Packaging Solutions
Mondi is investing in its Styria, Austria, plant to further boost its ability to offer safe, clean, environmentally friendly liners for flexible intermediate bulk containers.
‘Mondi’s FIBC liners ensure clean food processing and are ideal for milk powder, other foods, pharmaceuticals and additional applications,’ noted Stefan Pfundner, business solution manager, Mondi Technical Films.
‘Not only do Mondi’s FIBC liners advance customers’ processes and logistics,’ he explained, ‘but their superior quality reduces the amount of raw materials used and offers an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional liners.’
The Mondi Styria film extruding plant already is well known for its outstanding hygiene standards and innovative sustainable product development. The site has extensive experience in developing more environmentally friendly products, including thinner, down gauged films and ply constructions ready for recycling. Now, with its latest innovation, Styria is enabling the elimination of aluminium inner layers in FIBC liner films.
Mondi is installing new equipment at Styria to make high barrier, side gusseted tubes for FIBCs.
This latest equipment upgrade will make Mondi Styria the only plant of its kind able to produce these types of tubes in such food clean conditions. That facility has earned three straight ‘AA’ certifications per the British Retail Consortium (BRC) global standard for packaging and packaging materials. That certification gives qualifying brands an internationally recognised mark of quality, safety and responsibility.
The new side gusseting device will enable Mondi to provide converters with tubes up 4400 mm in total circumference. It will come equipped with a special Hepa air filter to clean the air within the blown film bubble to remove bacteria and particulates, yielding nearly sterile conditions.
Mondi makes the high-barrier tubes and supplies them to customers who then produce the actual FIBC bags. By adding permanent antistatic additives to both the inside and outside of the film, Mondi can greatly reduce the dust explosion hazards in combination with a Typ B Big Bag associated with filling or discharging of bulk powders such as infants’ powdered milk or foodstuffs such as sugar, flour or spices. FIBC bags also are widely used to bulk package such items as chemicals and minerals.
‘Ensuring appropriate levels of hygiene during production and packaging is vital for suppliers of foods and other products,’ Stefan said. ‘Due to our well established relationships with some of the leading multinational brands, as well as with the leading producers of such demanding products, we decided to extend our bulk packaging portfolio by adding production in Styria of high barrier, side gusseted tubes.’
Liners produced from these tubes minimise the risk of contamination on the inside, compared with liners produced from flat film or foil, such as aluminium liners. Mondi also can adapt the barrier properties according to the needs of the product, to protect against odours, moisture and the like. With such tubes offering a viable alternative to aluminium liners and other kinds of laminate structures, FIBC packagers potentially can not only save money, but also reduce their carbon footprint.
‘Our FIBC liner films deliver excellence on all levels and over all structures,’ Stefan noted. ‘With better sustainability and quality, these films will help packagers make their products more useful and advance their business.’
Mondi additionally can tailor make multilayer films using a variety of structures, from PE to PE/PA and PE/EVOH to seven layer PE/PA/EVOH structures, additives and colours to provide solutions for all kinds of industries, from food to chemicals, minerals or pharma.
The properties of Mondi’s FIBC liner films make them ideal for food, pharmaceutical and other critical applications, while also helping to advance bag manufacturers’ processes and logistics. These films boast stringent certifications that document their excellent performance related to oxygen and moisture barriers, anti-static properties and overall mechanical strength.
‘We see this as an excellent time to boost our presence in the growing milk powder market and related bulk packaging sectors by leveraging our expertise in customisable barrier-film technology in conjunction with Mondi Styria’s superb hygiene-related packaging,’ said Stefan. ‘When it comes to our vast portfolio of technical films, Mondi continues to be all about advancement, with the aim of reducing cost and complexity, and enhancing properties and functionality for our customers worldwide.’
