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Dow Pack Studios in EMEA
Welcome to Pack Studios Tarragona, situated in Northeast Spain
Our centers offer expert support and technical capabilities around the globe, providing the people, facilities and expertise you need to accelerate your packaging process.
Equipped with state-of-the-art film production and testing capabilities for primary, secondary and tertiary packaging applications, Pack Studios Tarragona will facilitate world leading innovation within food and industrial packaging while also serving global label customers with innovative adhesives solutions.
Tarragona 360º
We know there's nothing like seeing Pack Studios facilities in action, which is why we've created Tarragona 360º. Developed to allow you to explore our newest center from the comfort of your own space.
In our new Film Innovation Center, Pack Studios Tarragona offers a broad range of lab- and industrial-scale blown and cast lines, from 5 layer to 9 layer extrusion, to enable production and testing of different films from industrial to barrier food packaging films.
Meanwhile, the new Load Stability Innovation Center at Tarragona supports the development of new pallet unitization film solutions which are designed to improve safety, minimize waste and reduce costs. Thanks to the latest technologies, such as an extensive array of blown and cast film multilayer extrusion equipment, a state-of-the-art pallet wrapping line, a cutting-edge horizontal stability tester and a modern tilting table system, value chain partners can rapidly conceptualize and develop prototypes, test solutions, access expert knowledge, and accelerate their innovation processes.
Feel free to explore these in more detail below as well as find out more about what else Pack Studios Tarragona has to offer.
Building the circular economy step-by-step
Five companies – HP Indigo, Dow, Reifenhaeuser, Cadel and Karlville – worked together to explore whether one pouch could be recycled into another high-quality pouch application.
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The case presented involves a PE-based barrier MDO-PE food pouch, designed for recyclability (D4R). It's recycled into a high-quality dishwasher detergent MDO-PE pouch, containing 30% recycled contents in the final laminated PE-based film, which is designed for recyclability again.
Collaboration is essential for achieving a circular economy for plastic packaging. Producing the recyclates for the second pouch involved a special deinking technology during recycling to achieve a high-quality resin outcome for the second pouch application. Thanks to the deinking you can achieve high-quality pouch-to-pouch recycling. The usage of MDO-PE allows you to go back to a PE-based pouch concept.
In the process, digital printing and industrial-scale production machinery was used. The Film Innovation Center at Pack Studios Tarragona is uniquely positioned for developing and testing circular formats, validating commercial value up to industrial scale.
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FILM
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LOAD STABILITY
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ACRYLIC ADHESIVES
Lab scale film production
Our impressive range of cast and blown film extrusion lines enable lab scale film production, testing and prototyping. The centerpieces of our lab scale film innovation center are our Collin blown 9 layer and cast 5 layer lines, which can be coupled with a versatile MDO unit to test mono-material formats designed for recyclability. And the scope of our testing activities covers not only special barrier and oriented films, but also stretch and breathable backsheet films, helping you to create packaging of the future.
Extensive testing environment
Once the films are produced on a small scale we evaluate their properties in our extensive film testing laboratories, with over 20,000 tests being conducted by the Pack Studios Tarragona lab team every year.
Common procedures involve abuse testing tear and puncture properties, dart impact strength, moisture and oxygen barrier testing, sealing and hot tack properties analysis, and much more.
Industrial scale extrusion lines
Helping you to create the next generation of recyclable and sustainable films, our Film Innovation Center offers a broad range of extrusion lines up to industrial scale; including a 5 layer blown film Macchi line, a 9 layer blown film W&H co-extrusion line and a 5 layer cast film Amut Dolci line.
These lines enable the efficient scale-up, production and testing of an array of films, from industrial and consumer packaging, to barrier and non-barrier lamination food packaging, to non-breathable backsheets and films for feminine hygiene applications.
We also frequently use our Covex mono-layer line to validate new developments for the circular economy.
The facilities in our Load Stability Innovation Center support the development of optimized, innovative and sustainable pallet unitization film solutions, designed to improve safety and sustainability, while reducing waste, costs, and CO2 impact.
The capability to manufacture and evaluate prototype packaging solutions, without utilizing your own valuable resources, means Pack Studios can improve the speed & efficiency of packaging application development projects and offer cost benefits for businesses across the value chain.
- The Robopac is a semi-automated stretch wrapping machine with a rotating ring, able to run at 50 rpm.
- The machine memory has 15 different programs. One of the best features is the CUBE technology, enabling 12 steps for each program. It means that pallets can be divided into 12 different zones and each zone can have its own wrapping pattern and conditions.
- On top of that it counts on the “roping” option: film can be plicated to rope shape to enhance the wrapping performance and increase the load stability.
- The stretching option goes from 120% to 400%.
- Thickness range will normally go from 14 to 23 microns, lower thickness will depend on the materials performance.
- This system is intended to determine the behavior of a wrapped load when subjected to certain tilting angles.
- Two tests can be performed on this equipment: ultimate tilting test and tilting resistance test.
- The ultimate test determines the maximum tilting angle of a wrapped load before falling.
- The tilting resistance test determines the behavior of a wrapped load when subjected to certain tilting angle for a determined time.
- This machine provides an online force measuring system for wrapped loads.
- The device is totally portable and must be installed in the corner of the pallet, independently from its dimensions.
- Once installed, the film wrapping can take place and the forces are registered online.
- During the distribution cycle, goods are exposed to different forces that may affect their integrity and safety. These forces, which may be caused by acceleration, braking, handling or storing,. could result in serious consequences for the goods and the way loads are secured. Transport simulation testing technologies enter the scene to foresee these threats.
- By using data obtained from a packaging transport simulation, this machinery enables the design of optimized packaging, tailored to real transportation conditions.
- This characterization should not only be applied to the packaging, however. Knowing the characteristics of the products will help companies to choose or design tertiary packaging to resist the stresses of the distribution cycle.
Excellence in labels, tapes and more
Our Acrylic Adhesives Innovation Center is designed to help you optimize your adhesive solutions to deliver the best possible performance, whatever the application or market.
With advanced equipment and on-site experts, we’ll work with you to support the formulation of new and existing products, and conduct industrial-scale trials for packaging tapes, labels and textile and non-woven markets.
We can also help you to perform pressure sensitive adhesive tests, scale up production, evaluate performance, and define the appropriate binder formulations to meet your needs.
Our capabilities
- Industrial scale formulation station with 1 metric ton output
- Industrial scale pilot coater to produce tape reels
- Comprehensive toolbox to test pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA) application properties in compliance with global standards
- Rheometer and particle size determination for a complete characterization of acrylics emulsions
- Holistic testing capabilities for textiles, nonwovens and application properties of HYPOD™ polyolefin dispersions
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