The SPE FlexPackCon ®, organized by SPE's Flexible Packaging Division, took place at the Sheraton in Montreal from October 10 to 12.
This conference was North America's leading flexible packaging technical event of the year and brought together 185 attendees from Canada and the United States for some 40 presentations. The sustainable development of flexible packaging was the most talked-about topic, with presentations from brand owners such as PepsiCo and Mars.
Some Quebec companies also had their own speakers: Mehdi Pakravan from Polykar described the company's range of compostable films, while Ebrahim Jalali Dil presented PolyExpert's advances in the design of high-barrier mono-material structures on a 7-layer film-blowing line.
Several presentations focused on the life-cycle analysis of packaging materials, and Anne-Marie Boulay, a professor at Polytechnique Montreal and director of the CIRAIG, showed that plastics would undoubtedly have the best environmental record if the end-of-life phase were properly managed, with no dispersal into the environment.
The event was also well attended by students for presentations and for the student poster competition organized by SPE Québec, which was a great success.
Attendees stayed until the last minute, as the program ended with presentations and an expert panel on fluoropolymers in process aid additives. New grades based on several technologies are being tested, but the situation remains complex!
If you missed this essential event, there will soon be an opportunity to purchase the presentations. For more information, please contact me or visit the following website: https://www.4spe.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=8006
Eadaoin Quinn, MARS, Sustainable Packaging Senior Manager – Americas
Pak Meng Cham, PepsiCo, Sr. Principal Scientist at PepsiCo
Poster competition winners: Blessing Itabana (University of Guelph), Farhad Asempour (McGill University) and Franziska Rehle (Polytechnique Montreal, CIRAIG), surrounded by organizers Manon Favre (ÉTS) and Marie-France Sosa (SPE Québec).