Bobst : Elevated Drink Box (EDB) launched at drupa

The design of the box was created by Metsä Board's packaging services team headed by Cyril Drouet, Design and Innovation Director. 'Our aim was to completely re-think the traditional 'bag in box' concept and design a smarter packaging, easy to use with real benefits for the consumer and the brand. Thanks to Metsä Board patented elevated base design, the box doesn't have to be placed on the edge of a table anymore, which gives the freedom to consumer to use this liquid packaging anywhere'. The box does not take up additional shelf space in stores as the elevated base is contained inside the packaging, ready for assembly by the consumer before use. When empty the bag is easily pulled out from the box, helping with separating the different materials for recycling.

The fresh forest fibre paperboards used in the packaging are manufactured by Metsä Board. The outer liner is Kemiart Lite+ 175 g/m, which is a double-coated white-top kraftliner for flexo post-print and digital printing applications. The fluting (160 g/m) and inner liner (130 g/m) were made of Modo Northern Light, a fully bleached liner suitable for offset, flexo and inkjet digital printing. The board used to create the carton was manufactured at Gebr. Knauer GmbH + Co. KG in Germany, on a BOBST EXPERTFLUTE web-to-web laminator, with a BOBST GAPRO adhesive control system to prevent warp and use as little glue as possible.

The EXPERTFLUTE line used Henkel's next-generation Adhesive Aeration Technology, which applied water-based Aquence adhesive using a Glue-Mix 3 unit. This introduces controlled quantities of air into the adhesive, resulting in a significant moisture reduction in the corrugated board and allowing fast processing to produce the finished product without extensive storage. Consequently, this technology leads to optimized cost-in-use performance.

From the EXPERTFLUTE the board went to be printed on BOBST's digital printing press for corrugated, which utilizes Kodak Stream Inkjet Technology, and patented, environmentally friendly aqueous based inks. Kodak's proprietary continuous inkjet technology delivers over 50 billion ink drops per second from four CMYK print units, while BOBST's know-how in designing and manufacturing industrial printing presses allows the line to run at speeds of up to 200 meters per minute. Along with delivering high-definition 600 x 900 dpi print, the BOBST digital press is designed for printing variable data and for versioning, all at full running speed, and would easily cope with production runs of the four flavor versions of the Elevated Drink Box.

The carton was die-cut on a BOBST MASTERCUT 2.1, the world's fastest corrugated board die-cutter, which uses POWER REGISTER technology for perfect cut-to-print register. Marbach provided the die-cutting tools for the MASTERCUT, and these featured its brand new Pure Edge Technology. This creates perfectly clean cut edges, without imprints or 'angel hair', while an engraved steel counter plate created the reverse creasing necessary.

Finally, the carton was folded and glued on a BOBST EXPERTFOLD 165 A3 folder-gluer, which offers superb in-process control of even the most complex boxes in corrugated and litho-laminated board. This control, delivered using a range of innovative systems, ensures that every box is perfectly folded and glued. For excellent adherence Henkel's water based Aquence FB 7236 was used.

At drupa 2016 the Elevated Drink Box can be seen, and tested, at the following exhibitor stands: Metsä Board - hall 12/C43, BOBST - hall 10/A60 , Henkel - Hall 14/B04, Kodak - hall 05/F09, Marbach - hall 10/D50 and during Touchpoint Packaging sessions in hall 12/B53. Metsä Board's Koen Verplancke, Technical Development Director will make a presentation 'Convenience combined with digital printing - Elevated Drink Box (EDB) on June 4th and June 6th.

Watch the Elevated Drink Box making of video on: http://opn.to/a/sI0K8

Bobst Mex SA, Switzerland