Today, most consumer goods on the market use some kind of plastic packaging material. CIPS’s business activities focus on plastic packages and packaging material for foodstuffs, and range from processing granular plastic, the raw material, to producing intermediate materials such as plastic sheets and films and the final packaging used to wrap consumer goods.
Examples of plastic products designed and manufactured by CIPS include snack food packaging and disposable containers for boxed meals sold at convenience stores in Japan, and disposable products used in coffee shops and restaurants.
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A food package may seem no more than that: a food package. However, behind the food packaging that consumers take to be made from “ordinary plastic” lie advanced production technologies. In Japan, world leading technologies are employed to produce highly sophisticated food packaging. Take, for example, plastic pouches used as snack food packaging. Although each pouch seems to be made from a single sheet of film, in reality, it comprises layers of plastic, each with different functional properties. Even the section of the pouch that is transparent, allowing the contents to be seen, is not a simple film but comprises materials with exceptional vapor and oxygen barrier performance, thus improving the shelf life of the product. In addition, printable film is used for the outermost layer, while the innermost layer must be a material suitable for the final heat sealing. Disposable containers for boxed meals sold at convenience stores in Japan are another example of food packaging that requires state-of-the-art production technologies. The containers must satisfy various consumer demands, including being heat resistant and transparent, as well as lightweight. CIPS’s approach to the development of these containers is a total one, including design and functional aspects, and continual improvements are undertaken in order to supply consumers with products that keep food tasty and are safe to eat out of. |
