SAO PAULO
,
June 20, 2022
(press release)
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Targeted at the beverage market, packaging requires high tear strength and print quality Committed to bringing innovative and sustainable solutions to the market, Klabin, the largest producer and exporter of paper for packaging and paper packaging in Brazil, has just developed a new version of its paperboard aimed at beverage packaging (multipack), Klamulti, which now includes microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) in the composition. The novelty, led by the Product Development teams and the Klabin Technology Center, was produced at the MFC plant, located in Telêmaco Borba (PR). The developments proved that the addition of MFC in the composition of paperboard significantly improves the properties and performance of the product, allowing the reduction of its grammage. In this way, the new solution is able to create lighter and more resistant packaging, improving material efficiency. The MFC production process develops the microfibrillation of the walls of the cellulose fibers, allowing a greater area of connection between them and, thus, increasing the mechanical strength of the paper. “Klabin's paperboard lines use different fiber compositions to ensure the best relationship between rigidity, structure, strength and print quality. Each version of the portfolio has been carefully developed to produce the best results in our customers' processes. Leveraging these qualities by optimizing resources is a differential for the Company”, says Flavio Deganutti, director of Klabin's Paper Business. One of Klabin's proposals is to maximize the potential of forest resources, with a view to diversifying the use of wood components, which strengthen the Company's portfolio and opportunities for operations in new markets for renewable and sustainable products. “Klabin aims to be a reference in responsible solutions that meet the constant transformations of society and innovation is an important driver for the evolution of our business. The offer of innovative packaging allows us to consolidate our role as a protagonist and reinforces our vocation for creating a more sustainable future”, says Francisco Razzolini, director of Industrial Technology, Innovation, Sustainability and Projects at Klabin. This is not the first time that Klabin has used MFC in an innovative way. In 2014, the Company started developing the use of MFC in its products, but still on a laboratory scale. With the Inauguration of the Klabin Technology Center in 2017, the focus was on increasing the production scale of the component, which boosted the startup of the MFC Pilot Plant, for the production of one ton of microfibrillated cellulose per day, at the end of 2019 Since then, industrial tests on several of the company's paper machines have been carried out, as well as applications outside its core business . In 2020, the Company, in partnership with the SENAI Institute for Innovation in Biosynthetics and Fibers and the &CO cosmetics industry (formerly Apoteka), completed the tests for the production of gel alcohol made from microfibrillated cellulose in record time. Last year, it also discovered that MFC could be used as a substitute for non-renewable irrigation additives, such as petroleum derivatives. The novelty now is the use of MFCs already on an industrial scale, in the production of specific cards, to further improve the quality and application in certain segments, such as the Klamulti Premium Carrier, a multipack card for the of cans and bottles, which delivers the same properties with important weight reductions, that is, an even more efficient and sustainable product. It is also worth mentioning that movements like this are directly aligned with the expansion project of the Puma II Project, which is in full swing, now with the new card machine, scheduled to start production in 2023. #Innovation #Paperboard #MFC
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