2° forum on rigid and foamed thermoformed packaging Milan November 2011

BANDERA has partecipated to the 2^nd forum on rigid and foamed thermoformed packaging held at Malpensa’s Sheraton Hotel, on the 23th and 24^th of November. Most recent key points regarding the technological development of rigid and foamed thermoformed packaging production have been showed during the event.

 The technology is developed for the production of semi-foamed foil, whose features are similar to conventional foil, with a few main differences such as lower weight and final application on thermoplastic materials such as PET and PP which are widely used for industrial and food packaging.

 This type of technology goes with the already existing ones since, by the use of safe and non-toxic gas, it allows to obtain very positive foaming values along with some new advantages:

- Foaming is obtained by the injection of non-toxic and low pressure gas, without any risk of releasing potentially harming gasses for both the operator and the greenhouse effect;

- The whole process takes place without any risk for the operator due to the absence of high pressure works;

-  It is also allowed to use recycled material (e.g. PET coming from plastic bottle flakes or from thermoforming’s waste);

- The main equipment used is the co-rotating twin screw extruder L/D52, with dryless technology, which is usually used for rigid materials as it grants both the needed purification of recycled material and correct homogenization of foaming agent with melted material.

- The equipment kit needed for the foaming process can be added furtherly with a residual investment in addition to the complete plant's value.

 - The flat die production process doesn’t have any particular differences compared to the conventional materials, allowing to avoid any particular changes on working process.

The starting material’s weight is reduced to the half, leading to mechanical features of the final thermoformed product which are very similar to the conventional one.

 The final weight of the thermoformed product depends on it’s final application. Clearly low processing and mechanical mould reinforcement aid the conversion from conventional foil to semi-foamed foil.

 The processed foil can also be configured as a multi-layer (A-B-A) of which the external layers are made with conventional material in order to avoid further costs of using expensive additives (e.g. antiblock, master) or virgin material inside the foil’s core.

In order to allow the customers to get familiar with this new kind of technology and discover the most recent innovations of dryless technolgy extrusion lines, some exhibition tests, of both conventional and foamed PET foil extrusion, were held at Bandera’s facility along with the forum.

 The exhibition tests, during these two days, had many national and international visitors, coming not only from Europe but even from countries out of CEE, highlighting the importance of semi-foamed products towards the development of ecological food packaging.

 Profile of Company
Bandera has been operating since 1947 producing extrusion lines for plastic materials, with particular attention to the area of flat die plants for thermoplastic foil and sheets.
Bandera is recognized as a world leader in the production of extrusion equipment for pipes and thermoplastic films.
The factory in Busto Arsizio (VA), with a constant technological research verified with experimental tests on pilot plants, allows to continually improve the quality, ease of use and reliability of Bandera extrusion plants.