{"id":113978,"date":"2025-04-13T09:40:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T06:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/?p=113978"},"modified":"2025-04-15T11:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T08:15:17","slug":"ultrasonic-welding-enhances-recyclability-of-to-go-cups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/ultrasonic-welding-enhances-recyclability-of-to-go-cups\/","title":{"rendered":"Ultrasonic welding enhances recyclability of to-go cups"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iranpolymer\/Baspar\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>The production of sustainable food packaging such as beverage cups still\u00a0offers great potential for optimization. This is demonstrated by the\u00a0innovative solution of a start-up from Latvia. The company not only\u00a0produces the cups for coffee to-go and soft drinks from recycled PET, but\u00a0its production technology also ensures that the foamed rPET used can be\u00a0recycled again and again as a mono-material. The ultrasonic welding of the\u00a0cup bases, for which Weber Ultrasonics has developed a product-specific\u00a0welding solution, makes a significant contribution to this.
\nCoffee to go or soft drink – the drink on the go enjoys great popularity\u00a0around the globe. One problem, however, is the beverage cups. Until now,\u00a0they have usually been made of plastic or paper laminated with a plastic\u00a0coating. These are materials that cannot be recycled or can only be\u00a0recycled to a limited extent and therefore end up in landfill sites or\u00a0incinerators. Sergey Nikitenko, founder of the FORPET project and one of\u00a0the managing directors of FORPET Baltic SIA, wanted to do something about\u00a0this. “The whole thing started with the idea of producing packaging for the\u00a0food industry from recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET), known as\u00a0rPET,” explains the packaging expert.<\/p>\n

rPET in food-safe virgin material quality<\/strong>
\nIn discussions with various companies from the fields of plastics recycling\u00a0and extrusion technology, the entrepreneur gathered information about\u00a0useful system combinations for the project. In the process, he became aware\u00a0of the innovative Liquid State Polycondensation (LSP) process from NGR.”With this technology, we can process PET flakes from recycled material into rPET in food-safe virgin material quality, which is certified according to the BRC Global Standard for food safety. The material can be foamed and can also be printed very well with water-based dyes and recycled as often as required,” explains Sergey Nikitenko. In the next step, another technology partner, extruder manufacturer Leistritz, was found for the further processing of the prepared material into films and sheets of varying\u00a0 thicknesses. Tests carried out in parallel showed that the rPET can be shaped like conventional packaging materials. It is therefore an ideal material for food packaging of all kinds as well as for blister packs, containers and much more.
\nBeverage cups as the first product<\/strong>
\nThe first product chosen was to-go cups, for which a production line including an LSP machine and extruder system was first set up at the Latvian plant. There was still one hurdle to overcome. While the side seam of the cup is traditionally welded using ultrasound, a glued connection was required to integrate the base. However, adhesive would have been a second material, which would also incur additional costs. An alternative that could be integrated into the processing system was therefore sought.
\nProduct-specific development of the ultrasonic welding process\u00a0“Ultrasonic welding seemed ideal for our mono-material packaging. However,\u00a0we needed a partner with whom we could work out an optimal solution.\u00a0Initially, it looked like we would need three welding systems to join the\u00a0base of the cup to the cylinder due to the geometry,” reports\u00a0 Sergey\u00a0Nikitenko. During an internet search, he came across Weber Ultrasonics AG,\u00a0an internationally active manufacturer of ultrasonic components for\u00a0welding, cutting and cleaning. “In the first video conference, the company\u00a0impressed us with its very professional and solution-oriented approach.\u00a0During our first visit, we were then able to carry out direct tests with\u00a0our material in Weber’s application technology center,” recalls the Managing\u00a0Director. \u201cWe then set about jointly developing and adapting the ultrasonic\u00a0process to the specific product.\u201d A small design change to the base of the\u00a0cup by the ultrasonic application specialists meant that it could be\u00a0reliably welded with just one ultrasonic welding system in a welding time\u00a0of 150 milliseconds. At the same time, the process is very energy-efficient.<\/p>\n

Welding process with integrated quality control<\/strong>
\nThe welding solution integrated into the production line at FORPET consists\u00a0of two sonotrodes, adapted converters and oscillation units, as well as an\u00a0Industry 4.0-capable welding generator Sonic Digital HS3 with 2,000 watts\u00a0of power, which comes standard with five welding modes. Innovative functions\u00a0ensure maximum process reliability. For example, the teach-in function\u00a0automatically determines the optimum starting frequency and control\u00a0parameters of the connected oscillating system. The Sonoscan function\u00a0identifies the correct working frequency. The temperature tracking function\u00a0calculates frequency shifts caused by temperature changes and also\u00a0compensates for these automatically. Furthermore, the process parameters\u00a0are captured in parallel with the welding process and transmitted to the\u00a0higher-level machine control for evaluation. If there are any deviations\u00a0between the current and stored, validated parameters, these cups are\u00a0ejected accordingly. This ensures that only 100% leak-proof products leave\u00a0the factory. For packaged foods, such as beverages, wet pet food, and\u00a0salads, the vibration during the welding process ensures that any product\u00a0residue present at the connection points is displaced, thus creating\u00a0completely sealed packaging. This prevents costly waste.<\/p>\n

Production to be expanded<\/strong>
\nWith the first line, FORPET has been producing over 1.5 million to-go cups\u00a0per month at the Latvian plant. Production here is to be expanded.\u00a0Additionally, a second plant is planned at a different location. “The\u00a0support from Weber Ultrasonics has helped us to do everything right from\u00a0the start to establish a genuine circular economy for sustainable packaging\u00a0products made from mono-material plastic,” concludes Sergey Nikitenko.<\/p>\n

industrysourcing<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iranpolymer\/Baspar\u00a0 The production of sustainable food packaging such as beverage cups still\u00a0offers great potential for optimization. This is demonstrated by the\u00a0innovative solution of a start-up from Latvia. The company not only\u00a0produces the cups for coffee to-go and soft drinks from recycled PET, but\u00a0its production technology also ensures that the foamed rPET used can be\u00a0recycled again …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":113987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[46429,61138,61226,61225,48304,1295,47674,1190],"class_list":["post-113978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-circular-economy","tag-liquid-state-polycondensation","tag-mono-material-plastic","tag-packaged-foods","tag-polyethylene-terephthalate","tag-recycled-pet","tag-rpet-2","tag-sustainable-packaging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/polymervapooshesh.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}