A consortium of EarthShell and DuPont Packaging and Industrial Polymers is focusing on the sandwich packaging market. DuPont has made global sales of food packaging to the market with annual sales of US$1 billion. Thanks to the addition of DuPont's Biomax polyester to the EarthShell formula, these packaging materials can be produced on existing "blow film" and "laminate" equipment.
This new biodegradable thermoplastic material has excellent foldability, flexibility, ease of printing, and moisture protection. It has been tested in hotels in several cities and eight national parks and is expected to replace other paper-based printing and disposable food packaging products.
John Nevling, product manager for EarthShell, believes that replacing hot beverage cups made of synthetic materials with EPS and paper packaging materials is attracting increasing interest. The contracts signed with Sweetheart Inc. include cups and other rigid packaging materials. Synthetic material hot beverage cups save more finished products than the EPS, and they have better taste and feel. Compared to paper, it is lighter and better insulated.
Deep forming of this composite material will be a more difficult problem than other hard materials. In the vacuum forming process of the biodegradable film lining, it is necessary to maintain the same wall thickness to avoid wrinkling. Composite hot beverage cups are stronger than other materials because the film forms a continuous film layer that reinforces the bottom layer of the packaging material where it can easily crack and appear small holes.
At the same time, the rigid sheet made by EarthShell is undergoing tests to see if it can replace the use of packaging board in the food and non-food industries. Others such as the use of synthetic materials through the injection molding process to produce disposable knife, fork, Work on spoons and coffee blenders is also in progress.
