Page 26 - Packaging News magazine March-April 2022

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ACTIVE & INTELLIGENT PACKAGING | www.packagingnews.com.au | March-April 2022
New cap signals temperature change
Plastic packaging solutions manufacturer Caps & Closures has launched ThermoShield, a screw cap that signals temperature fluctuations by changing colour. Gary White, innovation manager at Caps & Closures, explains how the technology works.
Regarding colour choice, White says there is a wide colour spectrum for users to choose from, to customise their closures, depending on the tem- perature ranges needed for specific products.
“Often a particular colour change palette will be driven by safety colour standards, or visibility requirements,” he added, explaining that the technol- ogy allows for more than two colour changes (for example, black to orange to red) as the packaging gets warmer, and the reverse as the temperature drops through the selected switch temperatures.
In addition, the ThermoShield colour change can be reversible or non-reversible – in other words, once triggered, the colour change is permanent.
“We can also allow for ‘locking’ of the colour when the temperature rises above a set temperature,” he added, pointing out that this feature can be especially useful in tracking cold-chain (refrigeration-required) perishable foods, to extend display and home refrigerator shelf life, and ultimately reduce food waste.
White explains that the locking feature for integrated logistics-tem- perature tracking is easily scalable to millions of items, to provide more detailed data on cold-chain logistics- material handling, transport, and warehousing.
“Logistics providers need this to identify weak links in the chain, and quickly improve their food waste performance,” he said, adding that pharmaceutical waste is at least as big a problem as food waste.
“Studies have shown that there is a substantial impact on the efficacy of medicines due to storage at incorrect temperatures, resulting in disposal to waste of huge amounts of life-saving products,” he explains.
White points out the importance of creating economical, smart packag- ing that fulfills its intended purpose of protecting and preserving the value of its contents. “If packaging doesn’t do this, we perpetuate the 30 per cent plus food and pharmaceutical waste stream and become more and more a society of ‘disposers’,” he said. ■
DESIGNED for any product where qual- ity is dependent on temperature, ThermoShield is said to safeguard cold chain products using ther- mochromic (TC) materials that signal temperature fluctuations by changing colour.
“ThermoShield is more than just a product offering – it’s a system approach to good packaging practice in product storage and use,” said Gary White, explaining that its concept and development is based on thermochro- mic technology manufactured in the 1970s by scientists who developed inks that changed colour as the envi- ronment changed.
“It’s based on molecular-level struc- ture changes caused by heat that alter the colour of light reflected by the material,” he said, adding that Caps & Closures has integrated the technol- ogy into product packaging to make it ‘smarter’, and help fight waste.
ThermoShield caps signal tempera- ture changes from minus 20°C to plus 70°C and can indicate the amount of
warmth or coolness by rapidly chang- ing colour at a pre-set temperature built into the cap.
A temperature change of approx- imately 3°C is needed for the TC material to change colour, while acti- vation temperature points range from low refrigeration type temperatures through to normal body temperatures and extremely high temperatures.
According to Caps & Closures, there is a simple process involved in choos- ing the ThermoShield closure type, trigger temperature, colour transi- tions and quantity needed. There is also the option to customise a “multi- stage” TC effect through the pigment manufacturer.
ABOVE: Designed for any product where quality is dependent on temperature, ThermoShield is BPA and phthalate-free, and has certification for safe food contact.
ThermoShield is more than just a product offering – it’s a system approach to good packaging practice in product storage and use... ”