Innovation Zone Snapshot – Colour technology delivers limitless customisation for aluminium cans

ThePackHub Innovation Zone Snapshot

More information on our Innovation Zone packaging database – https://www.thepackhub.com/the-innovation-zone/

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#1 Colour technology delivers limitless customisation for aluminium cans

The humble and well-established aluminium can doesn’t tend to change much, so it is good to see a customisation technology development being deployed n this area. Luxembourg-based producer of glass and metal products Ardagh have developed a hugely versatile technology, allowing brands to fully customise the design of their beverage can packaging. Called ‘H!ghend’, the technology uses cyan, magenta, yellow and black combinations (CMYK) to create limitless colour varieties and even text or images, which can be used by brands to fully express and communicate messages of flavour or importance. Brands can also opt to upgrade the colour to ‘H1ghend Pro’, offering different and more varied graphical possibilities and further customisation.

#2 Bike range launched in recyclable packaging

Alicante, Spain-based bike company Mondraker have launched a new packaging initiative. As a brand, they appreciate that bikes are an excellent carbon-avoiding method of transport, so they wanted to maintain the sustainable aspects of bike-riding by transitioning their bicycles into 100% recyclable cardboard packaging, with no plastic in use. The packaging mainly consists of cardboard, but the adhesive tape used is apparently derived from rice and the security seal is made from potato pulp, making the whole pack fully recyclable or compostable. The packaging is also delivered with two hook-and-loop fastener straps to encourage reuse. An additional benefit is the reduction of assembly time for the bikes, due to the efficient positioning of the bike within.

More info in The Innovation Zone.

#3 Inflatable packaging concept can incorporate many different product sizes

The e-commerce channel continues to grow at pace and has nearly doubled in size since before the pandemic. This huge growth has inevitably caused a rise in packaging waste that is not recycled or reused and ends up in landfill. A reusable solution to this problem is from French designer Simon Chantrel, who has developed INFLATE – a reusable pack concept specifically for e-commerce that is intended to replace the single-use disposable cardboard boxes in use by many large companies today. The inflation aspect of the packaging means it can be used for many different product sizes, simply by inflating is less or more. Once the consumer has received their product delivery in this packaging, they can return it to a collection point for its reuse. It is not clear what the process is to inflate and then deflate the pack.

More info in The Innovation Zone.

#4 Sustainable paper cup aims to redefine disposability

Packaging question of the week

Will the growth of NFC (near-field communication) and RFID (Radio-frequency identification) packaging continue this year? Vote and comment on LinkedIn now. 

Last week, 79% thought that Morrison’s move to replace ‘use by’ dates on most of its milk products to ‘best before’ was a step in the right direction.