Explore the future development trend of the United States packaging industry

1. Plastic and paper as the main material

According to a special study report of the Freeedonid Group Consulting Company, in the US packaging market in 2006, plastic consumption will surpass paper in 17 submarkets, consuming a total of 4.9 million tons, indicating an average annual growth rate of 1.6% between 2001 and 2006. The research report pointed out that paper can only continue to maintain its advantages in the transportation bag and cooked food packaging market. Plastics display technical advantages and conveniences in the packaging of rigid containers such as filling packaging films and transport barrels, and plastic packaging is easy to process. The speed of the production line will increase its competitiveness. Reusable plastic transport barrels will cost less than fiberboard packages and have a promising market outlook. Hard plastic containers are suitable for packaging foods, rice, etc. Stand-up plastic bags will replace folding cartons for candy packaging, and metallized films and high barrier composite films will expand. Another soft drink market will also use plastic bottles. Plastics also have a strong growth rate in the packaging of fast food packaging and retail market.

The consumption of PET materials in the United States is on the rise in a number of markets, including health and beauty, pharmaceuticals, beverages (including alcohol and non-alcoholic, carbonated and non-carbonated, and new generation beverages) industries. The United States recently developed two new packaging materials. DuPont launched "Tweed" packaging material, a kind of non-woven fabric with special treatment of high-density polyethylene microfibers. It can be shading, waterproof, and wear-resistant. It also has excellent properties of paper, film and cloth. widely. Ticona USA introduced Veetran L.cps liquid crystal polymer, which is highly impervious to oxygen, water vapor and odor. It can be used together with conventional packaging resins for retort pouch multilayer films and materials for thermoformed plates and lids. It can also be used as a 2.5μm film for foods and medical packaging that require high shielding.

The Dow Chemical Company’s Central Research and Development Laboratory has developed a plastic container that can replace glass containers. It is made of a transparent, phenoxy-type thermoplastic that is produced by reacting aromatic diglycidyl ether with bisphenols or difunctional amines. Because of the resulting polymer, the chain-chain interaction is very strong, so it is excellent in oxygen barrier performance, can resist impact, and is used to produce single-layer containers. Its performance is also superior to glass containers.

Aseptic packaging of plastic bottles has become the new favorite of the US packaging industry, Florito. Valta O & Sons is a good example. This company is widely praised for its fine glass bottles and labels for its Arizone tea and juice drinks. Last summer, the company launched several beverage products using hot-filled polyethylene terephthalate bottles. General Manager John. Mr. Barberney said: "We also consider using aseptic filling technology, but the packager's packaging processing capacity is insufficient.

2. Wood packaging is favored
As early as the 1950s, the United States invented the structure of a combined heavy-duty carton and used an octagonal clamp pad and a generous head self-tightening screw to fix the bottom of the box and the tray. For super-major type wood packaging, the composite or composite structure of super-multilayer corrugated cardboard is used. For example, the United States Rexam Co., Ltd. uses two three-layer seven-layer corrugated paperboards to stick together to make and construct a 14-layer, ultra-heavy corrugated cardboard box that can withstand large Ford trucks with a load-bearing capacity of 7.5 tons or more. In 1998, the total output of corrugated board in the United States reached 40.30 billion square meters, with a total sales value of 19.53 billion US dollars, of which 0.5-0.6% was three watts or more than seven layers of corrugated board, and the output reached 222 million square meters. This number alone shows that a significant number of American carton plants are making heavy paper crates. Their seven-story lines have a production speed of 155 meters per minute and are automated. The octagonal clips and generous head self-tightening screws patented by the United States in the 1950s are still in use in some places.

The important packaging concept
1. Environmental protection
In recent years, the United States has strongly advocated the recycling of waste paper, and its effectiveness has been remarkable. It has been reported that the E-cubeTM packaging material recently produced by E-Tech Products of the United States is made from recycled waste paper and resembles a box shape. After filling, vulnerable goods such as eggs cannot be moved inside the box to avoid cracking. Compared with foam plastics, E-cubes are more convenient to use in filling, can fill any shape commodity, recyclable, biodegradable, non-toxic. LongView Fibers America recently introduced a high-quality, shank retail packaging paper bag that can be printed in three to four colors, produced from recycled kraft paper bags, and divided into cowhide, bleached and other colored paper bags. Although the price of such paper bags is more expensive than plastic bags, it has a long life cycle and can compete with them.

Biocope Inc. of the United States is a manufacturer of substance synthesis and biodegradable substances and recently took the lead in launching a cup produced from grain-synthesized plastic-PLA polymer materials. The product was first offered to the Sydney Olympics and is currently available in the US market and is very popular. The company claims that the physical properties of the cups made of this new material are comparable to those of petroleum synthetic plastics, but due to the fact that they are derived from plants, they can be completely decomposed and their environmental performance is incomparable with petroleum synthetic plastics. It can be thrown away with food waste without any treatment. The cup can be decomposed with food waste into water, carbon dioxide and organic matter.

2. Diversification
Taking the food industry as an example, due to the changes in the direction of multi-species and diversification of food consumption demand of Americans today, the food processing industry has already invested in the development of more flexible and mobile packaging online, usually developing a new packaging product. Years, now only six months, the product can be listed. This fully shows that the U.S. packaging industry is developing new varieties and new products at a fast pace and with a short period of time. At the same time, the packaging industry is committed to providing consumers with more convenient packaging. According to the forecast of the United States Census Bureau, the United States will enter an aging society by 2025. The US packaging industry has fully considered the potential demand of elderly consumers for packaged goods, and began to develop a packaging that adapts to the characteristics of the future aging society, such as with a zipper. Cover, easy to open the metal top cover, double finger pull ring and so on.

In order to make food packaging convenient and beautiful, it is easy to open and store, and companies are constantly introducing new food packaging products to the market. Polypropylene/acetaldehyde vinyl alcohol/polypropylene material is used on the edge of small food packaging, which is easy to open. Snack buns are packaged in polyester film and placed on a plate made of solid bleached kraft paperboard to solve the past. The problem of baking on the spot, spending a lot of labor and having different quality can also extend the shelf life. A plate made of solid bleached sulphate paperboard has a grease-resistant coating that resists the high temperatures of the oven and can be post-treated to cool down temperatures.

To ensure the safety of consumers, burglar-opening packaging tends to be used for a variety of products. The US pharmaceutical industry was the first to use anti-theft seals. This kind of packaging for ensuring the quality and safety of products has now been applied to the food processing industry, dairy products, and beverages.

3. Flexible packaging
About 20-30% of consumer goods in the U.S. market today appear in flexible packaging. According to the survey, in 1996, flexo printed products accounted for 75% of the film's flexible packaging market in the United States. By 2000, it had accounted for 85%, and in 2002, it accounted for 95%. According to the "2002 State of the Industry Report" of the Flexible Packaging Association, the flexible packaging market is a $20 billion industry, accounting for 17% of the total $114 billion in the packaging market, making it the second largest segment of the packaging market. The US paper product processing flexible packaging industry market is still the largest so far. The flexible packaging industry has many growth areas such as shrink tube packaging, sterilized soft bags, vertical bags and food packaging.

According to a report of the FPA, the market prospect of flexible packaging in the United States is very broad. The report pointed out that before 2005, the United States has three potential markets with the most potential for development: First, fresh agricultural products: Currently, half of the agricultural products use flexible packaging, but it is also pointed out that some agricultural products will be aseptically packed due to improvements in refrigeration equipment and technology. The direction of development. The second is pharmaceutical products: Although blister packaging does not belong to a completely flexible package in the sense that only the top area of ​​aluminum foil or glue layer belongs to the scope of the package, its development momentum is rapid. For surgical equipment, flexible packaging tends to be more standardized and cost-effective than hard packaging. The third is the food market: pet food market is one of the highlights. The amount of beer produced and consumed in the United States has been the largest in the world for many years. In 2000, it was 2,325 tons. The use of plastic bottles has increased rapidly in recent years. Glass bottle packaging has also increased in recent years because of the significant increase in the proportion of high-end beer.

In recent years, due to the rapid development of PET bottles, the proportion of soft cans in metal cans has declined, from 55% in 1991 to 48.3% in 1999, and the use of glass bottles has continued to drop dramatically, from 90 years. The 12% of the total number of beverage bottles dropped dramatically to 0.8% in 1999. The US soft drink packaging is divided equally between metal cans and PET bottles, but PET bottles have a broader outlook. Among other beverage containers, PET bottles grew fastest from 11.4 billion in 1992 to 24.2 billion in 2001. The number of glass bottles decreased from 14.2 billion in 1992 to 8.2 billion in 2001. The growth of three-dimensional bags used for the packaging of beverage products is also more rapid.

Packaging equipment and its development trend