Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) National Technical Forums were held alongside AUSPACK 2009. The AIP National Technical Forums were designed to bring together packaging technologists and other members of the AIP to gain insight into the technologies currently available to them in packaging.
The AIP Technical Forums featured the theme, ‘Mega Trends’ and discussed the issue of openability as well as the design for the ageing population, which is relevant for packaging technologists, designers, engineers and marketers. According to Australian Institute of Packaging, openability needs to become an integral component of packaging design, similar to sustainable design.
Australian Institute of Packaging note that the demand for easy to open packaging is driven by an ageing world population. This must be balanced by the industry requirement for increased shelf life and product protection within the context of the increasing automated and less ‘pack friendly’ supply chain. The AIP National Technical Forums featured a panel debate on the topic of bioplastics. The panel was made up of speakers from Plantic, Biopak, NatureWorks, Biograde, the Australasian Bioplastics Association, Plastral and Innovia Films.
Zip-Pak investigated the next generation of sustainable reclosable/re-usable packs, touching on LCAs and innovations such as elapsed time indicators for consumer convenience brand differentiation.Nanomaterials canvassed nanotechnology and its use in packaging applications at the AIP Technical Forums. Other topics that were covered included sustainable design, in-store merchandising, terminal shelf velocity, private labels, nano technology and the lifecycle management of a brand.