At the Interpack 2008 exhibition, Stora Enso’s (hall 9, stand B20/C19) focus is on environmental aspects of packaging: how correct packaging materials solutions influence climate change through sustainable use of natural resources. In addition, the latest developments of board materials are being presented.
To highlight just a few trends, the visitors to the Stora Enso stand at Interpack can have their drinks in either biodegradable paperboard cups or digitally printed cups. Continuous development of board properties is also vital to maximize the performance of the boards in various end uses.
Tightening tolerance on Robinson
Taint and odour neutrality is a key requirement in a number of end use areas, such as chocolate, confectionery or food packaging. Stora Enso Performa White and Performa Cream are known as world-class products in terms of taint and odour-sensitive packaging. This was confirmed recently by achieving a tighter maximum tolerance in the Robinson test on these boards. The new Robinson value is a maximum 0.5 for twelve months (according to pre-EN 1230-2). This is a clearly tighter specification compared with the earlier maximum of 1.0.
Similarly, the maximum tolerance in the Robinson test has been tightened to 0.5 for the Ensocoat, Ensogloss, Performa Natura and Performa 2S boards. The new Robinson value is based on the good and stable test results of all these boards in long-term testing. All Stora Enso Performa boards contain CTMP (chemi-thermomechanical pulp) for extra bulk and stiffness. Ensocoat and Ensogloss are high-quality SBS (solid bleached sulphate) boards for the most demanding graphical and packaging applications.
Source reduction by lower grammages
Source reduction and yield benefits remain an important element of Stora Enso’s product development. This serves the brand owners’ needs to reduce their overall consumption of packaging materials and to improve their profitability by using lower-weight packages. Recently Stora Enso has introduced new, lower grammages of the Tamwhite, Tambrite and Tamfold folding boxboards.
“This development dates back to the launch of a new pulp concept with pressurized groundwood in the 1980’s, which allowed us to offer 10-percent lower board grammages to market, and to the rebuild of the board machine in the early 1990’s. Several optimization steps have taken place since then, so depending on the product, our specifications now show 5- to 7-percent lower grammages compared with those in 1991, without compromising stiffness,” says Antti Veitola, Technical Manager at Stora Enso Ingerois mill.
Improved brightness and whiteness
“Improving the brightness and whiteness has been our main target with Aurocard and Aurocard HB, which are used in graphical products, and with Printocart and Printocart Luxe, which are intended for general packaging,” says Elke Deigendesch, Product Manager. “The market favours higher brightness and whiteness in new designs, and that’s why we have focused on these properties in our product development.”
As a result, the ISO brightness on top has been improved from 87 to 89 percent for Aurocard and Printocart Luxe, and from 84 to 88.5 percent for Printocart and Aurocard HB. On the reverse side, the improvement for Aurocard and Printocart Luxe is from 85 to 85.5 percent, and for Printocart and Aurocard HB from 82 to 85.5 percent. The reflection factor with UV has been increased correspondingly. Furthermore, the shade has been improved to better fulfil market requirements. All other technical values, including smoothness, remain unchanged.
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For further information:
www.storaenso.com/productnews
www.storaenso.com/consumerboard
http://www.storaenso.com/
Stora Enso Consumer Board, Sanna Heiskanen, Marketing Communications Specialist, tel. +358 20 46 23 440
