Passionate Packaging Engineer

Overview: Flexography uses Relief printing process, in which there is a raised surface to hold the ink. Ink roller takes the ink from the ink pan and applies it over the raised surface, or by pressing the plate against the inking pad. The first plates produced by relief method were made by hand from wood. And later, the presses were engraved into metal and used movable metal type. Plate-making: The printing plates are made using rubber, photopolymer or sometimes by metal, as it depends on type of application. The oldest form of flexographic plate were made by rubber, and it is now declining as science and technology have progressed. Most of the modern flexographic plates are now made up of photopolymer, a material that cures/hardens when exposed with ultraviolet light (UV light). Unexposed areas are soluble and can be washed away. This exposure and non-exposure helps forms the image and non-image area over the photopolymeric printing plate. Nowadays, an evolving  ablation technolog...

A form of printing technology using an intermediate carrier to transfer image from original carrier (such as a plate) to the  substrate . Offset Lithography In this process the image + non image area coexist on same plane. Types of lithograpgu  - di-litho and waterless lithography. Types of offset lithography - sheetfed and web-offset lithography. Offset printing is widely used in modern printing presses. It is described as when 'positive image' on plate is inked and transferred (offset) from plate to a rubber blanket. Blanket captures mirror image of plate.  The blanket moves the image to substrate making the image. In Offset printing, it is based on fact that oil and water do not mix. The offset process employs a planographic plate mounted over press cylinder.  Offset presses makes use of 3 cylinders: Plate, blanket and impression cylinder. Courtesy: http://printwiki.org/Offset_Printing http://printwiki.org/Offset_Lithography https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing#...

||      “If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree. ”  ― Michael Crichto     || History is a source of constant motivation for today's innovations and most of the current developments in packaging are based on important lessons from history of packaging. The last century packaging designs primarily revolved around solving the containment and preservation problems but today's packaging is one of the most important tools of branding and promotion. With the rise in E-commerce the packaging has to be simple yet sturdy to withstand the transit hazards. The circular economy concept forces corporations to move towards a greener packaging. The frontiers of packaging education were laid by the Michigan State University, School of Packaging becoming the first institution of its kind to start a Packaging course in 1952 to proliferate the packaging knowledge in the entire wor...

||       The packaging is a silent salesman. The packaging is responsible for creating the first impression to the customers. This packaging we see today has evolved from being only as a intended use to a tool for communicating and branding.     || The packaging we see today revolves around branding, communication and consumer promotion and goes beyond above normal functions such as contain, caring and preservation. Today's packaging also plays a major role in ease of consumers use mechanisms such as simple dispensing systems like bottle opener in beer bottles, child resistant closures etc. Let’s take a look at "The Innovations that shaped packaging over past 200 years"                              Video Source:

As we know the packaging as a tool has reached pinnacle and with constant innovations. Today the packaging plays a major role in branding, communicating the products apart from the conventional method of containing and protecting the products. The basic five functions of packaging like Contain, Protect and Preserve, Transport, Communication,  End-of-Life Function that we see today are a result of thousands of years of evolution with time. These functions and innovations have been developed as a direct need of customers and indirectly by the influence of culture. Where we stand today we must look what were the changes took place in the evolution of packaging materials and how these inventions have shaped the world. Source:

The packaging is an ancient industry dating back to around 5000 B.C. when the humans were merely hunters and gatherers. The very first need for packaging was felt for the transportation of left over food form one place to another.  The movement of tribes and own survival forced them to invent some sort of containers to contain and carry the food, water and tools with them and hence the hard shelled fruits were prized as their first containers. When the earlier cities were domesticated a plethora of packaging materials were used for storage, transportation and protect the essential items. Early protective packaging designs were made of plant leaves and animal skin as they were easily available in the proximity. Bottle Gourds Nuts and bottle gourds were used by these prehistoric people and radiocarbon dating indicates their presence in the Americas by 10,000 years ago.                    ...

The history of packaging begin in medieval time when the early human started exploring options to carry its left over food and water from one place to another. In order to preserve and transport the food he needed some devices. He began to use plant leaves, animal skin, hollow woods to contain and carry his items for survival. 7000 B.C. - glass making began as an of shoot to pottery  1500 B.C - glass making was industrialized in Egypt enabling them to contain food and water 1200 B.C. - glass was pressed into molds to make cups and bowls. 200 B.C.-  the Chinese began using treated mulberry bark to transport food which further developed into the art of paper making. 1200 A.D. - the process of tin plating was discovered in Bohemia ;cans of iron, coated with tin, were known in Bavaria as early as the 14th century. 1310 A.D. - the unique skills of Chinese paper making reached in England 1809 - General Napoleon Bonaparte promised to offer 12,000 f...