Gerhardshofen – A completely new and waterproof coating for application using flexo coating unit was presented by WEILBURGER Graphics GmbH, an international coating, flexo inks and adhesive manufacturer based out of Gerhardshofen in Germany. To demonstrate the properties of this coating, the company designed and made a special drink cooler to be used with bottles from the Loscher Brewery GmbH & Co. in the nearby town of Münchsteinach. This folded carton packaging made from 4 pieces comes equipped with a cooling tray and can take up to 500 g of crushed ice or cold water. To optimize the cooling the box was designed in a way that a removable cover achieves a long lasting, continuously hermetic cooling chamber in which two 330 ml bottles from the drink family of Loscher Brewery are contained, namely CLUB MATE and CLUB MATE COLA.

This demo cooler was produced together with the Martin Spiegel GmbH Carton Factory, whom leaded in an exemplary way the construction, printing and finishing, as well as the graphic decorating company RIEKER GmbH + Co. KG, who was responsible for the screen-printing finishing.

The main body of the box, made by a bottom and a cover, was made out of 340 g/m² MetsäBoard Classic FBB, while the special cooling tray, as well as the compartment separator for easy fill up was made with the new MetsäBoard Prime FBB EB in 265 g/m2.

The offset printing was made with the two pieces of the main body using 5/0 colors in Euro Scale 4 colors plus a special Pantone® 288 C. In terms of coatings, the external part was fully covered with SENOSOFT® WB MATT COATING FP NDC 350210 and the inner part with the new SENOLITH® WB BARRIER COATING 350025 as splash protection. In an offline process a screen-printing finishing was applied to both pieces. On one pass a high gloss SENOSCREEN® UV ANTI-SLIP LACQUER 363055 to optically stand out the letters and bottle motives around the box and on another pass a SENOSCREEN® UV RELIEF LACQUER WATER DROPLETS 363056 to create an optic and haptic contrast with the previously applied SENOSOFT® WB MATT COATING FP NDC 350210.

The two cardboard pieces for the tray and the separator were printed in the same color scheme using offset 5/5 and coating. In terms of coating, the exterior was coated using SENOLITH® WB GLOSS COATING FP DC 350179 and the interior with the new SENOLITH® WB BARRIER COATING 350025.

While the cover and the bottom of the cooler main body are made in a way that they can be put together without gluing, the tray, which does not have any edges on the inner side so as to waterproof to the highest possible extent, is glued on the outside with a special gluing machine for food packaging. This is mainly done to avoid errors while putting the tray together.

The thus conceived cooler achieves in laboratory tests water and ice-filled times of over a week without soddening.

Arno Dürr, Sales Director at WEILBURGER Graphics GmbH commented about the demo packaging and the new barrier coating: “Based on the feedback from our customers, especially in the food and frozen food sector, we have looked for environmentally friendly and food safe solutions to make waterproof carboard packaging without using films, PE and similar materials. Our approach, to warrant this function by way of a special barrier coating, was a great success. We assume that a large part of all laminated cardboard solutions in the market as well as some special plastic-based solutions can be developed and substituted with this approach.” Bastian Pinsenschaum, Head of the Technical Service, added: “With the completed drink cooler demo project, for which we once again want to thank our partners Loscher, Spiegel Packaging, Rieker, MetäBoard and IST, we want to demonstrate the quality of the new barrier coating in an extreme application without forget ting to also showcase our other products through the smart application of optic, haptic and functional coatings in this packaging. The cooler not only works in an outstanding manner, it also looks great.”

The new SENOLITH® WB BARRIER COATING 350025 is currently undergoing an approval process for the application on food packaging with direct food contact properties and will therefore predictably also be suitable for primary packaging of fruit, vegetables, animal food, plants and frozen foods. 

Further information: www.weilburger.com. 

External view of the WEILBURGER Graphics GmbH drink cooler with highlighted effects.