Unique lidding system

Smart Lid Systems of Sydney, Australia have won a DuPont Silver Award for their colour-changing disposable coffee cup lid. The lid starts off as a brown colour but has a thermochromic ingredient that changes its colour to red when it comes into contact with steamor a hot liquid. Apart from warning users that the contents may be hot and indicating that the lid is properly sealed, it can also incorporate logos and text that appear when it is hot. Since the colour change is reversible, userswill also knowwhen contents like coffee have cooled. The lids are moulded from polystyrene with a special thermochromic additive. Other colour combinations can also be worked out as long as the colour required for the hot contents is a lighter shade.

Path-breaking water-based PSA

ROBOND Prohesion is a new high-performance water based pressure sensitive adhesive based on acrylic emulsions. Rohm and Haas claim that its performance values on initial tack, quick peel build and cohesive strength are equivalent to what were being delivered only by solvent-based PSAs. The product also has excellent resistance to plasticiser migration that makes it attractive for use with vinyl films. According to Rohm and Haas, this is the first emulsion acrylic PSA to exhibit such high performance values in combination with high adhesion to a wide variety of substrates. Being water-based, ROBOND Prohesion is a much more eco-friendly option than solvent-based PSAs

Innovation will help patient compliance

Stora Enso and Cypak, who are a company specialising in smart electronics, have developed a unique pharmaceutical folding carton system called the Discreet Dose Slider (DDS) and a “smarter” version is called the DDSi. The systems are designed to effect improved patient compliance and to enable doctors to improve monitoring the effectiveness and effects of drugs on individual patients.

The systems are based on a special cartonboard substrate developed by Stora Enso that incorporates smart sensors (silicon chips called Application Specific Integrated Circuits or ASICs) developed by Cypak. The cartons can be made in a wide range of sizes at high speed on existing cartoning equipment with only minor changes in tooling. They incorporate a “smart” inner design for filling unit dose pharmaceutical packs like fold-over blisters or push-through blisters.

Firstly, both systems provide a lot of space for conveying both statutory and other important data on the product for patient guidance. The DDSi incorporates sensors, printed one per pocket in the inlay using conductive inks. The electronic circuit is broken whenever the patient removes the product (a pill, tablet or capsule) and a beeper continues to sound until the patient presses a separate button within a questionnaire panel to record how they are feeling or any reaction to the product along with the time.

Once a course of medication is completed, the pack is taken back to the doctor who links it to a PC, which downloads the data recorded on the ASIC chip built into the inlay of the carton. Alternatively, Cypak can supply a reader that can SMS or e-mail the recorded data on the carton to healthcare personnel. Optionally, the carton can include an acoustic signal that reminds the patient to take the medicine. The DDSi carton can be especially useful to track clinical trials.

friendly bottle

Ever since bottled water and recycling of the PET bottles have come under the scanner, both Krones and Sidel have been vying with each other to develop the world's lightest PET bottle. Krones have now announced the development of a 500ml. bottle that weighs a mere 8.8 grams, thereby effecting a 28 to 45 per cent weight reduction compared to PET containers now on the market. This has been possible through downgauging of wall thickness and modifying the mouthpiece design to almost completely dispense with the neck-ring. The design uses a normal bottle grade PET resin and the filled container can hold a top-load of 33 kgs., a critical requirement for palletising stability.