Packaging products successfully - for SIG Combibloc, that means offering carton packs and filling machines that enable customers from the food and beverage industry to manufacture their products reliably and efficiently, and at the same time to open up new opportunities.
The services offered by SIG Combibloc's combiLab provide valuable support to help turn product ideas into success stories - for internal research and development projects, and for customers' innovation projects.
SIG Combibloc global product management market head Norman Gierow said: "The service features of SIG Combibloc's combiLab have three main focuses: conceptual and marketing support, advice and test fillings in the laboratory and pilot plant areas, and added services such as additional product tests with partners from the food industry".
A wide range of departments within the company, along with customers from all over the world, benefit from the know-how of the staff, the expertise and the technical set-up in the combiLab, and from the resultant opportunities. The test fillings take place mainly at the German site in Linnich, west of Cologne and Dusseldorf. This specialist division focuses on quick and flexible testing of prototypes of packaging materials, filling machines, carton packs and new product concepts. They perform targeted test series and carry out test fillings to quickly provide scientifically sound information on the entire packaging system and the filling process, internally and for customers of SIG Combibloc. Ideas with potential One example of this is the latest joint project with major Chinese dairy group Mengniu Dairy.
The lessons learned from a comprehensive series of pilot tests in the combiLab have SIG Combibloc Page 2 of 6 contributed to the speedy and technically advanced design of the product, and developing the right recipe and the appropriate modules for processing and filling a new premium milk containing real grains and seeds. With this product, Mengniu has opened up a new product category in China: the milk meal you can drink. Products like these have huge potential in China's up-and-coming dairy market. "The project with Mengniu and systems process developer GEA is a good example of how the operations in our combiLab involve working hand in hand with others.
In innovation projects of this sort, which our Competence Pool Filling and Package Material undertakes jointly with customers from the food industry and well-known raw materials suppliers and systems process developers, we can prove our strengths", says Rudolf Fl rke, Head of Aseptic Technology at SIG Combibloc. Dhler, Agrana, K lln and CPKelco can be named here as examples of ingredients manufacturers. In combiLab's filling machine pilot plant, new product developments, reworkings and further enhancements to do with the aseptic filling system are tested under real conditions. To do this, in addition to an extensive fleet of equipment for the product processing, a range of filling machines - including an alternating selection - for the aseptic filling of beverages and food products is available; applicators for closures and downstream packaging systems are also on hand.
The staff of the combiLab comes from the fields of food technology, packaging technology, manufacturing systems engineering and chemistry, and they oversee the processes from raw materials testing to the packaged end product. One of these staff members is Werner Trautwein, food technologist and Professional Expert Aseptic in the Competence Pool Product Processing. He has been working in SIG Combibloc's combiLab for more than 25 years: "With the equipment in our combiLab, test fillings can be carried out with dairy and juice beverages, and also with very viscous and chunky food products. In the combiLab, we're also perfectly equipped for testing new product concepts in the field of the innovative drinksplus technology.
With drinksplus technology, beverages with up to ten per cent particulate content can be filled on standard beverage filling machines. Test fillings for product quantities in the range of 500 to 1,000 kilograms can be simulated under production conditions. Here, it's not about developing recipes, but rather the implementation of the process technology. We run tests for the qualification of new systems and their components, or examine issues such as what effect the product processing and filling has on the quality of new products. The possibilities are enormous".
In addition to the technical equipment and infrastructure, in particular the combiLab's central location within the company and its interface function are of fundamental importance, says Bruno Schmidt, Coordinator Expert Aseptic, another staff member who has worked in the Competence Pool Product Processing for more than 25 years. Schmidt: "Improvising is our strength. A significant advantage is that the machine construction engineers, packaging and food technologists are physically located very close to one another and are available at a moment's notice. That's enormously important if, for instance, as a result of the experience from the test fillings, modifications need to be made to machine components. It enables us to use the technology very flexibly".
The services offered by the combiLab also include checking packaging in respect of its suitability for a product. The possible test series include assessment of the microbiological status of the raw materials and filling goods, analyses of changes to the packaging and products as a result of heat treatment and aseptic filling, shelf-life tests to determine the storage life of foods packaged in the carton packs (nutritional value, discolouration, etc), and the sensory testing of foods. The close contact with external institutes and parallel studies enable us to verify results. In doing so, combiLab has access to the support of experts from the fields of food law, environment and food technology.
