Alufoil Trophy 2017 demonstrated the strength of existing product developments and how innovation is leading the way to greater impact in both traditional and new markets

An aluminium combination closure for premium oil in glass bottles, developed by closurelogic, called OLIO Premium, featuring a patented HDPE pourer impressed the judges as it greatly improves the overall consumer experience.

An integrated ‘No-Touch’ system enables hygienic opening and handling, while the flow control within the insert allows for precise pouring. The drop-cut system means both the bottle and label stay clean as the excess liquid is captured and returned to the bottle. Also the combination cap incorporates an anti-refill device within the HDPE system while the aluminium element includes a tamper-evident band.

A new aluminium foil wrapper, called Unshredded Wrap, from Constantia Flexibles’ ends the frustration of chocolate lovers trying to peel off the protective layer in little bits. The ‘elastic’ coating on the foil means it comes off in one piece. The judges tried it and it works!

To achieve this, Constantia Flexibles created a special ‘elastic lacquer’ which is applied on the foil (outside or inside). This enables easy unwrapping of small chocolate balls, eggs, seasonal products or even chocolate bars/tablets, as it stretches like an elastic band, so the wrapper comes off in one piece with no shredding. In addition the new wrapping material offers improved puncture resistance.

A Bone-Shaped Container pack, designed for wet dog food, has a powerful shelf appearance and message, agreed the Trophy judges. The entire aluminium foil pack, created by Constantia Flexibles for German pet food manufacturer saturn petcare, is also printed to underline bones as one of any dogs’ favourite foods.

Printing on the container sidewall not only continues the bone shaped theme, it can prevent dents and irregularities from being visible. Other consumer friendly features include the ergonomic shape for easy opening and one hundred percent recyclability. The lightweight empty trays are easy to stack and transport too.

Part of the first full packaging re-design in 80 years for Stolichnaya, the world famous premium vodka brand, resulted in a new family of closures from Guala Closures across its entire size range. Siena for Stolichnaya impressed the judging panel because of its high impact features and quality.

The main features characterizing the closure are the side embossed logo and oriented hotfoil decoration, giving to the consumer a tactile experience. The upper part of the closure features a knurled profile to increase the grip during opening. In selected markets anti-counterfeit and anti-refill technology will be available.

German company Bäckerei Stiebling needed a sustainable pack to protect its Cakees range of innovative cake products. Constantia Flexibles developed a sealed aluminium container system, which offers a shelf life of up to one year and excellent barrier properties. The judges felt this was the perfect packaging solution.

Using this packaging system means no cold chain is required, so no freezer in the outlets or defrosting by the consumer. The cake is immediately ready to serve, as it is always at ambient temperature and so contains no artificial preservatives. There is an excellent combination of traditional recipes, modern food technology and high performance packaging.

A semi–smoothwall container range, branded as “Happy Day” by makers Contital, is round, rigid, reusable and recyclable; and is made using a cold moulding process instead of the traditional turning technique. This offers resource savings on several fronts, the judges decided.

Using a new, patented manufacturing process, the containers have perfectly smooth sides and base, resulting in higher non-stick properties. This allows the manufacture of containers from lower thicknesses, without losing the rigidity and resistance. Also there is a reduction of carbon emissions.

By lubricating the rolled aluminium before drawing deformation with food grade oil there is no need for additional lubrication or later rinsing before disposal, offering savings of water waste.

Huhtamaki has re-packaged a range of famous Dutch sausages, made by Unilever brands Unox and Zwan, using a straight opening and ecological pouch, instead of a traditional rigid metal can. Called Straight‘n’Easy, the concept has big resource saving potential in both packaging and logistics, according to the judges.

The film used has a multilayer design with an aluminium barrier and patented Huhtamaki Terolen® film. It is characterised by excellent processing properties on conventional pouch machines and guarantees that the packaging can be torn open cleanly, easily and in a straight line.

The Frangible Formpack® Blister, is an aluminium foil blister pack, with several chambers, made of Amcor Flexibles’ Formpack® bottom web and a lidding foil. It enables moisture sensitive, dry drugs or vaccines requiring delivery in a liquid, to be contained in the same package safely, prior to mixing and dispensing from it.

The blister was jointly developed with machine builder Rohrer - Leading Solutions. One chamber is filled with a dry powder incorporating the active ingredient (highly moisture-sensitive), the other one with a liquid. Thanks to the peelable frangible seal which opens the channel, both components are mixed by pushing on the cavities.

A range of aluminium closures, 3D Embossing for the Salute, made by Guala Closures for Salute’s range of liqueurs can be customized with special metallized printing decoration to give a tactile effect, and allows the application of any pattern with details much finer than mechanical embossing. It has been recognised by the Trophy judges for technical excellence.

This is a standard aluminium closure which, for the first time, can be decorated with digital printing technology and then metallized with ‘sputtering’ technology. This technique allows closures to be decorated by a thin pure metal coating in a specific colour. Different technologies are merged in one production line to achieve a completely new decoration process.

“Capsule for beer flavour dispenser” is a clever aluminium capsule system, containing liquid flavour syrup, specially designed for a unique beer dispensing technology. The system, which allows serving multiple drink options from a single beer keg in pubs, is a joint development by ABInBev and Constantia Flexibles. The judges felt it reflected a strong all-round innovative performance.

The fully recyclable capsule offers beer flavouring at the point of dispensing, with high barrier qualities, to avoid the scalping/degradation of sensitive and concentrated flavours in individual syrups over the whole shelf-life. A major consideration was the piercing performance of the aluminium foil lids in the new dispensing system.