Campden BRI case study
Packaging testing for clients
With companies striving to look for ways to reduce packaging costs, as well as trouble shoot when packaging performance is less than ideal, we have been able to offer our technical expertise in a number of ways, as the examples below illustrate:
Board pots sometimes have an ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) layer to give moisture barrier properties. Would removing this layer adversely affect barrier properties and strength? Water vapour transmission rates of a pot with an EVOH layer were compared to those of a pot with the EVOH layer removed. Burst testing and incline drop testing were also carried out on the pots to see the effect on package strength. Neither water vapour transmission rates nor drop test performance were adversely affected by removing the EVOH layer, and interestingly burst test performance was improved quite markedly. In this particular scenario, the EVOH barrier did not appear to be adding any significant benefit.
Introducing new packaging can give rise to unforeseen problems. A client had trialled a new lidding film, which proved to be stable following a 1 month trial. However, once the film was moved into production, several customer complaints were received regarding seal failure; this was found to be an issue across all production lines. We were asked to investigate whether the film used in the original trial was the same as the production film and also to compare the seal strength of the film with that of a control film using peel and burst testing. Examination of the film used during trials and that used in production showed that the production film was 10µm thinner overall. The internal layer used for sealing was 2.5µm thinner on the production reel compared to the trial reel; this reduction could impact on the sealing of the film due to a reduced surface area.