Enabled by Pack Studios, Dow is working together with Mespack, one of the leading manufacturers of horizontal form fill and seal (HFFS) packaging machines, to develop a holistic understanding of the processability and machinability of stand-up pouches to be designed for recyclability. Jointly developed PE-based prototypes will be on display at Dow’s stand at K 2019, the world’s largest trade fair for plastics and rubber.
Starting in October, the companies will begin evaluating various mono-material packaging structures to optimize machine-packaging interaction and expect to identify and deliver over the next five years key machinability and multilayer film structure parameters to enhance productivity, optimize machine settings and enable next generation sustainable packaging.
Applications to be assessed range from stand-up pouches for baby food, condiments, and detergents, to personal care applications such as shampoos, shower gels, or body lotions. For packaging applications that cannot compromise on content preservation, Dow combines this technology with barrier solutions in structures that are designed for recyclability.
As recently announced at Pack Expo in Las Vegas, Dow will install Mespack’s 180 FE HFFS machine at its Pack Studios location in Freeport, Texas. In addition, the two companies are working closely together in extensive trials in Mespack’s technical center in Barcelona, located near Dow’s packaging center of excellence in Tarragona, Spain, where films and laminates are being fabricated for testing on Mespack machinery.
“With about 86 billion stand-up pouches being produced every year, there is a clear opportunity to make them recyclable, so that this flexible packaging format can play a key role in the circular economy,” said Peter Sandkuehler, global application technology leader for Dow’s packaging and specialty plastics business. “Thanks to the close collaboration, machinery installations and productivity trials in our Pack Studios, our development work with Mespack can help enable the fast commercialization of pouches made of PE-based films allowing converters and brand owners to help meet their sustainability commitments to help increase recyclability of flexible packaging.”
The PE-based stand-up pouch on show at Dow’s K-stand were produced on Mespack HFFS packaging lines in combination with monoply or laminate film structures made by Transcontinental and enabled by high-performance Dow resins such as DOWLEX, ELITE 5960G in outer layers and AFFINITY as sealants.