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Dai Nippon Printing wins Dow’s Diamond

Dow announced the winners of the 2019 Awards for Packaging Innovation. The nine Diamond Award Finalists are varied and cover very different verticals, but a simultaneously practical and altruistic attitude toward sustainability is a common thread that unites them.

A polyolefin film applied to the PET preform bonds to the entire bottle, including the bottom, via pres-sure, not adhesive. This equates to full, opaque coverage for light-sensitive products like Japanese sake, with an easily peelable film for PET recycling.
A polyolefin film applied to the PET preform bonds to the entire bottle, including the bottom, via pres-sure, not adhesive. This equates to full, opaque coverage for light-sensitive products like Japanese sake, with an easily peelable film for PET recycling.

The ultimate Diamond Award winner among the fine group of Diamond Award Finalists was the Functional Film Complex PET Bottle from Japan’s Dai Nippon Printing Co. (DNP). The product managed to tick virtually every box among judges’ criteria, and it represents a thoughtful use of packaging as problem solving medium—something all packagers and packaging solution providers aspire to.

The issue
Both in Japan and in North America, glass bottles are the incumbent standard containers for high-end beer, wine, and spirits (among other beverage options), both for their barrier properties and the sense of quality imparted by glass’s hand-feel and weight.

But the weight, rigidity, and sturdiness that provides a sense of luxury is also a drawback in terms of sustainability in transport, and glass’s brittle nature means breakage is always an issue throughout the supply chain.

The case for PET is not without its drawbacks, either. In Japan in particular, to ensure that PET bottles are effectively recycled, it is not permitted to add color to PET or to directly print on PET bottles. For that reason, use of shrink labels—usually with a light-shielding function to protect light-sensitive contents—has become the standard for many beverages. This means that, whether on store shelves or in a cooler at home, bottles are indistinguishable in form and hand-feel, and brands are challenged to differentiate themselves.

A new player on the stage
Japan’s Dai Nippon Printing Co. (DNP) designed its DNP Functional Film Complex PET Plastic Bottle, the overall Diamond Award Winner of the 2019 Packaging Innovation Awards, to deliver the functionality of glass without the drawbacks of breakability, and costly shipping. The DNP bottle is lightweight, recyclable, and virtually unbreakable, all with a glass-like, luxurious look, according to the company.

But most uniquely, the DNP Functional Film Complex PET bottle is available with an overlay of oxygen-barrier polyolefin film that is introduced directly onto the preform, prior to blow molding. The film is bonded to the underlying PET using the pressure of blow molding. Because only pressure is used in bonding—no adhesives are used—the film layer can be easily peeled or removed from the PET substrate for recycling of the PET bottle.

This allows full film coverage, right to the bottom of the bottle without any gaps, which according to DNP, cannot be done with the aforementioned shrink labels. This film and PET bottle preform can be blow molded into a fully formed bottle even if the film is of an opaque color. Furthermore, the resulting unique package design has a subtly tactile, bumpy surface that serves as point of differentiation from other products that may use traditional shrink sleeves.

First commercialization
There’s a growing international interest in sake, Japan’s native rice wine delicacy. One variety of Japanese sake in particular, called Nama-Zake, is traditionally served unpasteurized to yield a fresh taste and fruitier aroma. But due to quick taste deterioration without pasteurization, and limitations of fast distribution, it was very difficult to export Nama-Zake.

Niigata University’s School of Pharmacy and Applied Life Sciences saw High Pressure Processing (HPP) as a way around this. It formed a Nama-Zake consortium, called Pressure Nama-Zake, that used the heat-free method of removing potential pathogens to launch the AWANAMA brand of Nama-Zake.

The HPP technique requires flexible packaging. Even filled, glass generally can’t withstand the hundreds of thousands of pounds of pressure applied to it, much less transmit the pressure to its contents to treat them. Of course, PET bottles could do the job, but they had a perception problem.

“The conventional PET bottle has an image of containing utilitarian goods and beverages, and it is seen as not fit for premium goods,” says Jack Kawabata, DNP America LLC. “Besides, PET bottles with added coloring are prohibited in Japan. Therefore, a conventional PET bottle was not fit for AWANAMA, which is a luxury product that is sensitive to light.”

That’s where the DNP-developed Functional Film Complex PET bottle came in. The bottle’s PET nature withstands the HPP process. The design also protects contents from light because the polyolefin film would cover a PET bottle entirely, including the bottom.

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New e-book on Flexible Packaging