Large versatility for the winners of the Alufoil Trophy 2008

Run as usual by the European Aluminium Foil Association the Alufoil Trophy sees for its 2008 edition seven winners which were on show at Interpack 2008.
The winners underline the versatility of alufoil across a range of applications - health and beauty, fish, hot drinks, pet food, antismoking aids, medical and industrial applications.
Alcan Packaging Pharma Europe’s stand-up recloseable Beauty Purse is being used by Quies for its Quies Flash Frais soothing eye masks. Claimed to be the first portable stand-up pack for health and personal care, the Beauty Purse® combines aesthetic appeal, and simplicity of use. The pack is reverse printing in 4-colour rotogravure and is enhanced by alufoil's natural aesthetic value.
Alcan Packaging Zutphen had the judges purring with delight with its eye-catching organic shape alufoil tray with easy-open lid for Sheba Essence from Mars Petcare Europe.
The manufacture of the tray created a number of challenges; the first was to anticipate the degree of deformation caused by stamp- ing prior to pre-printing. The nonstandard asymmetrical shape meant that extra attention had to be paid to the stamping process which causes stress, break the tray or produce wrinkles. Alupak and Alcan Packaging (Rorschach and Singen) joint development of the PeeliCan is being used to great effect for all kinds of fish fillets and seafood.
Offering great advantages because of its lightweight and easy opening, the PeeliCan provides a simplified filling process using a patented sealing technology. Constantia Teich’s portion pack for Chocomel Hot from Friesland Foods Western Europe creates a convenient dispensing cupshaped pack for a hot chocolate drink for use in the popular Senseo pad machines.
The end user peels of the aluminium foil and sets free a plastic lid which has exactly sized and positioned holes. Novartis Consumer Health won an Alufoil Trophy for its user-friendly Nicotinell L-Pack for an anti-smoking aid. The packaging design challenge for this Nicotine Replacement Gum pack was to keep both the size of the gum and the number of gums per blister unchanged within the wallet-style pack.
Hydro Aluminium’s winning entry for ProTechT Solutions’ Certinite, a passive explosion and fire protection system, proves how successful aluminium foil is across any number of market uses.
Protective Packaging’s laminated foil pouch with two compartments for AGMA Healthcare’s Sterile Zyceine Wipes containing a sporicidal disinfectant is designed for use in sterile environments in the healthcare sector.
The two compartments maintain the individual integrity of the two essential reagents. At point of use, the vulnerable seal is rupture and the reagents and wipes mixed together.

Latest data on the market of aluminium foil
European Aluminium Foil Association figures for 2007 show that 864,000 tonnes of alufoil was produced by its membership; just 0.2 per cent down on 2006.
At the same time there was a 2 percent growth in the surface area produced. This was the first time surface area was collected and shows that real growth in square metres is significantly higher than the development in tonnes.
«This is a contribution to increased resource efficiency which means more customer value is created with less raw material usage», pointed out Eefa President Fred McDonogh. Deliveries of thicker gauges, used mainly for the manufacture of semi-rigid trays and technical applications, rose significantly by 5.5%; thinner gauges, used mostly for flexible packaging, increased in terms of surface by about 5% while the tonnage volume decreased slightly by 1.3%.
Utilisation by EAFA members’ production within Europe grew by 1% despite growing imports from Asian countries. However, exports fell by 6% due to the difficulties of exporting into US$ regions.
High material prices and the strong Euro have impacted on both foil rollers and their customers. But European foil rollers are supporting their customers by working on the competitiveness and sustainability of alufoil- based packaging solutions through product innovation, as well as through process and supply chain optimisation.
«The pace of innovative alufoilbased packaging developments is well illustrated by entries to Eafa's Alufoil Trophy and these indicate a healthy future for our material and gives great optimism for 2008».