Südpack and Leibinger, a packaging and printing specialist, have joined forces to meet the growing demand for sustainable packaging solutions. The first joint project is testing the suitability of CIJ inks for printing on recyclable films for packaging food that is sterilised after the packaging process.
Today, packaging films should conserve resources and be recyclable in the sense of a circular economy. The EU Packaging Regulation requires all packaging on the EU market to be recyclable by 2030. Composite materials are therefore increasingly being replaced by monomaterials. In the event that these monomaterials are equipped without a barrier function, that prevent the ink components from migrating to food, they may only be printed with harmless ink. This increases the requirements for the production and labelling of packaging films.
The packaging market is changing fundamentally. Südpack is therefore continuously expanding its portfolio of recyclable film solutions. The company is developing Monomaterials that are on a par with previous composite materials in terms of convenience and protection. Leibinger offers industrial inkjet printers for printing and coding such food packaging and develops special continuous inkjet (CIJ) inks together with SIS Ink Solution, a Leibinger Group company. The interaction of these components is the focus of the project co-operation between the two partners.
In the test: Sterilisation resistance of CIJ ink
Are continuous inkjet inks suitable for printing on and subsequently sterilising recyclable food packaging? Specialists from both companies investigated this question at Südpack's technical centre. The team printed the innovative single-material solutions based on PE and PP with advanced CIJ ink. During the subsequent steam sterilisation, the printed films were heated at 121°C for 30 minutes. The evaluation of the print samples before and after sterilisation revealed that The print is still perfectly legible. The inks used are suitable for printing on food contact materials. This means they only contain raw materials that are authorised in accordance with the German Printing Inks Ordinance and the Swiss Commodities Ordinance.
The idea for the project cooperation between the two family-run, Swabian companies was born in 2022 at a meeting at the PackExpo trade fair in Chicago. Together, they set themselves the goal of providing food manufacturers with a packaging and printing solution that already tested for key customer requirements was.
"The sterilisation resistance of ink is always a major challenge. I am therefore delighted that we have succeeded in developing a food-approved CIJ ink that is so convincing when printing on monomaterials.“
Dr Thomas Paul, Ink expert and Managing Director at SIS Ink Solution
Source: Leibinger
Leibinger at Fachpack 2024: Hall 7, Stand 550
