gourmet aluminum foil features patented embossing to give it a three-dimensional structure which provides special properties during cooking process, so was also praised in the marketing and design category.

Amcor’s Formpack Dessiflex Plus blister packaging was named as a winner in the product preservation category, with its moisture control properties highlighted as a key benefit to the pharmaceutical market. Guala Closures’s Roll on TE screw cap was also a winner in the product preservation category.
 
In the resource efficiency class, Constantia Flexibles was rewarded for its development of a blister lidding foil with a water-based primer on the decorative outer layer over once containing solvents. The judges said this results in ‘major environmental advantages’, and provides pharmaceutical companies with a sustainable alternative to standard blister lidding foil which avoids chemical-based solvents and, at the same time, helps to reduce the carbon footprint. By replacing solvent-based systems with the new water-based print primer Constantia saved more than 220t of carbon dioxide emissions in 2011 and estimates that figure will increase to more than 640t per annum in 2012 and beyond.
 
Another winner in the resource efficiency group was R-laminate (pictured, left), a new laminate for the production of tubes across a wide range of products from Huhtamaki Ronsberg. This is said to respond to the need to conserve valuable resources, yet still give the customer both ecological and economic advantages without loss of quality. Compared with a standard laminate, Huhtamaki’s R-laminate reduces the thickness and weight of the material between 25-45 percent. Modern laminates have a thickness between 250 and 300 micron but R-laminate allows a reduction to between 160-185 micron for a toothpaste application and from 500 (extruded) or 400 (laminate) to 225 micron for tubes containing cosmetic products. In production terms, the thinner laminate means significantly more tubes can be produced from a single roll, saving both material and transport costs.
 

'We were particularly impressed by the original thinking which had gone into some traditional items that took them to a new level of performance and technical innovation'

Technical innovation awards went to: Constantia Flexibles for its Staxyn child-resistant blister pack; Novelis Lüdenscheid and development partner Lydall Gerhardi for a vibration dampened heat shield; and to Protective Packaging and Survivakit for the Survivastill device that can produce drinking water from almost anything containing moisture.
 
The overall excellent award went to Amcor Flexibles for the Canny aluminium bowl for food applications.
 
Devine, who is a global packaging consultant for SABMiller as well as the head of this year’s Alufoil Trophy judging panel, said: ‘The great diversity of applications and multiple functionality of alufoil were clearly demonstrated by the entries for this year’s Trophy.
 
‘We were particularly impressed by the original thinking which had gone into some traditional items that took them to a new level of performance and technical innovation.’