The company is using the closures for its Osterland-brand long-life full-cream milk, long-life low-fat milk, and long-life skimmed milk.
SIG Combibloc’s “combiSwift,” closure consists of a flange with an integrated cutting ring and cap. A pouring/drinking hole is prepunched into the raw carton material before it’s overcoated with aluminum and polyethylene. After the carton is filled, the closure is applied to the overcoated hole. As a result, consumers can open the cap with a single twist as the cutting ring easily and precisely severs the thin aluminum and PE layers to expose the clean, prepunched pouring/drinking hole.
Humana group managing director Rolf Janshen notes, “By choosing combiSwift, we want to position our Osterland products as high-quality products and expand our market share. A low-cost, convenient screw cap is just perfect for this purpose. It is precisely in the field of long-life milk that the market requires cost-efficient systems that are able to efficiently produce and present consumer-friendly, convenient, and hygienic products. After the filling process, the closures are placed precisely on the overcoated holes. This way, the aseptic safety of the system is not impaired at all.”
CombiSwift closures’ interior diameter measures 180 mm interior diameter, 12.6-mm total height, and weigh 2.7 g. They incorporate a tamper-evident feature that reveals at a glance whether the original closure is intact. The closures can be applied using existing Combibloc cap application equipment with simple modifications at rates up to 15ꯠ per hour. CombiSwift closures are not yet being marketed in the U.S. —Judy Rice
