Interpack offers an inclusive look at global packaging: with exhibitors from 58 countries, the largest packaging show presents trends and technologies from around the world

Food & Drug Packaging, Feb, 2005 by William Makely

From April 21-27 in Dusseldorf, Germany, packaging specialists from around the globe will gather at Interpack 2005, the world's largest packaging trade show. More than 170,000 visitors will tour 2,300-plus exhibits of packaging and confectionery machinery and packaging materials, exposing themselves to new packaging ideas and searching out solutions to their own specific packaging challenges.

The enormous show, held every three years, is laid out in 18 dedicated buildings (halls) that enable visitors to target their own interests and plan effective use of their show time. To help visitors do that, the organizers have established an internet portal--www.interpack.com--which provides up-to-date information about the show as well as trends and market information related to the international packaging industry.

Among the 88 companies from North America scheduled (as of January) to participate are big players like Bosch Packaging Technology, Kwik Lok Corp., Markem, Pactiv, Serac and Weiler Engineering. A number of smaller companies will also be exhibiting, in the North American Pavilion in Hall 12.

Trends in packaging

The exhibitors at Interpack 2005 will address a number of vital packaging trends in their individual exhibit booths and in presentations during the show. Chief among these in 2005 will be radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, a topic of interest to packagers across the world. Other special trends that will be addressed in booths throughout the halls will be brand identity as it is supported by packaging shapes, colors and more, and the increasingly important subject of security techniques in packaging that can guard products against the growing threat of counterfeiting.

* RFID: Real and potential RFID applications will be the focus of numerous special presentations at the show. Technical demonstrations of RFID as it relates to the delivery and sale of goods will allow visitors to watch the technology at work in various contexts. Attendees will be introduced to a range of the RFID tags, coders and readers now available on the market.

The RFID presentations will consist of both demonstrations and lectures given by representatives of participating businesses and institutions, among them the European Retail Institute (EHI), a European trade group and longtime cooperative partner of Messe Dusseldorf.

Development of practicable RFID applications in the U.S. has been invigorated by the requirement by Wal-Mart that its 100 largest suppliers begin attaching RFID tags to their cases and pallets shipped to the company. In Europe, a similar demand by Tesco and Metro Group, the second-and third-largest retail groups in the world, has had a similar stimulating effect.

North American visitors to the show will be able to view the response developed by their global counterparts to the new demands.

* Security: A concern among packagers and their customers worldwide is the growing incidence of counterfeit products making it into the market. Once a concern limited to knockoff purses and fake fragrances, the concern was heightened significantly when it was learned that the crash in 2000 of the Concorde jetliner in France was due to damage caused by a counterfeit spare part.

Experts estimate that in Europe as much as 7% of the branded consumer products market is lost to counterfeit products. Counterfeiters are shifting their attention into the mass market goods categories. Packaging is in the front line in fighting this loss, and many of the exhibitors at Interpack will be focusing on ways to do so.

The good news is, as more companies develop ways to fight counterfeiting, they are also focusing on making those techniques cost effective for packagers, reducing production costs through integration and automation. Many anti-counterfeiting devices worked in the past because they were too costly to duplicate. Now the emphasis is on technology, including different devices, (such as RFID tags), printing techniques and special inks.

RFID tags are in the forefront of this trend, driven by the demands of retailers. Tags can now be integrated into labels, then coded and verified, often at speeds equal to traditional print-and-apply labeling operations.

Hi-resolution printed intertwined lines known as guilloches--already used successfully on banknotes--can be printed on primary packaging and/or labels. Microtag particles can be printed using multiple ink layers that combine to form a unique code, and holograms can be integrated into primary or secondary packaging.

Thermosensitive inks change color when a packaged product has been exposed to pre-determined temperatures--often a sign that it has been counterfeited and introduced into the supply chain. UV inks fluoresce under ultraviolet light and infrared inks can only be detected using a special camera, offering security that does not interfere with the graphic appeal of the package. Metameric inks look identical, but are revealed to be different under a special filter. Scented inks offer both a shelf appeal and security protection.