Smurfit Kappa launches ‘safe curve’ bags

Smurfit Kappa Bag-In-Box has launched a new type of seal on its wine application bags. In addition to the usual seals, eight supplementary radial seals (two in each of the four corners), help to protect the wine inside.

This new triple protection system is called Safe Curve and is possible thanks to new tools that have been installed on production lines for wine bags in the plants of Ibi (Spain) and Epernay (France). This innovation harmonises the manufacturing process and enables the supply of exactly the same products in case of any interruption.

Cendrine Lallement, R&D Manager at Smurfit Kappa, explains: “We have developed these new seals in order to improve the filling process with severe constraints”. Indeed, the Safe Curve design brings an additional protection during the drop of the bag in the box after filling and also reduces the risk of abrasion if the filling conditions are not optimised. Also, the risk of ears gluing and folding on box flaps or on the box closer is minimised. If this does happen, the risky corner is protected by a double seal. The bags are more resistant because the flow of the liquid is not on a sharp angle and the strength is maintained by the round shape.

Smurfit Kappa is one of the leading producers of paper-based packaging in the world, with around 41,000 employees in approximately 350 production sites across 32 countries and with a sales revenue of €7.3bn in 2012.

11 February 2014 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor