Extrusion International USA 4-2019

20 Extrusion International 4/2019 INDUSTRY NEWS Acquisition The President of Union Officine Meccaniche Spa, Ferdinando Passoni, announced to the market that he has completed the purchase of the majority control of the company Costruzioni Meccaniche Tecom srl of Olgiate Olona (www.tecom-it.com) , a company specialized since 1963 in the production of blown ex- trusion lines for films in polyolefins and compostable biopoly- mers from 1 to 3 layers, in the sector of bags for freezer / shop- pers / garbage, agricultural films, film for shrink packaging and for palletizing, lines recognizable in the market thanks to the GoBio trademark. The acquisition strengthens the position of the leader Union, which has always been interested in expanding its product port- folio and fields of application in the extrusionmarket by adding to the already known skills in the field of rigid (flat and hollow sheet) and foam (sheet, boards, pipes and profiles) now also those of the film for flexible packaging. A special thanks goes to the reference management of the company, Massimo Gazzi and Andrea Colombo who over the decades with dedication and hard work have contributed first to the development and then to the consolidation of Tecom’s position in the market. Precisely this assumption of congenital propensity of the com- pany for the development of new technologies has ignited the interest of Unionwhich sees in Tecom’s technology an opportu- nity tobe developed inother application sectors of rigidpackag- Union Officine Meccaniche S.p.a. www.unionextrusion.it ing in which Union’s competences represent that added value which is useful and necessary to the achievement of new solu- tions still unimaginable today. The world of plastics, in fact, as we have known it until now, will probably undergo an epochal transformation which will force the whole chain, starting above all from large chemical groups, to introduce new generation products which meet the require- ments of recyclability and dispersion in safety in the environ- ment. For this reason we will all be called to create synergies between different and alternative excellences in order to create new technologies in stepwith the needs of a changing industry. With this latest acquisition Ferdinando Passoni continues a path of growth which sees his group achieve this goal of synergistic aggregation of different knowledge and technologies, an indis- pensable condition to better face the current change. Shelf-life simulations of the Fraunhofer IVV facilitate the changeover to recyclable packagingmaterials (© Fraunhofer IVV) All-in-one Service for Recyclable Packaging The all-in-one service offered by the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV helps companies meet the challenges associated with the use and develop- ment of recyclable packaging materials. The Fraunhofer IVV will be present at the FachPack fair in Nuremberg/Germany from 24-26 September 2019 (Hall 7, Stand 7-440) and will demonstrate how recyclable packaging can be specifically designed to meet the requirements of individual products. Simulation models have been developed by the Fraunhofer IVV for this purpose. They allow changes to packaging ma- terials to be made without the need for complex testing. The Fraunhofer IVV experts also evaluate the mechanical strength and machinability of recyclable packaging materi- als and appraise the compliance of the materials and sensory properties. The length of time a food product can be kept in specific re- cyclable packaging can be rapidly and effectively determined at the Fraunhofer IVV. The shelf-life models developed by the institute for this purpose facilitate the switchover to recyclable packaging materials required by the new Ger- man Packaging Act. The models obviate the need for time- consuming tests and show the required barrier properties of the packaging materials for a respective food product. Important chemical spoiling processes such as autoxidation, photooxidation, and water absorption/loss can be taken into account. The shelf-life of products in new and more recycla- ble packaging can hence be reliably predicted for differing packaging scenarios. Further information: Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV www.ivv.fraunhofer.de/en/packaging/modeling-shelf-life.html