Foreign experts see China's packaging industry

About the author: Prof. Richard Eisek, director of the Hamburg Packaging Research Institute in Germany, visited China in April this year and had extensive exchanges with colleagues in the Chinese packaging industry; Xiang Ming, Xi'an University of Technology The teacher of Printing and Packaging Engineering College is currently studying for a Ph.D. in packaging engineering in Germany. This time, he returned to China together with Professor Eschke as a translator. This article is translated by him.

I. Introduction

I am very fortunate to have been able to visit China this time. I am particularly pleased to be able to directly communicate with so many Chinese colleagues on the topic of packaging. The first thing to say is that several cities in China have left a deep impression on whether they are Kunming in the spring city, the west of the ancient city, or the capital Beijing. The pace of development here is unimaginable to most Westerners. As a person who has worked in the packaging field for many years, I am surprised by the packaging situation in China. I see much better than I imagined in China and its packaging.
China has a lot of land area and population. Population distribution and structure have their own characteristics. As a big country with reforms and opening up, China must go to the world and conduct extensive exchanges and trade contacts with other countries in the world. This is very important for the entire world and China. important. In today's economic globalization, more and more Chinese products have appeared on the German and European markets. This will inevitably involve the packaging of products. Here I would like to talk about the packaging situation in Germany and talk about some ideas and hopes for Chinese packaging.

Second, the overall impression of Chinese packaging

In China, I saw that Chinese government departments pay special attention to packaging. In addition to the China Packaging Technology Association, a central agency, each province and city has branches. At least 30 higher education institutions have specialized in packaging engineering. At the same time, they have encountered many colleagues in newspapers and publications from the packaging field. This is not comparable to Germany. All this shows that China attaches great importance to the packaging of products, which is also a correct decision.

The packaging itself is part of the product's production, and its quality directly affects the quality and price of the product. Several times in China, there has been a professional terminology, and it is said that China's products and packaging are "first-class products, second-class packaging and third-class prices." This concept and terminology has become the official Language of the Chinese packaging industry and is said to have lasted for more than 10 years. At the beginning, it was a good thing to encourage everyone to work hard to improve China's packaging as a dry revolutionary policy, but some concepts should be changed today. We often see Chinese products on the German market. The quality can be comparable to that of European products, and the packaging of our products has reached a fairly high level. However, it is very different and the prices are always low. We have been wondering why China's product prices cannot be increased accordingly. We believe that the oral language of Chinese counterparts should be changed to "first-class products, first-class packaging, first-class prices." Good products need good packaging, good products and good packaging should sell good prices. This is not only for China, but for the entire world.

In fact, Chinese packaging has a long history and tradition, and it has a strong oriental color, which is quite attractive to the West. Although China's trade with the West for a period of time has not had much contact with it and the corresponding product packaging has been repeated for some time, we are pleased to see that in the past 20 years, China has undergone tremendous changes in its products and packaging. The quality is also getting higher and higher.

Third, sales packaging

We went to some modern supermarkets in China. We also visited a lot of ordinary shops and saw many different kinds of daily necessities packaging. Compared with Germany, these sales packages should have reached the level of Europe. Whether it is the packaging of decoration, modeling, structural design, or packaging printing quality, give a new feeling. In particular, Chinese liquor, tea packaging and spray cans have left a deep impression. Not only are they beautifully designed, exquisite in printing and processing, but also have national characteristics in China. The last point is that Chinese packaging colleagues cannot at any time Lost. In addition, many Germans like to eat Chinese food because Chinese food has its special flavor. In order to advance the hamburger's Chinese store, just like in the kitchen, the smell of seasonings is floating in the air. The main reason is that the barrier properties of the packaging materials are not good. According to the packaging regulations, this is unqualified. But this time I was very happy to see that this phenomenon could not be heard on the packaging of spices in the supermarket.

Fourth, transport packaging

Transport packaging must first ensure that the product does not suffer damage during transportation, storage, and handling, and then it also meets the requirements for convenience, transfer of information, and so on. This point can be said that China's transport packaging design has basically reached the corresponding requirements. The intensity of the outer box of electric refrigerators, color TVs, and other electrical appliances that we have seen has reached certain quality requirements. The quality level of China's corrugated boxes has been quite high, and the structure of the cartons has been designed to be reasonable. Modern transport packaging must not only satisfy its protective function, but also be as elegant as sales packaging. In the shopping center, we also saw some transport packages. Most of the outer package designs have good print quality, and they also have various marks according to the corresponding standards. These are very important for international trade. It is also sincerely hoped that China's transportation packaging can be designed and manufactured in accordance with international standards.

Fifth, cardboard packaging materials

This time also saw the rapid development of cardboard packaging materials in China. As we all know, this kind of packaging material is good for environmental protection and it is easy to recycle. Therefore, cardboard packaging materials have been widely used worldwide for transportation and packaging. It is not only used in a large number of packaging, but also broadens its scope of application in internal packaging and cushioning packaging. Chinese counterparts not only did a lot of work on the use of corrugated cardboard, but also carried out a lot of research and development on the application of honeycomb paperboard in packaging. This is a good way from the perspective of environmental protection and packaging waste recycling, but it should be noted here that the use of such cardboard will certainly be subject to certain restrictions, especially after it absorbs a certain amount of water. Strength and other properties will drop quickly. Therefore, in addition to considering the use of environmental and climatic conditions, it is sometimes necessary to consider corresponding rainwater and other protective measures. In addition, when this product is put into the market, it is necessary to find out how much the demand for this product is, and what is the market prospect? If we all blindly produce corrugated cardboard or honeycomb paperboard, there may be many undesirable consequences.

6. Some hopes for Chinese packaging

1. Palletization of transport packages

Modern transportation packaging saves manpower and time and enables high-speed automation because users demand the products they need in the shortest possible time, while also saving costs as much as possible. Tray collection packaging is a way to solve this problem, it can achieve rapid loading and unloading, but also reduce the corresponding dynamic load, thereby reducing the breakage rate during transport handling.

The first point to be discussed here is that China's export product packaging must use trays as much as possible. Due to the arrival in Europe, loading, unloading, and transfer are automated operations, and there is no inconvenience in the absence of trays. If you stack the packages again on the trays, you waste time, increase labor costs, and increase the chance of damage. The second point is that the size of the package must be as close as possible to the standard tray. This problem can often be found in the port of Hamburg. Regardless of whether the overall size of the packs stacked on the pallet is more or less than the overall size, it will have a certain impact on container transport or safe loading. Therefore, in the design of the structural dimensions of the package must be connected to the standard tray size as much as possible to optimize the design.

2. Packaging waste and environmental protection

Packaging is a general name for containers, materials, and auxiliary materials that are used to protect products in circulation, facilitate storage and transportation, promote sales, and use certain technical methods. It has many functions. However, in some people's eyes, packaging is just a kind of garbage, and many people believe that the ratio of packaging waste to the total amount of various wastes must exceed 30%. The actual situation is not the case. In Europe, this proportion is about 3%, and in China it should be roughly this proportion. In any case, there are so many populations in China that the demand for packaging is very large. Therefore, the recycling of packaging waste also occupies a certain amount in environmental protection.

In China, I heard that colleagues in the packaging industry talked about the white pollution of plastic bags. We feel that different approaches can be taken to solve this problem. For example, if the price of a white plastic bag is properly increased, then the user must consider what kind of packaging material to use. It is also possible to carry out publicity and education for the residents. It is recommended that everyone use cloth bags or baskets to purchase daily necessities; The packaging waste can be categorized or directly stacked in the corresponding container, and the phenomenon of throwing plastic bags or other packaging waste can also be punished accordingly.
Recycling of plastic bags in Germany is relatively easy. Considering that the cost of plastic bag recycling is higher than the cost of direct production of new materials, the recycling process of plastic bags in Germany mainly uses combustion treatment methods. The corresponding treatment technology has been To avoid the elimination of environmental pollution when recycling plastics, the heat energy generated during combustion can be fully utilized.

3. Avoid over packaging

The first thing to say is that packaging should be avoided, regardless of sales packaging or transportation packaging. Intuitively speaking, it is to save the amount of packaging materials as much as possible while protecting the product from damage; at the same time, the packaging materials, packaging containers and structures selected must be matched with the contents. If a product with a low value is selected with precious materials and complicated structures, it is also a phenomenon of over packaging. In addition, I would like to point out that packaging design must also consider people's income levels. The current average overall income level in China is not too high. If all of them are packaged into luxury packages, then obviously not all consumers can afford it. To recognize that China currently has many wealthy people, most of the residents' income is still at an ordinary level, and we must not forget that about 60% of people still live in rural areas and that packaging design must also think of them.

Seventh, the conclusion

In the 21st century, China will become an economic power in the world. The development of the economy will certainly drive the rapid development of the packaging industry. Any product can not be separated from the packaging, packaging and people's lives are closely related to the improvement of people's living standards will certainly put forward higher requirements for packaging. China now has such a large number of institutions of higher learning to train packaging professionals, which plays an important role in the development of packaging. It is hoped that more Chinese students will be able to study in Germany and Europe, as well as the packaging profession. In this way, we can learn from each other and understand better the specific requirements for packaging in Europe. This is very important for China's export goods packaging.

People should have confidence in the future of Chinese packaging, at least we think so.

With English title:

The discussion about China Packaging

R.Eschke Xiang Ming