Cooperations for a sustainable future – BOPE is at the head of the list
From bilateral teamwork with raw material suppliers, masterbatch specialists and film producers to more complex cooperations along the value chain: Brückner is involved at many levels.
DOW and Brückner are jointly developing BOPE-LLD and BOPE-HD resins and films as well as barrier solutions for BOPE. Brückner and SABIC have collaborated for quite some time to create sustainable materials for the packaging industry, e.g. BOPE films. NOVA Chemicals has been working with Brückner to accelerate the development and commercialization of a new high-density resin technology for the BOPE market.
The optimization of polymers, masterbatches and process parameters necessary for innovative BOPE films was carried out by CONSTAB engineers on a Brückner pilot plant. One example is white opaque BOPE film.
In the “Circular Alliance” six companies teamed up to produce new high barrier mono material flexible packaging solutions designed for recyclability. The partners include Dow, Brückner Maschinenbau, Hosokawa Alpine, ELBA, Constantia Flexibles and Bobst.
In March 2019 a value chain project initiative was launched by a group of companies under the acronym PRINTCYC (Printed PP films for mechanical recycling) to research and test ways to create circular economy solutions basing on post-industrial waste. The specific target of the first two project phases was to understand the impact of different ink formulations on the mechanical PP and PE recycling process.
The overall goal of R-Cycle is to implement a practical solution, ensuring recyclability by seamless documentation of all recycling-relevant packaging properties based on established technologies. Partners in this project are: Arburg, Kautex Maschinenbau, Reifenhäuser, Brückner Maschinenbau, the Institute for Plastics Processing (IKV) and GS1 Germany.
Additionally, Brückner cooperates in various partnerships that have already existed for many years. Some examples: One of the most long-standing cooperations is with the VDMA (German Engineering Federation). We also work with more than 20 universities in Germany and five more in Europe, two in the US and two in China. In addition, we frequently cooperate with Fraunhofer Institutes and participate in various support projects. Other associations & organisations we work with are
- CEFLEX (Circular Economy Flexible Packaging), a joint project of various European companies and associations that represents the entire value chain of flexible packaging
- EUROMAP, the umbrella organization of the European plastics and rubber machinery industry
- BOPET Films Europe, representing BOPET film producers in the European market, aiming to boost the circularity of flexible packaging
Last but not least and quite up-to-date, Brückner Maschinenbau researched and developed extensively in close collaboration with two long-standing customers in the direction of biaxially oriented polyethylene films (BOPE):
With Bulgarian Plastchim-T and Portuguese Polivouga, two of Europe’s top film manufacturers, Brückner has been doing numerous joint trials at its technology center in Germany and the customers’ production sites. Both film manufacturers then consequently took the next step: Each of them ordered an ultra-flexible BOPP/BOPE hybrid line for an extended range of films. Both lines will be in operation by the second half of the year 2021.
