Political crises, economic instability, skills shortages and growing regulatory requirements: the beverage and packaging industry is facing massive upheaval. Therefore, flexibility, sustainability and automation are of paramount importance for the future – for example, through optimally orchestrated line solutions.
Who doesn't know it? You're standing in the supermarket in front of a wall of colours, shapes and promises. Your eye wanders searchingly over the amply filled shelf and suddenly stops. While the head is still weighing up the options, the eye has often already made the decision. In such situations, packaging often becomes the deciding factor. For it to convince consumers and companies alike, the overall package has to be right: an appealing design combined with uncompromising product protection and sustainable materials at attractive costs.
The KHS Group, for example, meets these high demands with its holistically conceived line strategy. This starts with packaging design and culminates in the development of optimally orchestrated line solutions that are ideally tailored to both market requirements and individual customer needs. „This enables our customers to have maximally flexible, reliable, and economical processes,“ summarises Ernst van Wickeren, Product Manager Packaging at KHS.
Keys to success
Thanks to this strategic alignment, the global player can significantly support its customers in overcoming current challenges. These include, on the one hand, the volatile global political situation with increasing conflicts and the resulting negative economic consequences such as rising energy and raw material prices and ongoing supply chain difficulties. Additional instability is brought about by the unpredictable US customs policy, as it leads to massive uncertainties and financial burdens for companies.
On the other hand, many producers in the beverage and food sector are struggling with an acute shortage of skilled workers. The availability of qualified operating personnel has declined worldwide in recent years. In return, the demand for fully or partially automated solutions has risen sharply. The diverse legal requirements that companies in the beverage and packaging industry face worldwide also lead to considerable challenges. Among other things, the PPWR brings far-reaching and not yet fully foreseeable changes for the industry. Resource-efficient packaging and increased use of recycled materials are being called for. Worldwide demand for low-plastic or plastic-free solutions has increased significantly in recent years, especially for secondary packaging. The trend has clearly shifted towards cardboard and paper, as well as plastic films with a high recycled content.
Diverse packaging and plant portfolio
Full-range suppliers with comprehensive packaging and plant portfolios, like KHS, can always competently offer solutions for changing market conditions. An example of this is the further development of a fully automated packaging machine from the company, which offers users the highest degree of flexibility: it packages PET and glass bottles as well as cans in trays, film wraps, tray and film wraps, and pads and film wraps.
At interpack, we will be presenting our Innopack Kisters TSP Advanced, which has been successfully established on the market, for the first time with an option for applying the patented BottleClips.
Ernst van Wickeren, Product Manager Packaging at KHS
A cardboard carrier handle consolidates PET containers into stable packs. It represents a resource-efficient alternative to plastic ring carriers, which are now banned in some countries. „The new option with BottleClip is available for all common machines in the Advanced series. They are specifically developed for the high-performance sector. For example, the Innopack Kisters TSP Advanced processes up to 7,200 containers per hour,“ explains the expert.
Alongside solutions like the BottleClip, paper wrappings and cardboard toppers that unite cans into stable packs at the top rim are also currently very popular: KHS's Carton Nature Pack (CNP) completely dispenses with the use of plastic.
Resource-efficient packaging
In many regions of the world, particularly Asia, Africa and South America, secondary packaging made of film and PET bottles continues to dominate the market. „KHS plays an important role in establishing plastic-free sustainable packaging on a global level, among other things with its Nature MultiPack (NMP),“ emphasises Ernst van Wickeren. The NMP completely dispenses with cardboard and film: cans or PET bottles are joined together to form stable packs solely by means of small adhesive dots. The goal is to support companies worldwide in the development of sustainable packaging: whether in the secondary sector with film, cardboard, paper and adhesive dots, or in the primary sector with cans, cardboard, glass and PET. In doing so, the company aims to fully meet the sustainability goals of businesses as well as legal requirements. For plastic solutions, the Dortmund-based packaging and line specialist focuses in particular on the increased use of recyclate and lightweighting.
Two pioneering bottle innovations exemplify this strategic direction. The Premium Lite bottle combines minimal material use with a high-quality appearance. The PET container is extremely light, weighing just 6.2 grams and holding a volume of 0.25 litres. Despite being lightweight, the bottle, created in cooperation with Husky Technologies, is optimally designed for the highest filling speeds.
With the development of the Supreme bottle, the system provider has taken the protection of oxygen-sensitive drinks to a new level. The premium PET bottle combines the protective properties of glass with the weight advantages of plastic. It utilises KHS„ Plasmax barrier technology, which is established on the market worldwide: a wafer-thin layer of silicon oxide on the inside of the PET bottle that reliably protects highly sensitive products such as juice, CSD, beer, tea, wine and liquid foods from oxidation or the loss of carbon dioxide. “The Plasmax coating can be used for lightweight solutions and bottles made from virgin PET or up to 100 per cent recyclate," says van Wickeren. It dissolves completely in the standard recycling process. In contrast to conventional barrier material composite solutions such as scavengers and multilayers, which make recycling more difficult, the purity of the PET is retained. This means that bottles with a Plasmax coating are fully recyclable and ideally suited for the closed PET material cycle.
Holistic expertise from a single source
Developing resource-efficient and sustainable packaging is complex. That's why KHS offers its customers a holistic consulting service for container solutions: Bottles & Shapes balances consumer- and environmentally friendly design, reliable line performance, and efficient resource utilisation, for PET/rPET as well as for glass bottles and cans. The experts guide customers from the initial design through to the product launch, which is optimally tailored to the individual requirements of the companies.
The company's broad service portfolio is designed to ensure the highest plant availability with low TCO in the long term. This includes, for example, remote diagnostics and remote maintenance systems. Thanks to automated line retooling, format changes can be completed within 30 minutes and product changes even within ten minutes. With the iflex option for PET lines, up to 80 percent of all manual activities during line retooling become redundant. In the field of automation, users also benefit from AI-supported inspection technology for tethered caps.
„The key to success lies in close customer support from specialists and a peer-to-peer, partnership-based collaboration,“ van Wickeren highlights. The focus is always on the individual needs and challenges of companies, whether it's in the design of a complete line or the overhaul of an existing machine. As a result, KHS offers its customers consistently high quality, reliable performance, and maximum efficiency and flexibility, tailored to their specific requirements.
