From Mass Production to Small Scale Production of Packages, Opportunities for an Adjustable Packaging Line based on Mould Technology, 2010 PLACE Conference

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Packaging technology today is considered a large scale technology with little opportunity for economic small scale production. Because of this, package formats are rather fixed and packaging looks the same all over the world. Product marketing in today's business environment demands differentiation in packaging. Also, segmenting the population into smaller and smaller groups of consumers leads to targeted demands, which once again calls for increased packaging differentiation. The needs of small startup businesses differ from those of larger, more established customers. And, the demand for multilingual printing on packaging with limited printing space leads to restrictions in large scale production. Moving to adjustable packaging technologies could solve these and other similar problems. But, what would an adjustable packaging line look like? In this paper, an example is presented of an adjustable packaging line for fibre based composite materials using moulding technology. Further, the paper presents a few options that could be integrated into the line in the future.