TAPPI PLACE Converter Member Survey

Conducted: February, 2004 Format: TAPPI phone interviews Number of PLACE Respondents: 35 Objective: To survey converters top-of-mind needs and deliver these needs to PLACE Supplier Members to 1) develop and contribute more converter-valued technical programming at PLACE Conferences, and to 2) generate responsive product developments which can be showcased at PLACE Conferences and simultaneously serve to identify PLACE as the leading source for flexible packaging innovations. Survey questions:
1. What specific Raw Material Improvements that, if your supplier(s) could develop them, would lead to a significant and positive impact on your converting business. 2. What specific Converting Equipment Improvements that, if your supplier(s) could develop them, would lead to a significant and positive impact on your converting business. 3. What one specific New Product Development, if suppliers could deliver it, would be the most impactful to the converting industry?

Consolidated Responses:
Raw Material Improvements
More consist film/foil quality (gauge control, clarity, density) Higher moisture, oxygen barrier films (also which survive retort sterilization) More consistent paper/paperboard quality (flatness, caliper, stiffness) Heat-sealable PET film % of Responses 26% 14% 11% 6% % of Responses 22% 15% 15% 7% % of Responses 29% 21% 7%

Converting Equipment Improvements

More automated slitting technology (incl. material forgiveness) Better winding capabilities / wider tension range control Higher line speed capability More automated/integrated Gel resin temperature control

Most Impactful New Product Development for Converting Industry

Stronger, clearer and higher barrier films Higher performance films (for retort, biodegradability, heat resistance, peel ability, tear strength) Lower cost raw materials

Verbatim Responses:
QUESTION 1: What specific Raw Material Improvements that, if your supplier(s) could develop them, would lead to a significant and positive impact on your converting business? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
5/7/2004

Consistency of the raw material as polymers (polyethylene). Better processing barrier materials. Better barriers for resins. The polymers could improve the paper profile. The caliber, flatter paper and the thickness could be improved. Lower the cost. The perfect solvent, non HAZ, not VOC, non chemical hazardous and chemically safe.
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8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35.

Sourcing and recycling fibers. Flame resistant, environmental inflammable material, mildew and mold resistant and non toxic. Improve consistency, reduce quality products, delivery time and reduce price. Need higher adhesive resins. Bonding strength is where they are having problems. Need higher moisture barrier and lower the cost. Aluminum foil is sticky around the edges. Blown film needs better gauge and improvement in the die cleaning area. Better system covering the nips with Teflon tape. Would like to use a different method. Barrier properties, primers and resins need improvement. More LLD to improve the cost. Gauge control. Resin that would give the film higher modulest. A tougher LLD with excellent melt strength. Need to improve flatter aluminum foil where theres no bagginess. Heat resistance for polyester and polypropylene. Higher stiffness for film. Lower cost. Corrugate packaging. Consistency in paper quality. Need brighter while. Film consistent, incoming hardness profile, and gauge thickness across the web. Thinner metal on plastic films need to have superior metal adhesive. For polymers and polypropylene need to focus on smaller company additives and not major companies. Improvements needed in printable paperboard. Resins that combine higher stiffness with improved toughness. Need consistency (thickness and coating) in the film and foil. Raw materials (VOC) would be obsolete and they would have to use second source. Looking for materials that stay in stock. Resin consistency, clarity (see through), higher 02 barriers, moisture barriers, uniform peal and seal technology. (Variable food to dairy and medical packaging). Seal strength with age. A non-foil high polymer barrier that would survive retort sterilization. Cellophane replacement for easier opening packages. For flexible packaging business (lamination, OPP film and extrusion) need improvement with film gauge and barrier properties. Higher clarity and density, higher temperature resistance to polypropylenes. In his paper packaging business, the USA manufacturers do not use enough of TEA. The paper needs to be extendable with stiffness. Functional properties, enhanced barriers and grease resistance would be cost effective. Plastic converting was more positive. Focus on stiffness with the right barrier properties would be cost effective. Higher quality and better OD Bigger roll firm. If suppliers can develop a heat sealable PET film, it can have a significant impact on the converting business.

QUESTION 2: What specific Converting Equipment Improvements that, if your supplier(s) could develop them, would lead to a significant and positive impact on your converting business? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
5/7/2004

Better reliability and uptime relating to electrical and mechanical parts. Better quality. Better gauge control (EBR dyes). Winding capability for all equipment would improve the industry. Better Winder and rewind equipment. Slitters. Taking the wide width and making it into narrower size 2 range width, 50M to 1,000M. Focus on pressure sensitive tape. The calibration in products. Come up with a mole resistance chemically treated and improve the environmental area. Better job tailoring or understanding the company needs and producing reliable components and reduce price. Wider tension range control. Higher speed, lower scrape rate and greater varsity. Improve slitting and web cleaning. Winder control static discharges at a lower level. Line speeds are very important.
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12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

Larger perforation for wide web. Slitters need improvement. (general comment) Inexpensive gel hold properties. Release chills and pressure rolls properties. Material in the dies to be resistance to erosion creating a better purge. Methods to clean laminators easier. Web break handle thinner aluminum. Equipment should handle larger roll which increases the speed. Improvement in the slitter where the equipment is more forgiving to the material. Improving the sealing jaws could help less scrape and improve quality. A faster pump down on the vacuum chambers. Make chambers easier to clean up. Cast film line finer tune trim away. Open discussion on custom alterations in their equipment. Equipment to run with higher productivity, quality and be cost effective. Strive to go to automatic mixing and less manual mixing would cut down on human error. Calibrate controlling blowing lines by design. Gels resin temperature control automated and integrated for message logging process. Need automated slitting technology. Higher speed for laser cast film perforation running 68 wide roll. Invent new equipment with instruments or computer assisted. The industry has old equipment. Need to capitalize on automated features. Improvement on the automatic dye control gauge, and flatter profile.

QUESTION 3: What one specific New Product Development, if suppliers could deliver it, would be the most impactful to the converting industry? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. Emphasize on raw materials developing the thickness that could reduce cost. Barrier resins processing improvement. Extrusion laminated that could handle retort. Truly biodegradable film (environmental concerns). Handle material efficiently with more speed and use less people to operate. Need more soft wood used in bleached paper with greater strength. Improve heat resistance to polymers. Clear high barrier material that cost less than Layre. Would like to see primers with better barrier properties. Resin (MPE) is hard to buy for not being available. Ultimate barriers. More UV weather coding residence, electronic beam system and long shelf life. Super films made stronger with proper barrier properties. Butane resins that is stronger. Improvement for greater peel ability with resin technology. Need to improve the solvent adhesive that could stand aggressive chemicals. Lower cost. Mill roll tags instead of inside roll tag. This would save money. Improve material for metal adhesion on a film surface. Better film products. Plastic material with higher strength that would be compatible to paperboard. Pharmaceutical packaging would like to see long web rolls be flagged when there are defects. If they could come up with a web device that would notify the computer of defects and flag it, the slitter area could remove the defected area. This would cut down on waste, embarrassment and save money. Higher temperature resistance needed for Dupont. Micro or radio frequency for heat and sealing bags. Heat and seal adhesive that would melt the glue and apply the proper pressure at the same time. New peel ability and seal resins. A clean non foil polymer with barrier properties of foil. Alternative to Tyvek. Purge faster from one resin to another. NANO development will help with the barriers and food packaging.

22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

5/7/2004

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Increase the tear strength of PET film. This would in turn increase the tear strength of PET/PE laminates.

5/7/2004