With the focus on finding alternatives to single-use plastic rings for can packs, AUSPACK exhibitor Krones highlights LitePac Top as an eco-friendly, sustainable alternative.
It is a cardboard package containing neither plastics nor adhesives, which is produced from renewable raw materials and can be easily recycled after use. It is fitted underneath the can seam, thus keeping the pack stable.
The pack features recessed grips with which it can be conveniently grasped and carried. To remove a can, it can be pulled it vertically out of the packaging – it’s not necessary to tear open the cardboard.
Also, to ensure an eye-catching presence on supermarket shelves, the pack offers space for design options. With the associated machine technology, for instance, it’s possible to selectively orientate the cans – for prominent brand logo placement or to form a coherent motif from several different can designs.
Despite the first packs with the innovative strapping only being market-launched in early 2020, it has already received a prize for it in Dubai last year, winning the Global Water Awards in the Best Technology Innovation category.
Krones is also offering the associated machine technology – the Varioline, which is described as a “multi-talented all-rounder” among packaging machines.
The Varioline’s modularised construction enables it to be individually customised to suit the task involved, and several packaging variants to be run on one and the same system.
Like the machine itself, its individual modules are also multi-functional. In the case of LitePac Top, for example, the first module can accept, orientate and group the cans.
For creating the tertiary packaging, in order to insert the packs in trays, the Varioline can be combined with a Variopac Pro – in a space-economical block configuration without any lengthy conveyor sections.
Krones Pacific will be exhibiting at AUSPACK 2022 on stand G180.
