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It’s time to pay attention to the unseen

See the invisible

The world does not need more food packaging. It needs better, renewable ones. Chemistry plays a key role in increasing sustainability and reducing food waste by enabling safe and functional fiber-based packaging. But the features that make a food package more sustainable, more durable or smarter are almost always invisible. Equally invisible are the many solutions that can reduce and prevent food and plastic waste throughout the supply chain. It’s time to pay attention to the unseen.

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Strength in recycled board

Discover effective chemical solutions to improving strength in recycled board. Register for our webinar now
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Future of food packaging – Four scenarios for 2030

What does the future of food and food packaging look like? Read our scenario report and watch our webinar for insights on how food is purchased, packaged, and consumed in a ten years’ time.
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Pulp & Paper webinars

Gain insight into the hot topics of paper and board industy
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Insights

The global challenges of food loss and plastic waste present great opportunities for us to come up with practical solutions.
9/26/2022 | Research | Pulp & paper | Packaging

Quick inversion polymers for efficient stickies control

As paper and board makers continue to use more recycled fibers, they will increasingly need stickies control to ensure machine cleanliness and runnability. A new family of quick inversion polymers are shown to be highly effective at removing sticky contaminants.
9/22/2022 | Article | Pulp & paper | Packaging

Barrier coatings, tailored to fit your process

A one-size-fits-all solution can be a poor fit for most. That’s why Kemira’s dispersion barrier coatings for recyclable and fluorine-free paper and board packaging are based on an open formula.

4/20/2022 | Article | Pulp & paper | Packaging

Ensuring success with dispersion barriers, from pulping to wastewater treatment

For the paper and board manufacturers, reaching success with barrier technology requires more than just adding the right coating chemistry to the process.
1/13/2022 | Meet our expert | Pulp & paper | Packaging

Strength in solving papermakers’ challenges

David Paque, Senior Applications Specialist for Strength at Kemira Pulp & Paper, lights up at a challenge. He shares a recent success, where the net return on the investment made in strength chemicals was more than a million dollars a year for the customer mill.
11/30/2021 | Meet our expert | Pulp & paper | Packaging

Beyond the surface of sustainability

The complexity of sustainability topics is what drives Mari Ojanen, Manager, Global Processes and Projects at Kemira R&D and Technology, in her work.

Board

High quality packaging board both protects a wide variety of products and promotes brands in the best possible way. This requires properties such as strength and stiffness, lightest possible weight as well as superb printing and converting of the package. With liquid packaging and food service grades, strict standards for hygiene and cleanliness must be met. We offer industry-leading chemistry expertise to help board manufacturers reach all desired qualities.

Hygiene and product safety

Hygiene is the top priority for food service board suppliers. At the same time, paper machines are known to be prone to problems related to uncontrolled microbiological (MB) growth. The combination of potential troublesome MB growth and the need for a very high level of hygiene makes MB control a subject no paperboard producer can ignore.

Biofilm or slime growth on board machine surfaces can have drastic negative effects on both machine runnability and end-product quality. Uncontrolled bacterial growth causes unstable wet-end chemistry, taste or odor issues, spoilage of papermaking additives, and harmful bacterial sporulation. For example, a two-day outbreak of bacterial spores on a board machine can lead to the loss of thousands of tons of finished food packaging board, at a cost approaching millions of euros. With Kemira’s chemistry and application expertise, you can cure and protect your board machine from troubles caused by microbes.

Liquid resistance, printability and convertibility

Fiber based food packaging materials are more sustainable than plastic, but they set high demands for qualities such as hydrophobation and liquid resistance. Liquid resistance is one of the most important packaging board characteristics that is needed for all take-away food packages such as noodle cups, coffee mugs or hamburger boxes. Thanks to liquid resistance, consumers are able to keep their fingers clean and liquids and grease inside the food packages.

In addition, board should be easily printed on and converted into highly appealing packages with brilliant color reproduction. High-quality packages should not only protect the enclosed products, but also help promote brands in highly competitive markets – where every little detail counts. All this requires expertise in chemistry.

Kemira is a world-leader in sizing chemistries that provide liquid resistance to your packaging board. We also have a broad expertise in applications and analysis methods for improved printability and convertibility.

Lightweighting and strength

Today’s consumers do a lot of shopping online which has driven changes in packaging materials. Product packages have to look appealing, be strong enough to survive being shipped around the world, and still look good when they are finally delivered. At the same time, consumers are expecting more sustainable packaging materials. Lighter weight packaging is one way to improve sustainability: lighter packages mean lighter load and reduced fuel consumption as well as reduced transportation costs.

Kemira chemistries enable reducing basis weights in board-making with no decrease in strength, stiffness or performance. We offer a portfolio of strength chemistries that enable the lightweighting of your sheet while increasing the strength and quality of your finished products. We can also improve your machine runnability and reduce sheet breaks and downtime. Overall profitability can be improved through fiber savings, lower energy consumption in the drying phase, less tonnage to transport, and reduced volume of the finished products.

Contact us

Harri Eronen

Senior Vice President, Commercial, Pulp & Paper, EMEA

Nichlas Kavander

Senior Vice President, Commercial, Pulp & Paper, APAC

Tuija Pohjolainen-Hiltunen

Senior Vice President, Commercial, Pulp & Paper, Americas

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