The paper packaging market has seen a tremendous amount of growth in the past few years. This rise in paper-based packaging aligns with sustainable packaging regulations and recycled paper and corrugated resources are readily available, but the transition from plastic to paper comes with unique challenges.
To discuss how inks and coatings are being developed to fit with these market trends, we recently spoke to Andrew Brooks and Jeremy Teachman, Product Managers for Inks and Coatings for Paper-Based Packaging at Sun Chemical.
Brooks and Teachman talked about some of the biggest trends that they’re witnessing in paper packaging.
“’Paperization’ is a relatively new term in the market, and it reflects the ongoing changes in packaging – replacing plastic-based materials with paper, paperboard, or other fiber-based materials,” Teachman notes. “You can see it on the store shelves as you walk through the aisles for food, beverage, household, and other products.”
Examples include beverage container multipacks, with paperboard replacing traditional plastic rings or shrink-over wraps – think about six packs of beverage cans or bottles.
Sun Chemical has established solutions for those markets and those forms of packaging, supporting the ability of its customers to meet demand for sustainable packaging with both inks and coatings.
“When you make the switch to paper, the package still needs to accomplish all the same purposes as the original plastic packaging,” Brooks notes. “This means that there are technology systems that must be created – new ink systems that adhere to the different substrates with different rub requirements and appearance standards, new coating systems that provide water, grease and oxygen barriers.”
Brooks adds: “Sun Chemical has developed several of these new ink and coating systems for this new paperization need, and we continue to invest in our laboratory capabilities to be at the forefront of this technology.”
To learn more about how Sun Chemical is working with its customers to make paperization possible, check out the company’s website, and listen to the full podcast here.
