Dairy packaging plastic cup production process

Since the country launched the "milk bottle" project, China's dairy industry has developed rapidly. According to an authoritative department's investigation report, the per capita milk consumption in the world is 102kg, while China now has only 8.6kg, and therefore there is more than 10 times more room for development.

With the development of dairy products, changes in the packaging of dairy products can not be denied, among which the growth of plastic cup packaging is obvious to all. In the environment where most dairy products are packaged in carton or plastic film flexible packaging, why has the plastic cups grown so much? Mr. Ming Guoying, chairman of Wanrong Company, confirmed through inspections in Europe that the plastic cups indeed have other benefits. The irreplaceable advantages of packaging: low cost, simple packaging, easy molding. Easy to use, good shelf life and durability. Preservation is good, is the best packaging form of milky dairy products.

This article gives a brief introduction to plastic cup materials and their production process.

Plastic cup packaging material

The plastic packaging for dairy packaging can be divided into cups and PS cups. PP cup surface smooth, soft performance, high temperature resistance, convenient high-temperature sterilization and microwave oven instant heat treatment, suitable for a variety of fresh milk packaging: The PS cup surface is smooth, bright, crisp, good, low temperature (lowest -30 °C), convenient low temperature refrigeration, shelf life. Fresh, suitable for all kinds of yogurt and milk beverage packaging.

Plastic cup manufacturing process

The production of plastic cups mostly uses thermoforming cupping technology, which mainly includes four production processes. The main forms of plastic cup production are:
Raw material preparation - extruded tablets - thermoformed cups - plastic cup printing (labeling).

1. Raw material preparation
Raw material preparation is a very critical process, which mainly determines the performance of the plastic cup. The packaging plant usually chooses different materials according to the customer's preferences or the product's process requirements. The main raw materials are PP and PS. The plastic cups produced with the materials are resistant to high temperature sterilization and can be processed by the microwave oven, and the cost is low; the PS material is used. Plastic cups produced are resistant to refrigeration. However, customers often have requirements on both of these aspects. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively consider various properties during the preparation. For example, products that require both high temperature and low temperature refrigeration need special PP modification studies to maintain the main component of PP. Based on the addition of some materials with low temperature toughness, add some masterbatch, and mix evenly. The color masterbatch can be formulated according to the customer's requirements for the color of the plastic cup. Milky white is generally used, which is the same as the color of milk. It should be noted here that the quality of the plastic cup shading performance has a non-negligible effect on the quality and freshness of the dairy product. Therefore, the light-blocking properties of the material are also basic requirements for raw material preparation.

2. Extrusion tablet
Extrusion tablets require sheet extrusion equipment. The plasticizing ability of the extruder is good, the calendering roll has good cooling and the quality of the sheet is good; on the contrary, the extruder has poor plasticizing ability, the extrusion process is unstable, and the components of the material cannot be uniformly mixed. The mechanical properties are poor. In addition, the poor accuracy of the extrusion roller or the temperature control is unreasonable, the surface quality of the sheet is poor, and the dimensions are not stable, which directly affects the surface quality of the thermoforming cup making process and the plastic cup, and even affects the printing quality of the plastic cup.

3. Thermoforming cups
The hot forming cup process includes: sheet heating - mold closing - plunger stretching - air cooling and shaping - opening the cup and other processes.
Among them, the plunger stretching is the key process of thermoforming, the stretching is not good, the plastic cup will have uneven thickness, clip cups, cup mouth thick or the bottom of the cup has a quality problem, and even cause perforation or rupture, seriously affecting Plastic cup printing and dairy filling production.

4. Round cup decorative printing
The round cup decoration printing process is to make plastic cups and make personalized services to different brands of dairy products. Whether the plastic cups are exquisite and beautiful, and whether the products can attract consumers, the key lies in the quality of packaging and decoration printing.
Plastic cup printing process can be divided into graphic design and drafting - out of the film - plate - plastic cup surface treatment - graphic printing - drying and other steps. The manuscript design must match the printability. adapt. In the printing technology and process of plastic cups, the printing level of domestic plastic cups is worse than that of foreign equivalent processes, especially the level printing. Foreign plastic cup printing design software is very professional, has generally used Proe and Photoshop graphics design software, graphic design and printing levels are more perfect. In addition, domestic inks also need to be improved in terms of attachment fastness and drying ability. Some plastic cups are easily discolored after high-temperature sterilization or low-temperature treatment, and friction resistance is also insufficient, which affects the appearance of the product.

There is also a decorative cup cup labeling method, this method is still very common in our country. This kind of craft is to print the self-adhesive label or ordinary label first, then label the cup body again.