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Sustainable Packaging

Sustainability is a major focus in today’s packaging industry. in the packaging world. Packaging is undoubtedly essential for preserving shelf life and hygienic conditions we need for everyday products. However, the packaging industry is called on to adopt additional measures for preserving the ecosystem and reducing its impact on the environment in our journey towards a “carbon zero” economy.

This encompasses not only the use of recyclable or recycled materials, but also more generally a more efficient management of raw materials and energy.  Two important areas to consider when assessing the direct impact of packaging processes on the environment are the production of unusable waste and energy use. In this market, it is essential that companies take action to make their packaging more recyclable.

In fact the continuous research in Universal Pack’s in-house laboratory and factory in collaboration with leading film manufacturers has led to significant achievements in this area. One of them is the compatibility of recyclable, recycled and compostable laminates with UP machines. Just to give an example some more sustainable laminates that Universal Pack machines can pack are:

• PP – Polypropylene;
• PLA – Polyactic acid;
• PAP – Paper;
• BIO-PE – Bio-based polyethylene.

To find out more visit Universal Pack, where sustainability is driven by innovation.

The challenge for the reduction of the company’s carbon footprint can also be seen in the optimization of the machine energy consumption. Universal Pack energy efficient machines come with brushless motorization (e.g., PacDrive electronics), the development of component environmental profile” or clarify internally and PLC quality meter for consumption optimization.

Aseptic Technology

Aseptic packaging is a desirable alternative to hot-fill or retort processing because it doesn’t expose products to extended periods of high temperatures, which can lead to vitamin, color, taste, and texture degradation. The aseptic process ultimately helps preserve product quality while supporting shelf-stable distribution without requiring refrigeration.

Aseptic processing and packaging is the filling of commercially sterilized products into presterilized containers. Products that are aseptically processed are commercially sterilized to kill harmful microorganisms.  The term commercial sterility indicates the elimination or inactivation of the microorganisms: bacteria, molds and viruses (pathogenic and non-pathogenic) present, capable of producing unwanted changes or that can cause health problems.

Key features:

• No sterile chamber or glove box inside the machine
• Tube packaging itself behaves as a Sterile Dynamic Isolator
• Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide dry decontamination process makes it possible to meet:
  • Regulatory requirements in the final pouch as chemical residues (< 0.5 ppm)
  • High degree of Sterility (log count reduction > 5)
• Short sterilization procedures can be run in case of machine stoppages or operator access (<20min)
• Low operating costs (Opex) compared to other technologies(up to 50% cheaper)

Supply Chain Management

The recent global supply chain crisis has heavily affected consumer patterns while forcing a change in the production paradigm of any industry, including the packaging one. The lack of component shortages have led many companies to downsize their production, as well as making them unable to meet their usual delivery deadlines.

It goes without saying that there is no easy solution to overcome a global crisis. But the inevitable damage can obviously be limited by implementing some good practices.

Any successful company is called to take action in critical situations like this, to address the issue promptly the ongoing issue. Universal Pack’s answer to the crisis led to improved supply chain management together with increased stock capacity. In our warehouse, machine components are thoroughly coded and classified based on their MTBF, with an analysis derived from years of field experience. In addition, the level of criticality is also assessed based on the component family, and especially how scarce each item is on the market or it is expected to be in the foreseeable future. Full traceability is ensured by a multiple coding mechanism that makes it possible to identify and store unique customized spare parts as well as more common components for general use.

The expansion of UP warehouse capacity was achieved through the construction of a number of new vertical automated warehouses. Keeping full control of component production, not depending on other suppliers and storing in-house large quantities of spare parts have always been the cornerstones of Universal Pack philosophy. Considering how the recent global events made the outsourced component supply much more difficult, Universal Pack has opted for adopting an insourcing model by producing over 80% of machine parts in-house. Some of the most noticeable advantages of this action are: increased storage capacity, a greater number of existing spare parts managed and faster component supply.

Inverted Pouch

A pouch is an incredibly flexible packaging solution suitable for a number of industries such as food, chemical, cosmetics. It can be made of several plastic materials including polyolefin, metallized aluminum and EVOH. Some aspects that make this type of packaging desirable are: the wide space for branding and marketing, reduced use of packaging material, reduced product residue (as opposed to plastic bottles) and the possibility of closing the cap for repeated use. The inverted pouch is an extremely desirable choice for its elegant design and reusable concept.

Multihead Weigher

Universal Pack machines can be equipped with multihead weighers suitable for dosing special products (e.g. in chunks or small pieces) or any product that cannot be dosed by traditional dosing systems. This dosing system supports extremely accurate doses and high production rates. 

Available configurations can reach up to 4 weighers combined into 1 multihead and the capability of serving up to 4 lanes with 1 multihead.