With the Packaging Competence Centre (PCC), Gerhard Schubert GmbH and the Berlin-based packaging consultancy Berndt+Partner Group are pooling their expertise. The new organisation brings together experts in regulation, packaging design, materials and automation technology.
The aim of the PCC: to advise manufacturers on the development of sustainable packaging and find realisable solutions for implementation. Challenges in the context of the PPWR take centre stage, as do other sustainability issues.
The EU PPWR (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation) aims to make the packaging industry more sustainable and reduce the negative environmental impact of packaging waste. However, with high time pressure, different implementation timelines and regulations that have not yet been finalised, it poses major challenges for manufacturers. Companies must evaluate as quickly as possible how they can respond to the often complex requirements. This can have far-reaching consequences for their packaging and production processes - and requires efficient and compliant implementation, which the PCC supports in many ways.
„For manufacturers, it's all about very practical considerations. What does it mean to pack a chocolate bar in paper instead of tubular film bags in future? Or how will an existing cartoner work if blanks are given a different size, behave differently in the machine or can no longer be glued together with glue? These issues are essential and require answers along the entire value chain.“
Michael Graf, Head of the PCC and sustainability expert at Schubert.
Bundled expertise in the new PCC
This is where the Packaging Competence Centre comes in. The great advantage of the PCC: thanks to the comprehensive expertise of two companies, the centre can Regulatory advice, packaging development and machine feasibility from a single source offer. While the experts from bp Consultants explain the PPWR and its effects on the respective packaging portfolio, Schubert checks the machinability of new packaging solutions and thus ensures the automation that is essential for packaging processes.
„As a leading mechanical engineering company, we have Berndt+Partner, another pioneering consultancy group for packaging issues in Europe, at our side. The Packaging Competence Centre sees itself as a cooperation that uses technical consulting services for packaging processes and technologies to make our customers“ production processes more efficient and sustainable."
Marcel Kiessling, Managing Director of Gerhard Schubert GmbH
Concrete support with the Impact Check
If a manufacturer wants to switch its packaging materials to paper or recyclable monofilms, for example, the PCC offers an impact check. Among other things, the experts analyse, whether a manufacturer's existing packaging range meets the regulatory requirements or whether improvements may need to be made. Once the questions have been clarified, manufacturers can develop a new packaging design with the support of Berndt+Partner Creality, a subsidiary of the Berndt+Partner Group, which specialises in the design and branding of packaging. The PCC always takes automated packaging processes into account.
Practical test on the packaging machines in Crailsheim
Once the modified packaging concept has been finalised, Schubert tests it on its own machines in Crailsheim. The packaging machine manufacturer determines whether the new materials and formats can still be processed efficiently - and whether they may require technological adjustments. A holistic approach is important to Michael Graf: „Sustainability - the basic idea behind our ‚Mission Blue‘ - must Include systems and upstream steps such as design so that a solution is consistently ecological. Paper or monofilm packaging alone is not enough.“
After completion of consulting, design and testing the PCC continues to support manufacturers. „Regulations change quickly, so manufacturers will soon have new questions to which they want equally creative answers - and will find them in the PCC,“ concludes Matthias Giebel, Partner at bp Consultants, a subsidiary of the Berndt+Partner Group.
Source: Gerhard Schubert
