Celplast Metallized Products put together a session on Retort Packaging for the annual TAPPI PLACE Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, September 25-29, 2005.

Speakers and topics included:

• Scott Whiteside, Clemson University - Introduction to Flexible Retort Packaging Technology
  
• Winson Kutte, Palmetto Food Packaging LLC - Selecting a Co-Packer: Retort Flexible Pouches
  
• Thomas R. Mueller, Rohm and Haas Company - The Effects of Retort Conditions on Clear High Barrier Laminated Structures
  
• Steve Jenkins, The Dow Chemical Company - PVDC Barrier Concepts for Demanding Coextrusion and Laminatio Applications
  

Celplast continues to use its network of suppliers, academia and converters to advance the industry’s knowledge of both clear and foil-based retort packaging applications.

Benefits of metallized film over foil:

• Lower material cost - 25% lower than 0.000275” foil on an msi basis
• Less converter waste - convert without creasing and tear-outs
• Less end-user waste - barrier is not compromised in formed pouches due to foil pinholing & flex cracking
• Keep the order - meet customer due dates with a 7 day lead time, not months
• Lower your inventory costs - 7 day lead time, not months
• Higher productivity for end-user - faster heat sealing speeds on end-user’s packaging equipment

Celplast’s new high barrier films are the perfect intermediate product between foil & standard metallized PET

Industrial Category: Technical Award

Celplast Metallized Products Ltd.
Product: Metallized Fabric

The Technical Award in the Industrial Category was bestowed on Celplast, the metallizer of a corona-treated LDPE/nonwoven PP for Innovative Insulations Inc., Arlington, Texas. Converter of the patent-pending outerwear lining fabric is PGI Fabrene, North Bay, Ontario, Canada. Flexibility, drapability and machinability of the metallized, microperforated PP was crucial as it needed to be processed on conventional fabric equipment. Low puncture resistance, high tear resistance and high drapability make it easy to sew. The nonwoven PP also eliminates any rustling and crinkling noise associated with the fabric rubbing against itself or the inner surfaces of the clothing to which it is sewn. Microperfs maximize breathability. Judges noted this application moves metallizing into a new market and advances its usage.

Many end-users have found that the metal-to-PET bond is the weakest interface in a finished package. Using our internally developed adhesion test, the metal-to-PET bond strengths of typical plain (untreated) PET films range from 200 – 400 g/in.

SUPERMET™ is a 48 g metallized PET film which provides superior bond on both sides of the film. We certify metal adhesion values of over 600 g/in, and the non-metal side is corona treated to enhance bond on the PET surface as well. This film is ideally suited to meet the demands of stiff, large format 3-ply PET/met PET/PE stand-up pouch structures, where excellent bond strength is needed.

Benefits of metallized film over foil:
• Lower material cost - 25% lower than 0.000275” foil on an msi basis
• Less converter waste - convert without creasing and tear-outs
• Less end-user waste - barrier is not compromised in formed pouches due to foil pinholing & flex cracking
• Keep the order - meet customer due dates with a 7 day lead time, not months
• Lower your inventory costs - 7 day lead time, not months
• Higher productivity for end-user - faster heat sealing speeds on end-user’s packaging equipment

Celplast’s new high barrier films are the perfect intermediate product between foil & standard metallized PET

Celplast is selected as exclusive distributor of CERAMIS® line of clear barrier films in North America

Celplast Metallized Products is proud to announce it has become Alcan Packaging’s exclusive North American agent/distributor for the entire line of CERAMIS® films. These transparent SiOx coated high barrier films are produced by the Business Unit CERAMIS® of Alcan Packaging in Switzerland.

CERAMIS® films are manufactured by the electron beam evaporation of silicon oxide onto PET, nylon and OPP substrates, providing packaging solutions for the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and high tech industries.

Celplast has over 20 years of experience providing barrier films to the converting market, and provides a local distribution center and local technical and product development support for the CERAMIS® product line. With CERAMIS®, their standard metallized films, and their new line of high barrier metallized films, Celplast is now able to offer the broadest range of barrier films available in North America. The CERAMIS® team brings extensive experience working with converters to process these materials, which retain full barrier properties even under high temperature and high humidity conditions, for a variety of multinational end-users in emerging clear barrier markets.

CERAMIS® wins major international award with Simplot Leggo's
Pasta Meals

Judges from 27 countries selected Australia’s new Simplot Leggo's Pasta Meals range as the best new product in the "ready to eat" category of the highly contested Paris based SIAL d’Or award. Leggo's also won the award for the best new Australian product. Leggo's Pasta Meals are filled in stand-up pouches which use CERAMIS® clear barrier PET film. CERAMIS® is a line of silicon oxide coated films which combine transparency with excellent barrier properties. CERAMIS® barrier films are exclusively distributed in North America by Celplast Metallized Products.

Celplast wins AIMCAL’s most prestigious award, the Peter Rigney Package Of The Year Award, for its Cellofoil® bread bag film. The Association of Industrial Metallizers, Coaters and Laminators honored Celplast Metallized Products Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, with its Metallized Product of the Year Award at a banquet on Thursday, March 11th during its Winter Management Meeting (March 10-14 at the Hyatt Grand Champions, Indian Wells, California). The award honors the late Peter Rigney, former publisher of Paper, Film and Foil Converter magazine and long-time champion of the competition, who passed away in 1997.

Celplast metallizes Cellofoil™ low-density polyethylene for bread bags used by Canada Bread Co. Ltd., Etobicoke, Ontario, for its Dempster’s* brand white bread. Leco Industries Inc., Saint-Laurent, Quebec, supplies the film, which is converted by Allied Halo Industries Inc., Toronto, Ontario. Surface-printed graphics were designed by another Toronto-based company, Corporate Visuals Inc.

Introduced in March 2003, the silvery bag differentiates the bread on the store shelf and supports a "fresher longer" positioning. Sales have significantly surpassed expectations. A consumer survey indicates 76% of consumers believe the package looks like it keeps the product fresher longer, 84% agreed or strongly agreed they would notice the product because the package stands out more, and 59% would choose the bread in this package versus others.

The judges viewed the package as an expansion in the use of metallized film and a breakthrough for the category. "A loaf of bread in a metallized film bag is new and unusual," notes one. "It’s a new way to differentiate the product in the category," adds another. Judges also recognized the positive effect the metallized structure has on shelf life and appreciated the high quality metallizing and surface printing on the film. Although the bag wrinkles where it is gathered to be closed by the tie wrap, "there is no flake off," observes one judge.