plastics - The customer magazine from BASF 2/2007

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Markets and products Shrink films provide great freedom of design. Soft drinks dressed up in designer fashion Styrolux HS 70 for shrink films Typical scenery in a German drinks store: shelves as far as the eye can see, an abundance of drinks on display, so that making a selection is quite a tall order. Most of the decisions are made here at the point of sale. The challenge for the bottles is to find someone who will take them home, so they have to stand out in the crowd. But how? Not an easy task, the competition is fierce! Perhaps with a really exotic flavor? This is no longer enough in such a hotly contested market. As the saying goes, it is all a matter of taste, but in this respect, the items on the shelves are all top-notch. The only sure way to be noticed is to be eye-catching. But this does not mean being conspicuous at any cost. Instead, the idea is to stand out in a positive way, for instance, by looking good. BASF has now developed Styrolux ® HS 70, a material for really stylish designs, to give the bottles a fashion makeover and improve their chances of finding a new home. Styrolux HS 70 is the brand name under which BASF is now offering a product novelty to the worldwide packaging market. It is a new, optimized styrene-butadiene block copolymer (SBC) to make highgrade shrink films for packaging. Shrink films, the designer fashion for all kinds of drinks, can be used to dress up bottles in style and to give them emotional appeal. Already last year, BASF launched the highly transparent Styrolux ® 3G 46 for applications calling for a very sophisticated look. At the current global market volume of approximately 2.4 million square meters of film and estimated growth rates of well over 10 percent in the years to come, shrink films are an attractive segment of the packaging market for consumer goods. Today, more than 80 percent of the shrink films go into the upscale “fashion industry” for food products such as dairy items, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. Moreover, household articles, cosmetics and pharmaceutical packaging are all making increasing use of shrink films. Optimized shrinking behavior The driving force behind this dynamic trend is the rising demand for product differentiation and brand image as well as the wish for an ever-more upscale presentation of finalconsumer products on the shelves. But consumer information regulations, which vary regionally, are also driving the expectations regarding print quality and the appearance of sleeve-packaging made of shrink films. Consequently, if the bottles are completely shrink-wrapped, they are not only “in style” but also protected against tampering such 28
Markets and products as unauthorized opening. As a very cost-effective alternative to directly printed bottles, the sleeve films also allow the appearance to be varied in multifaceted ways, even with standardized containers. There is no dress code and so manufacturers can let their fantasy run wild. The new product stands out especially for its optimized shrinking behavior. Up until now, only films having a mean final shrinkage of about 50 percent could be made with SBC/PS blends. Thanks to a novel product design, it has now become possible to markedly raise especially the final shrinkage values. Styrolux HS 70 can now achieve shrinkage values of up to 80 percent. Only this high final shrinkage allows bottles having all sorts of out-of-the-ordinary shapes and sizes to be tightly wrapped. Besides, Styrolux HS 70 is even more transparent than its predecessors, it exhibits improved stiffness and is easy to print on. Another advantage is its high efficiency since, owing to its lower density, about 30 percent more film per kilogram of plastic can be produced in comparison to PVC or PET-G. Manufacturers benefit from the fact that the product is very easy to process and from its broad processing spectrum. Final customers appreciate especially the soft and pleasant feel of the sleeve, a typical property of styrene-butadiene block copolymers. Further information: www.styrolux.de Background Styrolux HS 70 Material: Optimized styrene-butadiene block copolymer Application: Shrink film for upscale presentation of consumer goods Properties: Maximum shrinkage of up to 80%, up to 30% higher yield than PET-G or PVC, good control of the shrinking behavior, outstanding visual and tactile properties, ease of process and recycling 29
Page 1 and 2: www.plastics-magazine.com Beauty th
Page 3 and 4: Editorial “Plastics are energy-ef
Page 5 and 6: Contents Shrink films create attrac
Page 7 and 8: News Setting a new record Seven mil
Page 9 and 10: K 2007 A launch pad for innovations
Page 11 and 12: Design tic” as designers like to
Page 13 and 14: Design The birth of a design chair:
Page 15 and 16: Design 15
Page 17 and 18: Design body made of steel, impregna
Page 19 and 20: Markets and products Riding high Ha
Page 21 and 22: Markets and products electronics: i
Page 23 and 24: Markets and products Debut at the K
Page 25 and 26: Markets and products New plastic sp
Page 27: Markets and products BMW X5 with po
Page 31 and 32: Markets and products A graduate fro
Page 33 and 34: Markets and products Endless sandy
Page 35 and 36: Markets and products Building in re
Page 37 and 38: Markets and products On the fast tr
Page 39: Sweepstakes A design revolution as

plastics - The customer magazine from BASF 2/2007

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