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Sustainable Packaging

Sustainability is the buzz word today in the packaging world. Packaging is no doubt vital for keeping the longer shelf life and hygienic conditions we need for products of daily use. However, the packaging industry is called to adopt further 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 better management and use 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 actions to make their production recyclable and less polluting.

As a matter of fact the continuous research in Universal Pack laboratory and factory with the collaboration of major film manufacturers has brought to noticeable 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 eco-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 Park, 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 machines energy consumption. Universal Pack energy efficient machines come with brushless motorization (e.i. Pacdrive electronics), the development of component product environmental profile and PLC quality meter for consumption optimization.

Aseptic Technology

Aseptic is a desirable alternative to hot-fill or retort processing because it doesn’t expose products to extended periods of high thermal temperatures, which can lead to vitamin, color, taste, and texture degradation. The aseptic process ultimately ensures a better quality product that can still maintain shelf-stable distribution and refrigeration is not required.

Aseptic processing and packaging is the filling of commercially-sterilized products into pre-sterilized 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, in capable of producing unwanted changes or that can cause health problems.

Key features:

• No sterile chamber or gloves box inside the machine
• Tube packaging itself behaves as a Sterile Dynamic Isolator
• Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide dry decontamination process allows to meet:
  • Regulatory requirements in the final pouch as chemical residuals (< 0,5 ppm)
  • High degree of Sterility (Log Count Reduction > 5)
• Short sterilization procedures can be run in case of machine stops or operator access (<20min)
• Low operational 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 components has led many companies to downsize their production, as well as making them unable to stick to their usual deadlines for delivery. It goes without saying that there is no easy solution to overcome a crisis of global extent. But the inevitable damages can obviously be limited by implementing some good practices.

Any successful company is called to action in critical situations like this, in order to timely tackle the ongoing issue. Universal Pack’s answer to the crisis resulted in the improvement of the 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 and years of experience on field. In addition, the level of criticality is also assessed based on the components family, and especially how scarce this item is on the market or it is expected to be in the foreseeable future. The full traceability is ensured by a multiple coding mechanism that allows to both identify and store unique customized spare parts as well as more common components for general use.

The expansion of UP warehouse capacity was made sure through the construction of a number of new vertical automated warehouses. Keeping full control of components 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 components provision 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 storing room available, greater amount of exiting spare parts managed and faster components provision.

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 up a of several plastic materials including polyolefin, metalized aluminum and EVOH. Some aspects making this type of packaging desirable are: the wide space for marketing, reduced use of packaging material, low product leftover (as opposed to plastic bottles) and possibility to close the cap for multiple uses. The inverted pouch is an extremely desirable choice for its elegant design and reusable concept.

Discover Universal Pack Machines for Inverted Pouches.

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 ensures extremely accurate doses and high production rates. 

Available applications allow for a performance of up to 4 weighers combined into 1 multihead and the capability of serving up to 4 lanes with 1 multihead.