Reinventing packaging for household appliances
Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is synthetic hydrocarbon polymer. As it makes light but rigid foam, with good insulation and high impact resistance, it is a preferred material for packaging. It is often used for electrical consumer goods and foods, as well as in construction, particularly for insulation panels in buildings. The EU-supported APS project set out to disrupt the supply chain for the appliances sector by manufacturing packaging pieces without moulds, on-site and just-in-time. Key to the concept was the replacement of solid pieces with customised multilayer film. APS has successfully tested their packaging and design software, as well as developed and tested machine prototypes. Having already secured two patents, the team is now ready to pilot their process at an industrial scale.
Custom-made, on site and on demand
Manufacturing EPS from granulated plastic consumes a lot of gas, electricity and crude oil, as well as significant quantities of water. Owing to its volume, the transportation needs for the material are also substantial, and with recycling difficult to make profitable, levels of material recovery are very low. The all-in-one APS system can be installed at the end of a manufacturing line to design and manufacture packaging parts without the need for moulds. It takes 1-3 days to design these parts using specialist project-built software. Technicians then customise the shape to fit the needs of the electrical appliance. The three-dimensional APS parts are formed by airtight bubble wrap made from a new type of multifilm which adapts to the surfaces of household appliances. Whereas EPS relies on moulds, with the process taking almost 1.5 months to form new usable parts. APS found that they could save between 20 and 40 % of material per piece of packaging produced for white, brown and small electrical appliances. Additionally, the APS system, compared to EPS packaging, has been estimated to reduce the carbon footprint by 40 % and at a cost saving of 30 %. “APS’s on-site, just-in-time package manufacturing will change everything for packaging: the business, technology and environmental sustainability. For example, our system eliminates the need for the transportation of packaging supply and could automate the process in the future,” says Sergio Huarte Rodriguez, CEO of Agil Packaging System, the project host. The team successfully carried out resistance tests on prototypes of APS-manufactured packaging parts, following the quality standards of appliance manufacturers set by technology centres. They found, for example, that their packaging withstood 900 kg of pressure during vertical stacking or by striking with blunt objects, double what is necessary to support the weight of refrigerators stacked four high.
Disrupting the industry
APS reduces the amount of material needed for each item of packaging produced for the household appliances sector, cutting costs and environmental impact. Crucially, the APS multilayer plastic film is easier to collect than EPS and the team plan to establish agreements with the recycling organisation, www.ecoembes.com (Ecoembes), so that it can be deposited in regular street recycling containers (yellow in Spain). Additionally, producing the packaging material on site was found to reduce transportation by a factor of 10, compared to EPS, where each household appliances plant needs four to eight daily trips to source EPS. The team will use the results from the current pilot phase to make improvements to both machinery and product, in preparation for commercialisation. To achieve this, they are currently working with potential customers in the household appliances sector, such as BSH, SDA FACTORY and GM VENDING under two framework collaboration agreements.
Keywords
APS, packaging, recycling, household appliances, expanded polystyrene, EPS, moulds, multifilm, refrigerators, on-site
