Machine manufacturer Syntegon and chemical company SABIC have joined forces and developed a sustainable packaging concept. It is designed to significantly reduce the use of packaging material for frozen food.
Tubular bags are the most popular packaging format for frozen food. They are predominantly made of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film. Syntegon and SABIC are replacing this packaging with a 20 micrometre thin film made of biaxially oriented polyethylene (BOPE). The bags are sealed using what is known as PHS 2.0 technology from Syntegon.
Thinner films at higher speeds
This combination should enable thinner films to be processed at higher speeds. Seal quality and product protection remain consistently high, emphasises Pierre Hamelink, Head of Business, Market and Sustainability Strategy at Syntegon in Weert, the Netherlands.
25 per cent faster and 50 per cent thinner
Tests on Syntegon machines have shown that the new material processes just as well as conventional mono-material films made of polyolefin or even better. The biggest advantage: a significantly lower material thickness than LDPE films. Depending on the product and machine properties, LDPE films are typically around 30 to 80 micrometres thick. SABIC's BOPE solution consists of a single-layer film that is only 20 micrometres thick, but offers the same level of puncture resistance and barrier protection as 30 micrometre thick LDPE films.
The PHS 2.0 sealing system comprises servo-controlled sealing jaws, a knife and sealing strips heated on both sides for uniform, high-quality seals. The material-friendly, fast solution reduces the film surface that is pinched off by up to 6.8 per cent and increases the packaging speed by up to 25 per cent - this corresponds to an output of up to 130 pouches per minute. The sealing and cooling times have been reduced by 30 and 50 per cent respectively to increase the speed of the machine.
Film can be fully recycled
However, the new packaging concept for frozen food not only enables material savings and a higher output: SABIC's BOPE film can also be fully recycled via mechanical and chemical PE recycling. Chemically recycled plastics are safe for food packaging and can pass through several recycling cycles without any loss of quality.
