Packaging is more than what meets the eye

Packaging is perhaps the first impression for many products across the world. Packaging may include the shape, size, design and carries the visual identity of the brand with it. See them anywhere, you will be instantly able to identify the product and in some cases even the brand. Take for example these products:

Have you guesses them correctly? We’re sure you would have. That is the power of a good packaging asset for a company.

Innovation in packaging vastly improves the quality and functionality of certain products. When the milk companies were grappling with the complaints for milk turning sour and unhealthy, tetrapak packaging came to the rescue. No longer did people have to keep milk under supervision like they did earlier.

Tetra pak containers

Paper, plastic, glass and other materials have been used for packaging products since a long time. However, the revolution came with the arrival of aluminum as a medium. No longer did one have to worry being subjected to unfavorable weather conditions, breakage and non-biodegradable hazard. Aluminium is the most recyclable packaging material as it is 100% recyclable with the ability to be weather proof. Even tetra paks are made up of paper and aluminium foil layers.

Let’s dive into some facts worth knowing about aluminum in packaging:

Food grade aluminium foil is 8 times thinner than a currency note and yet it provides unspoiled protection against light, liquid and bacteria.
Heated aluminium is hot rolled into sheets between 2 and 100 mm thick. These are then cold-rolled into foil of the required thickness.
Dry milk is hermetically sealed in packages made from laminated foil. The milk has a shelf life of 2 years!
Aluminium foil is non-toxic and non-reactive for food.
The foil can be used for grilling food or even for cooking on an open fire.
In 1976, Nestle first introduced coffee in aluminium capsules to preserve aroma and quality.
Making cans from recycled aluminium requires 95% less energy than making them from primary aluminium.
Aluminum Smart cans contain a synthetic layer with special chemicals in between. When the can is squeezed, it causes an endothermic or exothermic reaction within the layers that results in the contents heating up or cooling down.

With abundant resources for aluminium manufacturing and unlimited recycling capabilities, aluminum is an unchallenged contender in the packaging applications. It is mouldable and thus provides immense scope for innovation in designing and employability.

Pepsi Aluminum packaging

The answers to the above pics are: Frooti and Paper boat (Yoodley has copied the same design in a different way)

For more packaging innovations, check out the following links:

And finally, the epitome of branding through packaging: Innocent Smoothies

15 Things Hardly Anyone Knows About Innocent Smoothies: http://www.businessinsider.in/15-Things-Hardly-Anyone-Knows-About-Innocent-Smoothies/articleshow/45364201.cms

(*Follow its Twitter and Facebook accounts for more fun)

Comments

Aluminium in guitars – It's all music to our ears

Think of a guitar and the classic wooden version comes to mind. There are hundreds of types and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some passionate players even go for custom made guitars just to suit their movements and taste. The simple guitar is still evolving with newer uses of the instruments in concerts and other forms of music. The use of wood in the body and the neck of a guitar is not going to cease in a long time. However, the use of other selected materials by modern guitar manufacturers has significantly improved the sound quality and handling of the guitars. “Manufacturers were making custom guitars from solid billeted aluminum. I was still in graduate school and couldn’t afford such instruments. So I decided to make a competitively priced guitar. Instead of wood or plastic, I opted to use 0.080-in. aircraft-grade aluminum sheet metal because of its quality and durability,” says the then-future CEO of Normandy Guitars. Aluminium Guitar The use of Alumin

Aluminium extrusions - The ultimate value addition of Aluminium downstream

From simple paper clips to complex pieces used in advanced technology, aluminium extrusions are created in various shapes and sizes for value added end use utilizations. The computer you are using right now contains at least one aluminium profile in the form of a heat sink. This takes advantage of aluminium’s excellent thermal conductivity, unique anodising capability and freedom of design to keep your computer’s processor cool. Different cross sections of extrusions Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A special tool called a ‘die’ is used to create these extrusions by cutting or shaping the material with the help of a press. These dies are customized to create the wanted design. The process involves the pressing of a pre-heated solid cylinder of aluminium (billet) which is forced through the die opening. The billets are heated to a temperature range of 350 – 500 degrees Celsius. Aluminium does not glow when heated ye

The choice is clear - Aluminium body for high end smartphones

A lot of phone companies are trying to build slim and sturdy phones for the ever growing market of steroid enhanced hardware capabilities. With phone manufacturers stuffing more RAM and precision cameras in the modern phones, the weight and robustness of the frames becomes all the more important. Today, some manufactures prefer a fiber body to reduce the overall weight in comparison to metal bodies. However, there’s something which still draws a larger advocacy of using aluminium bodies instead of a plastic or fiber. In 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs penned an open letter highlighting changes to the company's environmental policy in hopes of achieving "a greener Apple." In the letter, Jobs specifically noted the Mac maker's adoption of aircraft-grade aluminum in order to improve recycling uptake. Apart from the cost reduction implications, Apple is strongly in favor of aluminium usage in all its products for improving its year on year recycling capabilities with

Aluminium vs. Steel - (1) The changing tides in the automotive sector

To Steel or not to Steel… That is the question. To Aluminium… This might be the answer. The automobile industry is the one constantly shifting tides in technology and design to achieve perfection and quality. Everything is done with precision to maximise the output from the machines with as few resources as possible. After all, this is necessary as natural resources are limited and so are the resources which people can spare for an economical, ergonomic and environment-friendly vehicle of personal transportation. Moreover, safety is an important issue that the engineers keep at priority as people’s lives are at stake. Aluminium body is the preferred material in sports cars With car manufacturers around the world trying to pack in more punch with their offerings, the fight for better fuel efficiency and safety of the automobiles has intensified. With cutting edge designing and engineering capabilities, car manufacturers have carefully selected the materials and technology to

Did we just chance upon a source for clean fuel powered by water & aluminium?

Source: Getty A team of researchers at the US Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland made a chance discovery when they poured water on a new aluminium alloy they were testing. It began to give off hydrogen immediately! Exciting enough? Well, let us rewind this recent ground-breaking discovery and allow it to sink in slowly as you read on. Hydrogen stands at number one on the periodic table; it is the most abundant element in the Universe. It is found in the sun and most of the stars and the planet Jupiter is composed mostly of hydrogen. On Earth, Hydrogen is prevalent in the form of plenteously available chemical compounds such as hydrocarbons and water. Some see hydrogen gas as the clean fuel of the future – generated from water and returning to water when it is oxidised . Hydrogen-powered fuel cells are increasingly being seen as ‘pollution-free’ sources of energy and are now being used in some buses and cars. Although clean and

Aluminium - Enriching A Billion Lives

Search This Blog