FUNDAMENTALS OF PACKAGING

TECHNOLOGY

Instructor: Gabby F. Geronimo

Course outline

• Perspective on packaging

• Packaging functions

• Graphic design

• Package printing and decorating

• Paper and paperboard

• Paperboard cartons

• Corrugated fiberboard

Course outline

• Metal cans and containers

• Glass containers

• Polymer chemistry

• Preliminary examinations

Course outline

• Shaping plastics

• Plastic applications

• Closures

Course outline

• Adhesives

• Flexible packaging laminates

• Distribution packaging

• Shock, vibration and compression

Course outline

• Packaging machinery

• Applied packaging

• The package development process

• Final examinations

Course outline

• A coordinated system of preparing goods for transport, distribution, storage, retailing and use.

What is packaging?

Technical functions Marketing functionsContain Measure Communicate PromoteProtect Dispense Display Sell

Preserve Transport Inform Motivate

• Needs a product

• Contains, protects, preserves, transports and informs/sell

• It is not a recent phenomenon

• The packaging industry is always in the state of change

What is packaging?

• Wrap of leaves, an animal skin, shell of a nut, naturally hollow piece of wood

• 5000 BC - time of some domesticated plants & animals - fabricated sacks, baskets and bags. Wood boxes replaced hollow logs.

• Clay - shaped into shallow bowls and allowed to dry in the sun. Eventually, placed a clay bowl in fire, thus pottery and ceramic trade was born.

• 2500 BC - glass beads and figures were made in Mesopotamia

Primitive packaging

• 1500 BC - earliest hollow glass objects appeared in Mesopotamia and Egypt (core-formed).

Primitive packaging

• As time went on, cities were established and trade flourished across the European and Asian continents.

• 50 BC - invention of glass blowpipe.

• Wooden barrel probably started at this time.

• Dark ages - lack of significant changes

• Papyrus - sheet material produced by Egyptians

• 105 AD - Ts'ai Lun is credited with making the first true paper from inner bark of mulberry trees

From Rome to the Renaissance

• Printing from woodcuts - the ancient parent of the printing process known as flexography - also originated in the Far East.

• Diamond sutra - oldest existing book printed in 868 AD.

• European world awoke in 1100 AD. Gutenberg printed a Bible in 1455.

• Consumer needs were non-existent.

• No retail trade. Concepts of marketing, advertising, price structures and distribution were irrelevant

• Population levels were not large enough to support mass production.

From Rome to the Renaissance

The Diamond Sutra

• "the change that transforms a people with peasant occupations and local markets into an industrial society with worldwide connections"

• Started in England in about 1700 and spread rapidly through Europe and North America.

• Rural agricultural workers migrated into cities where they were employed in factories

• Mass-produced goods became available

• Factory workers needed commodities and food

• Many new shops and stores opened

• Increase in demand for barrels, kegs, boxes, bags and baskets.

The Industrial Revolution

• For most of recorded history, bulk packaging was the rule

• Packaging served primarily to contain and protect

• Growth of cities spurred importance of individual packaging

• Medicines, cosmetics, teas, liquors were among the first prepackaged products

• Products were sold generically

• The first brand names were those of the maker: Yardley's (1770), Schweppes (1792), Perrier (1863), Colgate (1873).

The evolution of new packaging roles

• Early food can labels has to appeal to simple country folk.

• 1877 - packaging milestone set when the American Cereal Company chose a symbol to trademark its product

The evolution of new packaging roles

• 1950s - emergence of fast-food outlets

• Growth of convenience and prepared food packages

• 1970s - 80s - legislative changes e.g. Labeling laws, tamper-evident closures, etc.

• International agreements

• Health awareness

• 1990s - convenience and fast

• Highly-developed countries vs less-developed countries

Packaging in the late 20th century

• The four Rs

• Reduce

• Reuse

• Recycle

• Recover

Environmental and sustainability issues

• Arable crop is being reduced

• Global forest coverage is shrinking

• Petrochemicals are becoming harder to come by

• Air, water and soil pollution are increasing as is global temperature

• Global economic growth is based on continuous growth, global resources are fixed

SustainabilityEnvironment Consumption

Sustainability is a balancing act

• The concept of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs

Sustainability

• The packaging industry is a major consumer of materials and as a result, is a significant producer of waste materials.

• Significant user of energy

Sustainability and packaging

• Plotting of the complete material, energy and process flow path from raw materials to the end of life for a particular product.

• Details by-products and solid waste, liquid effluent and atmospheric releases

• Conducted to identify opportunities for increasing sustainability

Life cycle analysis

Production of ethanol from corn