The news of Seufert Gesellschaft für transparente Verpackungen mbH

• Continuous optimization to reduce the use of valuable raw materials for packaging solutions.
• Reduction of external energy consumption due to a company-owned photocoltaic system for the production building.
• Exclusive use of solvent-free adhensive
• Usage of environment-friendly, food-suitable LMQ-colours
• Fed of production waste of PET material into the cycle of PET-production.

Seufert Transarente Verpackungen (Seufert) is now also producing their folding boxes and other packaging solutions from eco-friendly stone film. This allows the German company to offer brands another opportunity to stand out and convince the end customer with environmental advantages. In addition stone film is tearproof, waterproof, writable and has a special soft velvet touch.

Stone film is manufactured from 100 per cent waste and recycling material. It contains up to 60 – 80 % rock powder (calcium carbonate), which occurs as residual product in the building industry and in quarries. The remaining 20-40% are recycling polyethylene, which bonds the calcium carbonate. This means that stone film is mainly build up from a very common natural material. The production of stone film is ecologically sustainable as well. The manufacturing process does not require any water; CO2 emissions and energy consumption are low and nearly no waste occurs. Besides stone film may be recycled; it may be used to produce new stone film or other plastic products. Due to its environmentally friendly production and recycling possibility stone film has received the cradle-to-cradle certificate in silver.

Having tested the material extensively, Seufert is convinced that stone film is ideally suited for making plastic folding boxes. The white material is as stable as the usual PET film and may be decorated with offset and silk screen printing. Stone film can be cut, glued and welded. Thus there is no further obstacle for eco-friendly plastic packaging in form of boxes, slipcases or covers. In order to provide this new ecological material to their customers, Seufert is cooperating with the German company aprintia GmbH.

In short, stone film is offering a new sustainable alternative for white or fully printed plastic folding boxes. Furthermore, Seufert manufactures die cut parts made from stone film to be transformed into tags, add-ons, bags, posters or display solutions. The German company also produces packaging solutions from the bio-plastic PLA and R-PET with up to 80% recycled material.

By combining packaging made of a coloured, transparent PET film together with an LED module, Seufert has created a completely new type of presentation packaging for sparkling wine bottles. As soon as the promotional packaging is picked up and moved slightly, the approximately 80 light-points light up in a pre-set sequence of red, white and yellow. The print image on the packaging has been matched to the LEDs, thus lighting up the sparkling wine in the glass.  But even the promotional packaging by itself is exceptional. It has the shape of a sparkling wine cooler enclosing the bottle of sparkling wine. The black coloured film is printed using offset and silkscreen techniques. Finishing varnishes are applied to create haptic effects.

 "The more a product or brand appeals to the customer's senses, the more efficiently he will remember it", explains Thomas Pfaff, Sales and Marketing Manager. "Thanks to the flashing LED lights, our 'sparkling wine cooler' stands out in a particularly visual way. The consumer holds the product in the hand; moves the packaging - which reacts by lighting up - and feels the haptic print effects", Pfaff explains. Thus, the packaging manufacturer provides its customers with a new tool that enables them to draw attention to their product and brand through the packaging.

The integrated LED module, including the electronics and glass fibre optics, was developed in cooperation with the company ROX Asia Consultancy Ltd. The built-in vibration sensor triggers the customisable light programme which has been designed for a continuous operation of approximately 10 hours or around 500 activations.  The LED module is then integrated into the PET packaging in such a way that the diodes shine through the transparent, coloured film.

The "LED sparkling wine cooler" has been designed in Seufert's own in-house development department. The packaging manufacturer hopes that this will give prospective customers insight into the manifold possibilities of transparent packaging. Besides the famous Klarfaltbox, the film specialist also produces die cut parts, transparent sleeves, transparent lids and even extraordinary shapes. The packaging is always adapted to the individual product and if required, it can also be refined using offset or silkscreen printing techniques as well as top-foil or hot-foil stamping.

Global brands using bottles and flacons to present their products to consumers can differentiate their offering by using new, creatively designed and elegant packaging. This new transparent packaging from leading European packaging supplier Seufert Transparente Verpackungen GmbH (STV) can also incorporate low migration inks, carbon neutral printing and sustainable materials.

The eye-catching design features three concave lenses on a triangular base around the bottle or flacon. This delivers the distinctive ‘ogive’ profile that can be transparent, opaque or coloured to best showcase the product to the customer. Die cut and easy to assemble without glue, due to an innovative tension-based closing, assembly is highly efficient. STV’s new bottle and flacon packaging can incorporate low migration inks and R-PET materials with up to 85% recycled material, delivering brand owners a genuinely sustainable and attractive packaging solution. 

According to STV Managing Director (Sales and Marketing) Thomas Pfaff, STV’s new packaging offers a combination of compelling benefits with a unique packaging solution: “Brand-owners face an ongoing challenge to differentiate their products on the perfume and cosmetics counter, or on the supermarket shelf. Our ‘ogive’ design is not only distinctive and elegant, but also highly flexible, enabling brands to display their products with full effect.” He highlights that the dynamic and long-form design is particularly effective at presenting the full length of each product, offering brands considerable competitive advantage. An advantage that enables them to attract new customers and retain existing ones.

Protected by a European Union (EU) community design registration, the packaging can be produced to each brand owner’s individual specifications. Decoration options include leaving the packaging transparent or introducing opacity or colour, offset and screen printing, embossing and hot foil stamping. Brand owners can choose from a range of materials that include PET, PP, PLA and R-PET film. Carbon neutral printing is an option.

Alongside the innovative tension-based side closing, the packaging features standard closures at the top and bottom, cutting any gluing from the process and making the product and packaging assembly process highly efficient. The bottle or flacon is secured by two PET film inserts at the top and bottom.

Pfaff concludes: “Brand owners can truly display the best elements of bottle and flacon-based products using sustainable packaging tailored to their exact requirements, and which will complement their own unique brand identities.”

Leading European packaging supplier Seufert Transparente Verpackungen GmbH (STV) has teamed up with sustainability consultants natureOffice to enable brands to expand and demonstrate their commitment to the environment.

Through third-party accredited natureOffice, Seufert calculates the CO2 emissions of every project – from production through to delivery – and offers clients the opportunity to offset these via a choice of high quality schemes. To demonstrate their environmental commitment, clients can then choose to print an ‘Our print is carbon neutral’ logo onto their transparent packaging, gifts and promotional items. This message is strengthened with a unique, project-specific tracking number.

Demonstrating commitment to the environment

STV Managing Director Thomas Pfaff explains that this new option has been provided in response to customer demand: “With companies putting themselves under greater pressure to meet tough environmental and sustainability targets – and consumers increasingly demanding that they do – brands must now not only have a commitment to carbon neutrality, but also demonstrate it.” He believes that carbon neutral printing offers brands considerable competitive advantage, by enabling them to attract new customers and retain existing ones. “It helps companies take responsibility, reduce greenhouse gases and show their customers and stakeholders a strong commitment to the environment,” he says.

The carbon footprint of each project is calculated using an online platform from natureOffice, taking into account production of the plastic film, printing, processing and finishing, and even delivery. Then clients can choose how they wish to offset the CO2 produced via a selection of carbon offset projects and the purchase and binding suspension of approved certificates of climate protection. A unique reference number is created for each project, which can be printed onto the client’s products and tracked via natureOffice’s website.

Sustainable R-PET was the first step

STV’s products already have sound environmental credentials, as Quality Manager Andreas Klassert notes: “Seufert has for many years offered 85% recycled R-PET plastic. We work under BRC/IoP-accredited conditions, recycling PET film scraps so they are returned into the extruding process. So, for some time now we’ve combined the highest quality, high-speed printing with a reduced carbon footprint.” Klassert concludes: “Our new cooperation with natureOffice takes that to the next level.”

Leading European packaging supplier Seufert Transparente Verpackungen GmbH (STV) has once again taken pole position in packaging innovation, by investing in a new, advanced UV-offset printing machine from Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA). STV, the packaging company that pushed back boundaries when it first launched its 85% recycled R-PET plastic packaging and biodegradable PLA, can now offer Europe’s brand owners even higher quality, faster printing with a smaller carbon footprint.

“Brilliant colours and precise printing on plastic films are the top priorities of our customers, who are looking for original and creative packaging for their products,” explains STV Managing Director Thomas Pfaff. “Our new KBA unit allows us to exceed the aspirations of our customers, ensuring that their product packaging has maximum visual impact. And, because the new KBA machine can process more colours in a single pass, we can increase print speeds to meet tight deadlines, whilst at the same time improving quality.”

The new high-speed 3B-format machine allows printing of six colours, a varnish and the white colour needed for the transparent background to be achieved in a single pass. The faster print cycles and energy saving technology result in lower overall energy consumption, which means that all the products produced on the machine have a much reduced carbon footprint. “This helps our customers meet their environmental and corporate social responsibility targets,” says Pfaff.

Once printed, the plastic films are transformed into Klarfaltbox© transparent folding boxes and sleeves for the packaging industry, and into promotional items for brand marketing. STV manages the entire production process, including research & development, PET production, printing and finishing.

The energy saving UV-offset printing machine is the latest of STV’s sustainability initiatives, which included the installation of a photovoltaic-based renewable energy system at the end of 2011. Pfaff comments: “Responsibility and sustainability are important values for our company. Working under BRC/IoP Global Standards-accredited conditions, and using low migration ink as a standard, we recycle film scrapes from production and return them into the extruding process.”

The firm’s Operations Manager Heike Hellmann says: “STV’s investments into low carbon technologies and new equipment are ongoing: “We will shortly be adding a new silk printing machine to offer our customers even more options.”

This new packaging idea from Seufert Transparente Verpackungen GmbH is an elegant, handy transparent presentation and transportation solution which invites you to pick up and take home the two innovatively packed bottles immediately.

Seufert have been developing and manufacturing customised clear packaging for more than 30 years and surprises the industry time and time again with creative in house product developments. This time the intention was to develop a gift pack for the innovative drinks industry which would convince both aesthetically and functionally as well as on an economic and ecological level.

Elegant and secure

Allowing clear visibility of the product, the transparent material makes immediate identification of the contents possible. This means the bottles are highlighted and supported by the design on the packaging following their form. The translucent packaging allows sufficient room for high quality decoration through printing, hot foil stamping or embossing.

The assembly of the unglued construction could not be easier ensuring the pack proves simple and secure thanks to the stable handle and robust material.

Suitable and efficient

The pack is manufactured from sustainable PET-R with up to 80% reclaimed plastic foil from industrial and consumer waste. Additionally the attractive packaging is perfectly suitable for re-use by the customer.

As there is no glue required when erecting the carton there is an ecological and economic advantage, as a complete production step is not required. Further time and cost saving are achieved thanks to the convenient assembly.

Seufert Transparente Verpackungen GmbH based near Frankfurt, Germany, develops and produces innovative transparent folding boxes branded “Klarfaltbox”. The complete production process including manufacture of the PET material, innovative design, screen and offset Litho printing and subsequent processes are managed in house by Seufert. Regular launches of innovative packaging solutions ensure Seufert are market leaders within the Industry. Using low migration inks throughout production and working under BRC/IoP accredited conditions, the company supplies a large range of markets from cosmetics to the gift and food/confectionery industries.