PETpla.net Insider 08 / 2017

CAPS & CLOSURES 16 PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 08/17 www.petpla.net Five global trends that will transform closure production Put a cap on it By Michael Van Dord, Technical and Design Engineer, Caps and Closures Pty Ltd, Australia Retiree Craig Williams, 82, enjoys his cups of tea in the morning and working in the garden in the afternoon. Unfortunately Craig has arthritis and struggles to do a task as simple as opening a new bottle of milk. People with a debilitating condition, like Craig, are being con- sidered not only for their buying trends in relation to the look and taste of a product but also their physical requirements and ability to get into the product to consume it. And this is just one of the trends, Australian company Caps and Closures Pty Ltd discovered as having effects on future closures’ design. The Arthritis Foundation estimates that osteoarthritis will impact at least 130 million individuals worldwide by 2050; Craig is one of the 15% of people over 60 who are currently living with osteoarthritis. Caps and Closures Pty Ltd Aus- tralia views the ageing population as a problem for individuals, families, governments and businesses and the food industry is no exception. This trend is not going away any time soon. Eurostat says that the propor- tion of the EU’s population aged 80 years or above is expected to more than double between 2016 and 2080, from 5.4% to 12.7%. People with a debilitating condi- tion, like Craig, are being considered not only for their buying trends in rela- tion to the look and taste of a product but also their physical requirements and ability to get into the product to consume it. The old approach of making everything lighter and more efficient to protect a product, reduce waste and improve profit is not enough. If Craig can’t open the prod- uct and consume the food, he won’t consider buying it in the future. We realise the world is chang- ing and Caps and Closures Pty Ltd Australia’s designers actively consider a wider demographic when designing new products. The traditional “me-too market” sees large companies put money into designing and develop- ing a product, with smaller companies following the trend. 3D printing, once prohibitively expensive, is changing the way we design and manufacture products. Today’s low-resolution print- ers cost around $1,000; one capable of printing detail finer than a human hair can be purchased for around $5,000. They can create multiple iterations of a design that allows the customer to get a true understanding of how a product will look, feel and function in timeframes never imagined a few years ago. Caps and Closures Pty Ltd Australia designers are using this technology to reduce the design and development process down to mere days. This technology is just the tip of the iceberg. Companies are creating continuous printing methodology that enables completion in 10 minutes of a print that, in the past, would have taken 10 hours. We will soon be using 3D printing for large-scale customer interaction testing, and even trialling existing manufacturing and filling lines for compatibly with new product well, before expensive tooling has been begun. 3D printing is not just limited to plastic polymers. By combining small particles of metal with a laser, 3D printing of a metal object is already being used in the medical field to replace damaged bones with custom- designed titanium implants that are then inserted directly into a human body. Metal 3D printing will revolution- ise tooling manufacture for injec- tion moulding, blow moulding and compression moulding. It will reduce tooling costs and improve the die’s ultimate functionality, through being able to create shapes and waterways that are impossible to manufacture through existing machining tech- niques. Outlook The team at Caps and Closures Pty Ltd Australia sees the day where arthritis sufferers like Craig will one day be able to go to the supermarket and find a product on the shelf that does not require him to open it with a tool or, in some situations a knife; it will be specifically designed with him in mind. Manufacturers and design- ers will be using 3D printing and smart technology and materials to reduce development time and increase prod- uct variety. The products of today will be forgotten and the variety of products available tomorrow will be unbelievable – and truly exciting! Five global trends that will transform production Caps & Closures Pty Ltd defined five global trends that will transform production today and in the future. These were analysed in terms of what is new, next and game-changing in the worlds of consumer experiences, business strategy and emerging high- performance manufacturing trends across the globe: CAPS & CLOSURES