Visitors at Feiplastic 2019 could see firsthand how Braskem, the largest producer of thermoplastic resins in the Americas and the world's leading biopolymer producer, has unified all its solutions for the caps and closures segment in a single portfolio that is the most comprehensive in the market. Latin America's largest plastic trade fair, Feiplastic was being held at Expo Center Norte in São Paulo city through April 26.
 |
|
Costa, head of the Caps Segment at Braskem |
Braskem's initiative to unify its portfolio reinforces the company's presence in this segment, which is constantly expanding and has annual growth potential estimated at up to 8%. "The caps and closures segment poses various challenges, from ensuring the integrity of product packaging and ease of use and disposal to the constant search for more sustainable solutions for processes and products.
With the help of specialists from our Innovation and Technology Center, we offer clients the most complete portfolio available in the market, with solutions that meet the segment's specific technical needs, such as weight reduction, processability, flavor and odor control and product safety," said Flávio Costa, head of the Caps Segment at Braskem.
The performance of Braskem's portfolio offers effective responses to the latest megatrends and other issues that impact not only the packaging industry, but also the world in general. With the initiative, the company contributes to reducing food waste (with resins that offer longer shelf life), reducing the weight of caps and recyclability, which is in line with the public commitment to promote the Circular Economy that the company undertook in 2018.
For beverages, one of the largest segments of the caps and closures market, which encompasses milk and sodas to hot-filled beverages, such as tea and energy drinks, Braskem continues to offer the vast versatility of polyethylene and polypropylene resins. The portfolio's highlights include cap solutions developed for carbonated beverages that can be molded through injection or compression processes. According to Costa, the market currently offers two types of cap: two-piece caps, which consists of a cap combined with an inner liner, and single-piece caps.
"The technology developed by Braskem allows for combining the mold and resin, which ensures high performance for single-piece caps. In this case, the product has an internal plug that, when applied to the bottleneck, ensures a complete seal to retain the beverage's gas with no need for an inner liner. The high-density polyethylene (HDPE) applied to this solution allows the necessary deformation of the internal mechanism against the bottleneck, even with variations due to the bottle's internal pressure, ensuring a complete seal," he added.
Another important niche in this market is mineral water; since it is extremely sensitive to external variations, which requires rigorous control of the resin's organoleptic properties to ensure that the beverage's properties related to odor, flavor and color remain unchanged when in contact with the plastic. These changes can be related to the presence of a series of components inherent to the resin production process, such as cap molding and the additives and pigments used.
"Our resins undergo VOC testing, a process conducted during the cap's approval. To improve the guarantees, we have developed in our portfolio production processes that comply with even the most stringent approval parameters, in accordance with the specific requirements of our clients. We also have improved our technical expertise and know-how for controlling manufacturing conditions, with control conducted on a lot-by-lot basis for organoleptic class resins," he concluded.
Note that Braskem's portfolio for the caps and closures segment also includes its resins bearing the Maxio seal. The Maxio line features raw materials that offer benefits such as lower energy consumption, higher productivity and lower final product weights, which in turn ensures higher efficiency and consequently environmental gains. These benefits are thanks to the constant evolution in Braskem's resins to maintain or enhance the mechanical, chemical and optical properties of the finished goods.
Braskem also offers a wide range of solutions for the market for caps used in the food, industrial, cosmetics and personal care sectors. "Our Market Development team provides customized support to clients, identifying the ideal material for each application from among the polypropylene and polyethylene options available in our portfolio."
Cool Cap
In line with its public commitment to promote the Circular Economy, Braskem supports the Cool Cap (Tampinha Legal) project, which encourages the collection of plastic caps for sale to recycling companies, with 100% of the proceeds used to support charitable institutions.
Created in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the Cool Cap project is the largest socio-environmental program with educational actions in Latin America's plastic industry. With the support of the Social and Environmental Institute for Plastics (Plastivida), the project has been expanding to other Brazilian regions to propose transformations in social behavior and to raise awareness on the importance of the proper disposal of plastic waste, encouraging its return to the production chain.
