Constantia Flexibles brings lightweight PE film tech to Europe with Oerlemans Packaging partner
22 Jun 2022 --- Constantia Flexibles is recruiting Plasthill Technical Films, a Dutch Oerlemans Packaging Group company, to help bring its proprietary technology, CompresSeal, to the market in Europe.
The CompresSeal film has higher seal integrity than standard PE films and weighs up to 30% less. It will be available to the first customers in selected markets from August 2022 onwards.
Plasthill, a producer of high-end technical films and packaging based in Hillegom, the Netherlands, and Austrian-based flexible packaging producer Constantia Flexibles, combine their expertise to bring the eco-friendlier films to the market on an industrial scale.
“The technology behind the CompresSeal film is the result of years of research and development by our experts. Together with Plasthill’s leading embossing capabilities, we take this forward-looking packaging solution to the next level and offer it to customers in a broad variety of packaging applications,” remarks Pim Vervaat, CEO of Constantia Flexibles.
Flexible partnerships
The CompresSeal technology consists of a novel and special micro embossing technology. Its embossing pattern reduces the grammage of polyolefinic sealant films by up to 30% while still having the same thickness as standard packaging. Therefore, also the carbon footprint of a given packaging specification can be reduced.
Furthermore, the technology reduces the issues associated with migrating slip agents usually used in the PE and PP film industry. Therefore, fewer additives can be used, and the coefficient of friction on the packaging line remains constant, independent of environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity.
This also results in higher production speeds. The packaging solution is particularly suitable for use in flow packs for washing detergents, dry pet food, coffee, nuts, savory foods, and as stand-up pouches for liquids.
At first, the focus will be on PE sealants in thicknesses above 60 grams per square meter, where weight-saving has the most significant environmental impact, says the collaboration.
Sander Kool, Managing Director at Plasthill Technical Films, says: “Our proposition is ‘The sustainable innovator’ and producing these new films is entirely in line with our Rethink Plastics strategy. The cooperation and teamwork with Constantia Flexibles turned out to be wonderful.”
Constantia Flexibles’ movements
Last year, Constantia Flexibles unveiled an up to 80% recycled PE film made from its EcoLam laminates’ waste, offering a high-barrier non-food solution suitable for recycling in the existing low-density PE recycling stream.
The company also released a monomaterial sachet for pharma products in 2021, branded Perpetua. The packs are designed as a more sustainable version of current high-barrier packaging solutions on the pharma market. Perpetua is the Austria-based international flexible packaging producer’s first recyclable polymeric monomaterial and has a wide range of uses in pharma packaging applications.
Edited
By Louis Gore-Langton
