FUNDAMENTALS OF

PACKAGING
TECHNOLOGY

Instructor: Gabby F. Geronimo

Course outline

Perspective on packaging

Packaging functions

Graphic design

Course outline

Package printing and

decorating

Paper and paperboard

Paperboard cartons

Corrugated fiberboard

Course outline

Metal cans and containers

Glass containers

Polymer chemistry

Preliminary
examinations

Course outline

Shaping plastics

Plastic applications

Closures

Course outline

Adhesives

Flexible packaging laminates

Distribution packaging

Shock, vibration and

compression

Course outline

Packaging machinery

Applied packaging

The package development

process

Final examinations

What is packaging?

A coordinated system of preparing goods for transport,

distribution, storage, retailing and use.

Contains, protects, preserves, transports and informs/sell

Needs a product
Technical functions
Contain
Measure
Protect
Dispense
Preserve
Transport

Marketing functions
Communicate
Promote
Display
Sell
Inform
Motivate

What is packaging?

It is not a recent
phenomenon

The packaging
industry is always in
the state of change

Primitive packaging

Wrap of leaves, an animal skin, shell of a nut, naturally hollow piece

of wood

5000 BC - time of some domesticated plants & animals - fabricated

sacks, baskets and bags. Wood boxes replaced hollow logs.

Clay - shaped into shallow bowls and allowed to dry in the sun.
Eventually, placed a clay bowl in fire, thus pottery and ceramic trade
was born.

2500 BC - glass beads and figures were made in Mesopotamia

Primitive packaging

1500 BC - earliest hollow

glass objects appeared in
Mesopotamia and Egypt
(core-formed).

From Rome to the Renaissance

As time went on, cities were established and trade flourished across the
European and Asian continents.

50 BC - invention of glass blowpipe.

Wooden barrel probably started at this time.

Dark ages - lack of significant changes

Papyrus - sheet material produced by Egyptians

105 AD - Ts'ai Lun is credited with making the first true paper from inner
bark of mulberry trees

From Rome to the Renaissance

Printing from woodcuts - the ancient parent of

the printing process known as flexography also originated in the Far East.

Diamond sutra - oldest existing book printed in

868 AD.

European world awoke in 1100 AD. Gutenberg

printed a Bible in 1455.

Consumer needs were non-existent.

No retail trade. Concepts of marketing,

advertising, price structures and distribution
were irrelevant

Population levels were not large enough to

support mass production.

The Diamond Sutra

The Industrial Revolution

"the change that transforms a people with peasant occupations and local markets
into an industrial society with worldwide connections"

Started in England in about 1700 and spread rapidly through Europe and North
America.

Rural agricultural workers migrated into cities where they were employed in
factories

Mass-produced goods became available

Factory workers needed commodities and food

Many new shops and stores opened

Increase in demand for barrels, kegs, boxes, bags and baskets.

The evolution of new

packaging roles

For most of recorded history, bulk packaging was the rule

Packaging served primarily to contain and protect

Growth of cities spurred importance of individual packaging

Medicines, cosmetics, teas, liquors were among the first

prepackaged products

Products were sold generically

The first brand names were those of the maker: Yardley's (1770),
Schweppes (1792), Perrier (1863), Colgate (1873).

The evolution of new

packaging roles

Early food can labels has to

appeal to simple country folk.

1877 - packaging milestone

set when the American Cereal
Company chose a symbol to
trademark its product

Packaging in the late 20th

century

1950s - emergence of fast-food outlets

Growth of convenience and prepared food packages

1970s - 80s - legislative changes e.g. Labeling laws, tamper-evident

closures, etc.

International agreements

Health awareness

1990s - convenience and fast

Highly-developed countries vs less-developed countries

Environmental and
sustainability issues

The four Rs

Reduce

Reuse

Recycle

Recover

Sustainability
Environment

Consumption

Sustainability is a balancing act

Arable crop is being reduced

Global forest coverage is shrinking

Petrochemicals are becoming

harder to come by

Air, water and soil pollution are

increasing as is global
temperature

Global economic growth is based

on continuous growth, global
resources are fixed

Sustainability

The concept of meeting the needs of the present

without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their needs

Sustainability and packaging

The packaging industry is a major consumer of materials

and as a result, is a significant producer of waste materials.

Significant user of energy

Life cycle analysis

Plotting of the complete

material, energy and
process flow path from
raw materials to the end of
life for a particular product.

Details by-products and

solid waste, liquid effluent
and atmospheric releases

Conducted to identify
opportunities for increasing
sustainability

Production of ethanol from corn