The Swiss Packaging Institute (SVI) awards the Swiss Packaging Award for outstanding performance in the field of packaging. The goal of the competition is to honor creativity and innovative skill in the Swiss packaging industry. This year, with its 46th submission, Greiner Packaging also received one of the seven coveted awards. Greiner's "inert barrier technology" was able to beat out the competition in the "Technology" category - a performance to be proud of: "We are very pleased to see our intensive efforts at advancing development in the packaging industry rewarded in this way.    The award shows that we are on the right track and encourages us to continue to drive our research forward," stresses Tobias Strasser, Managing Director of Greiner Packaging Diepoldsau. In addition to its win in the technology category, ibt was also among the top three submissions in the "sustainability" category - making Greiner Packaging the first ever company to place in the top three in two categories in the same year. With its win of the Swiss Packaging Award, Greiner Packaging is now eligible to advance to the World Star international packaging competition.

Barrier layer extends food shelf life
With its "inert barrier technology," Greiner Packaging has succeeded in bringing food shelf life in plastic containers to a new level. Whereas the shelf life of foods has so far primarily been achieved via ultra-high-temperature processing or the addition of preservatives, ibt makes it possible to extend shelf life without such measures. Greiner Packaging is among the world leaders in introducing the process in the sector of plastic cup packaging as well for the first time. Purpose of the coating: To minimize migration between the fill material and the packaging while at the same time protecting the fill material from outside influences.
The technology involves applying a barrier layer to plastic cups. The process also leverages the outstanding characteristics of silicon oxide: The cups are fed into a chamber where a vacuum is created. Oxygen and gas containing silicon are then fed into the chamber and a plasma is created using an electrode. A coating is created on the cups -- described as a "covalent bond" with respect to the sealed inner layer and the plastic. The SiOx layer created in this way is "chemically inert," minimizing its reaction. This sharply reduces oxygen and hydrogen permeability. Since the barrier layer does not react with any outside influences, it also results in significantly improved aroma protection. And ibt can also make products stand out visually since the silicon oxide coating can also be used in cups made of highly transparent materials; there is no impact on the transparency. As for sustainability benefits: The longer shelf life can help reduce unnecessary wastage of foods. And the coating does not affect disposal or recycling in any way - or packaging weight, either.

Competence Center in Switzerland
"Last year, we set up a competence center in Switzerland that continues to advance development in the barrier sector and market the inert barrier technology. All customers in Greiner Packaging's network can benefit from this technology," Strasser emphasizes.

In addition to ibt, Greiner Packaging is investing in another technology on the global barrier market: "multi barrier technology" (mbt). This plastic packaging technology for foods is used with extrusion, film extrusion with subsequent thermoforming for cups and bowls, and with injection stretch blow molding and extrusion blow molding for bottles and containers. It makes it possible to produce products with high transparency, while simultaneously allowing hot-filling.