Fareham-based radio frequency (RF) technologies developer and biodegradable packaging specialist Stanelco has filed patent applications for an RF sealing technology it claims could revolutionise the packaging of cooked and raw meat, bringing annual savings of over £100,000 on each heatsealing machine adapted.
Its system uses RF sealing in conjunction with conventional plastics like APET so they require no laminating or PE coating to be sealed.
Stanelco says the “Perfect Sealing” technology, retrofittable for around £40,000 per machine or incorporated on a purpose-designed RF sealer, offers major environmental and cost-saving benefits. By eliminating the sealing layers and specialist sealing coatings conversion off-cuts can, for the first time, be “recycled” back into the tray manufacturing process. By reusing such scrap, savings of “at least 20%” can reportedly be achieved, while removal of a PE layer enables used trays to be cost-effectively recycled after use. In addition, the RF process provides potential energy savings of up to 50% since the sealing head needs simply to be switched on, with no pre-heating time.
“Total adoption of this technology UK-wide would cut the volume of a plastic going to landfill ever year by 10,000 tonnes,” says Stanelco ceo Ian Balchin.