Consumer and manufacturer demand for more environmentally friendly packaging has never been stronger. Recently, Mondelez International approached Syntegon Technology, formerly Bosch Packaging Technology, with a challenging request: to package Cadbury chocolate tablets in fully recyclable paper flow wraps.

Following Syntegon Technology’s vision to provide intelligent and sustainable solutions for everyone, work on sustainable solutions for paper flow wrapping had already taken shape within the company. A year of continued development resulted in a forming unit and sealing jaws for cold sealing applications. In the form of an upgrade kit, the solution has now successfully been test trialled on Cadbury’s flow wrapping machines for chocolate tablets – a format that poses a particular challenge.

Founded in Birmingham/England, in the 1830s, Cadbury has been manufacturing cocoa products and chocolate for almost 200 years. While Cadbury’s best-selling Dairy Milk chocolate bar has won over chocolate lovers in every corner of the world, the brand offers a wide range of flavours, sizes and products, including the Energy bar, which is sold in New Zealand.

The Cadbury brand belongs to Mondelez International. The company has committed to making all of its packaging recyclable by 2025 through materials innovation, improved waste and recycling infrastructure, and consumer information and education. While plastic will continue to play an important role in maintaining shelf life and minimizing food waste, there will be some products that could be packaged in sustainable packaging materials, including paper flow-wrap.

Paper packaging scores highly because it can be reprocessed in existing paper recycling streams. Consumers perceive paper packaging as particularly sustainable and make their decision at point of sale based on touch and feel. Paper packaging receives increased attention with flow wraps, leading food manufacturers to consider the change from conventional packaging materials to paper-based packaging. However, paper is not as easy to package as films and poses its own challenges when used on existing flow wrapping machines.

To come up with a suitable solution, last year, Syntegon developed an upgrade kit at its test laboratory in Beringen/Switzerland. “As a provider of packaging engineering solutions, we are working at full blast to optimize our machine technology,” says Christoph Langohr, Project Manager for Sustainability, Horizontal Packaging, at Syntegon Technology. “We are striving to provide concrete technical solutions today for the packaging technology of tomorrow. Naturally, when Mondelez International approached us and asked to support their launch of a paper packaging solution for Cadbury’s Energy chocolate tablet, we were excited to come up with a solution”.

There is a wide range of paper suppliers who offer a variety of papers with different characteristics in stiffness and machinability. Paper packaging has a number of limitations which makes it challenging to protect the product to the same degree as proven conventional films, while generating the same output on the machine. Firstly, paper is a good insulator. Yet, secondly, paper is a fairly stiff material, which makes it easy to crease or tear during the pack forming-process and result in damages.

Nonetheless, Mondelez International chose paper packaging and approached Syntegon. The shape of the chocolate tablet itself posed an additional challenge. Based on the specific requirements, Syntegon developed the forming unit “paper-ON-form” for their flow wrapping machines. “Formats like bars are easier to handle,” Christoph Langohr says. “In contrast, chocolate tablets like Cadbury’s Energy tablet are much broader and very flat, which makes them more challenging to process. The new forming unit for Cadbury needed to take this into account”.

The challenge is to develop paper packaging solutions for machines already installed rather than new machines since a lot of different formats must be handled. To take a holistic approach, an upgrade kit was needed that suited all Syntegon flow-wrapping machine types that use cold-sealing technology, without compromising on output rates. Handling paper on a flow-wrapping machine faces two major challenges. First, to handle the paper without breaking the grease and water-vapour barrier, and second, not to damage the flow wrap during sealing. This demands new sealing jaws that are customized for the specific paper material. Only then, reliable seals can be generated.

To accomplish the best sealing results, Syntegon customized the new sealing jaws based on Cadbury’s selected paper film. Experts developed a new individual forming unit and sealing jaws for Cadbury, based on the desired pack size and the material characteristics, using 3D printed components.

After putting the prototypes through their paces at the on-site test lab, it was time for the real deal: manufacturing the components. Syntegon installed the forming unit and sealing jaws on Cadbury’s H-series flow wrapping machine. After some trial runs at their own facility, the Syntegon experts visited the Cadbury site to upgrade the existing machines and to supervise the production run.

“We’re committed to making all of our packaging recyclable by 2025, and we’re working hard to use the right amount of packaging and simplify materials so they can be recycled,” Maggie McKerr, Senior Sustainability Manager of Mondelez Global External Communication team, states. “While we are making good progress to reach our 2025 ambition, partnerships help us to create new materials, improve infrastructure, and change consumer behaviour”.

The new upgrade kit “paper-ON-form” for flow wrapping machines, which comprises a forming unit and sealing jaws for cold sealing applications, is at the heart of the new paper packaging solution. Comprehensive tests have repeatedly demonstrated reliable outputs without speed limitations. It proves that paper flow wrapping matches the performance of flow wrapping using films. The forming unit and sealing jaws can be used with different types of paper – regardless of thickness and supplier. As a result, paper packaging is now a real, sustainable option.