From 2 to 6 May 2023, the global metal packaging industry will meet at its leading trade fair Metpack at Messe Essen to learn about innovative production processes, efficient machines, and the latest trends. About an hour’s train ride from Dusseldorf, the fair also allows professional exchange outside the exhibition halls at the international Metpack Conference on the second day of the trade fair, 3rd May from 9 am to 1:30 pm.
Well-known companies along the entire production chain of the metal packaging industry will speak at the conference. These include tinplate manufacturer Nippon Steel and surface treatment specialist Plasmatreat to can manufacturers Crown Holdings, chemical suppliers Henkel and Chrotex, and coating specialist Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint. The Conference participants can look forward to a total of nine exciting presentations. Tickets are available now.
Due to the pandemic, the industry did not have its platform in Essen to exchange information on current developments for six years. Since the last Metpack 2017, the metal packaging sector has developed rapidly. The Metpack Conference offers the unique opportunity to get up to date with the latest technology compactly and efficiently, to get in touch with experts, and to receive valuable input for business.
The conference will be opened by Dr Daniel Abramowicz, CTO at Crown Holdings, delivering a keynote, highlighting technical innovations in metal packaging over the last quarter century. In addition to incremental improvements, such as reduced spoilage during manufacturing and reducing the weight of cans, the industry has also seen several breakthrough innovations that have resulted in step-changes in the can`s performance and economics. These more radical historical innovations, as well as some future ones, will be featured in the presentation.
Dr Dimitrios Tsimpoukis, managing director of Chrotex in Greece will speak about cost optimization in the lacquering process by taking a holistic look at the factors underlying the quality of the lacquering operations in metal can and cap manufacturing. Highlights are thrown on the interplay among requisite lacquer properties required for high-quality can manufacturing and their trade-offs, as revealed through physicochemical concepts. The possibilities for cost-wise optimization of the lacquering processes in can manufacturing are presented within the framework of safeguarding quality.
Plasmatreat, a technology leader from Germany, has developed a technique to optimize metal surfaces such as tinplate by dramatically increasing wettability and thus enabling the direct application of UV materials. Supported by project partners in Brazil, the can maker Brasilata and the coatings manufacturer Actega, Plasmatreat will show how inline plasma jets can significantly improve the adhesion of UV coatings.
Neil Finley, head of Global Food Safety at Henkel (UK) and chair of the CEPE Can Sector Group, will take on the important and ever-expanding area of migration and regulation, and talk about food contact risk assessment of BPA-NI coatings for metal packaging. This presentation will discuss the challenges in performing the risk assessment, novel approaches to demonstrate safety, and how improved supply chain communication can support BPA-NI coatings for metal packaging.
Chromates are being removed from industrial manufacturing processes to further improve the health and safety conditions for workers and employees. Nippon Steel Corporation from Japan has developed a new procedure to passivate tinplate surfaces without hexavalent chromium. Their presentation will include key technical information on the ‘Process, Product, and Food Contact Safety of EZP tinplate.’ All three aspects of this new substrate will be explained in detail with the basic principles of manufacturing, the structure of the zirconium passivation layer, the toxicological profile, and much more.
Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint will speak about the challenges in developing the next generation of coating machines. Inline measuring technologies have advanced to the point that the re-coupling of data can lead to an automatic process, controlled in a closed loop. Other interesting contributions will come from Stolle, SLAC, and Enpack.
Visit the trade fair and conference with just one ticket
At Metpack, practice, and theory are close together. While the exhibition halls are the venue for live demonstrations and elaborate presentations, the adjoining Congress Center West becomes a think tank with the Metpack Conference. Trade visitors can experience both – the trade fair and the conference – with a combined ticket for Euro 285 entitling attendance at both the Metpack trade fair and the Metpack Conference for two days.
Note: European editor Ron Augustin europeaneditor@ippgroup.in and editor Naresh Khanna editor@ippgroup.in will attend and cover the Metpack exhibition and conference in Essen for Packaging South Asia and IndiFoodBev.
