Forest industry company Kotkamills has developed a method, by which folding boxboard can be coated by several protectice layers already during the production process of the boxboard itself. Previously the boxboards have been coated only afterwards, on the surface of the finished boxboard.
In the technology, a water-based dispersion is added onto the boxboard. This creates a protective layer on the surface of the boxboard, whereas previously a plastic layer has been applied. The characteristics reached by these techniques protect the contents of the package from water, grease and smell.
The novel boxboard can be modified to, for example, coffee cups as such. This saves many phases in the producing proces of boxboard coffee cups. And because the protective layer is plastic-free, the products can be recycled among office paper or newspapers.
The products are also compostable. Furthermore, the reject from the production process can be returned to the boxboard machine and refined to new boxboard.
In addition to disposable coffee cups, the product can be used to manufacture packages for transport and service of food, such as hamburger or other fast food boxes, disposable plates, frozen food packages AS WELL AS , and in other packages as well as other packages, where the content needs protection.
The product also makes it possible to pack, for example, cereals without the separate plastic bag inside the boxboard package, or, without plastic coating inside the boxboard package.
The technique has been developed with industry machines manufacturers Valmet and Bellmer-Vaahto. The utilised machinery and chemicals have been in use already long and the innovation is how to intertwine them together.
