Gearing up for further innovations

Rising energy costs and higher prices for raw materials have considerably dampened the mood in the packaging industry this year. But instead of opting to tighten its belt like many of its competitors, Mondi Packaging is choosing precisely these economically challenging times to sharply increase its level of investment in R&D. Now the company has built a new, ultra-modern R&D centre costing € 4.5 mio in Korneuburg, where the Mondi Packaging Flexibles division already operates a plant. Prominent local figures and several customers and business partners of the company were joined at the festivities marking the opening of the centre by Dr Martin Bartenstein, Austria's Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Labour, and Dipl.-Ing. Dr Erwin Pröll, Governor of Lower Austria. As Peter J. Oswald, the CEO of Mondi Packaging, explained at the opening, further R&D centres are to be set up in the near future for the other divisions of the company too. The building in Korneuburg, which was constructed in eight months, houses two laboratories and pilot production lines complete with digital printing equipment. Ten of the company's packaging specialists will be employed in the R&D centre for the time being, although it is designed for twice that number of staff. R&D experts from the company's various production locations will be concentrated in the new centre, and the specialist packaging manufacturer is hoping to achieve thereby a structured transfer of know- how to the various divisions in the group. The research team in Korneuburg regards the joint development in collaboration with customers of packaging solutions that appeal to consumers and make products easier to handle as its main priority. The aim is to optimise products through careful analysis of their components and features and to improve processes. The pilot production line available at the centre facilitates testing of the running capacity and printability of the materials, which are developed under conditions closely resembling those in industry, and permits corrections to be made quickly and economically. The materials developed by Mondi Packaging are inspected directly by the customer. If applicable, suggestions for more cost-efficient solutions are elaborated when processing the materials. The new centre has two laboratories, an analysis laboratory and an application laboratory, which are equipped with the latest technology. In addition to analysing new materials, these laboratories…