Packaging Solutions
Gerhard Schubert GmbH and Berlin based Berndt+Partner Group packaging consultancy are combining their expertise with the new Packaging Competence Centre (PCC). The new organisation brings together experts in regulation, packaging design, materials and automation technology. The aim of the PCC is to advise manufacturers on the development of sustainable packaging and to find viable solutions for implementation. The focus is on meeting the challenges of PPWR as well as other sustainability issues.
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) aims to make the packaging industry more sustainable and to reduce the negative environmental impact of packaging waste. However, it presents manufacturers with major challenges due to extremely tight deadlines, different implementation timelines and the current lack of detailed regulations. Companies need to evaluate as quickly as possible how they will respond to the often complex requirements. This can have far reaching consequences for their packaging and production processes – and requires efficient, compliant implementation, for which PCC provides a wide range of support.
As Michael Graf, head of the PCC and a sustainability expert at Schubert, explained: ‘Manufacturers are dealing with very practical considerations. What are the implications of packaging a chocolate bar in paper instead of a flowpack in the future? Or how does an existing cartoning machine run when blanks are resized, when they behave differently in the machine or when they can no longer be glued? These issues are significant and require answers along the entire value chain.’
This is where the Packaging Competence Centre comes in. The PCC’s key advantage is that, due to the comprehensive expertise of two companies, the centre can offer regulatory advice, packaging development and machine feasibility – all from a single source. While the experts from bp Consultants clarify the PPWR and explain its impact on the respective packaging portfolio, Schubert evaluates the machinability of new packaging solutions, thereby ensuring the automation which is essential for packaging processes. Marcel Kiessling, managing director of Gerhard Schubert GmbH, pointed out: ‘As a leading machine manufacturing company, we are proud to be working with Berndt+Partner, an equally leading edge consulting group for packaging issues in Europe. The Packaging Competence Centre is a collaborative partnership that provides technical consulting services for packaging processes and technologies – all targeted towards making our customers’ production processes more efficient and sustainable.
If, for example, a manufacturer wants to switch its packaging materials to paper or recyclable mono films, the PCC offers a so-called Impact Check. During this process, the experts analyse, as part of their evaluation, whether a manufacturer’s existing packaging range meets the regulatory requirements or whether it needs to be improved. Once all questions have been clarified, manufacturers can develop a new packaging design, with support available if desired from Berndt+Partner Creality, a subsidiary of the group that specialises in packaging design and branding. The PCC always takes automated packaging processes into account.
Once the modified packaging concept has been finalised, Schubert tests it on its own machines in Crailsheim. The packaging machine manufacturer determines whether the new materials and formats can still be processed efficiently and whether they may require technological adjustments. Michael Graf believes it is vitally important to take a holistic approach, saying: ‘Sustainability – the basic idea behind our Mission Blue Initiative – has to incorporate systems and upstream steps such as design to ensure that a solution is consistently ecological. Packaging made of paper or mono film alone is not enough.’ Once the consulting, design and testing are complete, the PCC continues to support manufacturers. ‘Regulations change quickly, so manufacturers will soon have new questions for which they want equally creative answers – and they will find them at the PCC,’ concluded Matthias Giebel, partner at bp Consultants.
The Schubert packaging consulting team of specialists (from left to right): Pascal Kurz, Stefan Horvath, Michael Graf, Laura Gascho and Valentin Köhler.
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