At Plastivison 2020, held between 16-21 January in Mumbai, W&H displayed a range of new products including form fill seal (FFS) bags for free-flowing materials, diaper bag sheet films for hygiene market, solutions for bulk material packaging, food grains, and cement etc. “We have done a lot of product development in the last few months which we are showcasing at Plastivision 2020. The core idea is sustainability to help our customers,” said Anuj Sahni of Windmöller & Hölscher.
Sahni is quite optimistic about the growth of FFS bags in India. He said, “Compared to woven bags, FFS bags offer a lot of benefits – it can run at higher bagging speeds, require less manpower, provide design flexibility to the last inch, and is suitable for high-speed automatic filling lines. FFS bags are a tried-and-tested alternative to woven sack packaging.”
Highlighting the benefits of bagging polymer granules in FFS bags, Sahni added, “For polymer companies, it brings in a lot of advantages too. Today, India produces surplus polymer granules. To export these granules, the packaging has to be at par with the rest of the globe. Even imported polymer granules in India are delivered in FFS bags, while the preferred choice in India is still woven sacks. Of late, however, we have seen a big change in that direction as we have already some machines for FFS bags supplied by Aventus Global coming to India.”
Aventus Global, which manufactures machines for bagging materials in FFS bags, is a joint venture between Haver & Boecker and Windmoller & Holscher. Aventus is specialized in solutions for packing of free-flowing loose goods up to finished pallets.
Sahni is also highly positive about the hygiene and sanitation market in India. He said,“We also see a very good potential in the hygiene and sanitation market. Globally, films used for hygiene products are produced on blown film lines while the majority of these films in India are still produced on cast lines. We expect these films to grow in India because it is a very good product and globally it is very active, and in China we already have a good number of machines installed for the hygiene industry. So we expect that number to increase in India as well.”
Sahni sees growth in the bulk material packaging segment as well. “In bulk material packaging, our focus area till now was the cement industry but gradually the demand for high-quality rice packaging is also catching up. What we foresee is that end-users are demanding better solutions. We believe the right solution will benefit stakeholders across the entire value-chain, by increasing overall packaging value and simultaneously decreasing cost-pressure,” said Sahni.
