PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2012

BARRIER TECHNOLOGY 22 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 12/12 www.petpla.net Shelf life objectives Consumers today tend to be more conscious than ever before about healthy food and beverage choices, with natural, preservative-free products preferred by many. At the same time, consumers are also more aware of the environment and tend to complain when they suspect a product has been over- packaged. So why is it that we are still mandating shelf life requirements of up to 18 months or more for products that are supposed to promote a fresh and healthy lifestyle? Aren’t we being ultra conservative and yet contradictory with our approach to packaging? There was a time in the 1980s when the buzz word was “just in time.” It was a goal many companies were keen to achieve. These days, “just in time” is the basic standard for the way we live our lives. For exam- ple, we have apps that can allow us to do, buy, send everything, everywhere immediately. We can look at a beverage label and get immediate details on when, where and how it was made, and more. We can connect to a marketing site via a QR code or snap tag for even more data. There is basically no limitation in the level and quantity of information that can be communicated. In short, we live in a “now” society. Yet the criteria gov- erning packaging remains firmly rooted in the past. We continue to develop long shelf-life packaging even when the consumption cycle for many products is significantly shorter. Distribution logistics have also expe- rienced major improvement in the past 20 years. The chain from field to con- IKV investigates process data for online quality management in plasma processes by Dipl.-Ing. Karim Bahroun, IKV Aachen Spectroscopic plasma monitoring Deposition of thin layer barrier coating on plastics for bar- rier improvement is state of the art today. To support online quality management of plasma processes the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV) in Industry and the Skilled Crafts at RWTH Aachen University is investigating the use of spec- troscopic plasma monitoring. Plasma emissions are strongly associated with process parameters such as pressure, applied power and gas flow. However, looking at com- plex or rapid processes there is still a lack of viable and reliable indus- trial quality management systems. In these cases, establishing a temporal link between process variables and plasma properties is a crucial factor in order to obtain quality-related data in real-time. Based on the optical emission spectroscopy (OES) spectroscopic plasma monitoring can survey the plasma process in real-time and thus treatment or coating processes. The advantage of this technique is its ability to monitor different process information, e.g. the condition of the processing chamber, the degree of contamination, the expected layer properties, such as barrier properties, scratch resistance or wettability or the reproducibility of batch processes. With this in mind, a plant control system based on programmable logic controller (PLC) has been devel- oped at IKV. In close collaboration with Plasus Ingenieurbüro, Kissing, Germany, the Plasus Emicon system was integrated into the plant control system via Profibus DP. All available process data can thereby be collected and analysed simultaneously along with the measured plasma emissions, so that preventive action can be taken even in complex and rapid processes. Time and costly sample checks are reduced to a minimum by continuous in-process performance monitoring. Further investigations on process monitoring, for example automatic acquisition of process homogeneity in large area coating processes, are in progress. www.ikv-aachen.de Plasma monitoring in action (photo: IKV) A different look at shelf life When we talk about barrier technology, the subject of shelf life always comes up. Thierry Fabozzi, Managing Director of PTI Europe believes we should take a fresh look at shelf life. BARRIER TECHNOLOGY