Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (hereafter Toppan Printing; head office: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; President & Representative Director: Shingo Kaneko) has developed a shrink wrap package with carton-shaped cardboard attached that has improved decorative qualities and ease of opening. Sales will begin in mid-September 2012, primarily targeting the toiletries industry.

A shrink wrap package with cardboard is a package whereby the content is wrapped with a film that shrinks when it is heated, and the film is attached to a piece of cardboard. This type of packaging is widely used for items such as cosmetics and toiletries products because it is possible to show the product in three dimensions in stores and it is more eco-friendly than packaging using molded plastic due to the reduction in the use of resin.
Toppan Printing has now developed a completely new form of packaging in which the cardboard is made into a carton shape and the shrink film is attached to the inside of the carton. While previous packaging products have made it easy to see the product inside, it is has been difficult to remove the film because it is in close contact with the product. However, with this new package the film on the inside of the carton is opened when the outer carton part is opened, meaning that it is easy to remove the contents. Because the area available for printing is greater than that of traditional shrink wrap packaging with cardboard, it is also possible to improve decorative qualities with a wide range of designs, and enhance universal design functions with clear displays of information.

This product will be displayed in the Toppan booth at Tokyo Pack 2012, which will be held at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center from Tuesday October 2 to Friday October 5, 2012.

Left: Samples of shrink wrap packaging with carton-shaped cardboard Right: A sample of a regular shrink wrap package with cardboard Copyright 2012 TOPPAN PRINTING CO., LTD.

Background to development
Shrink wrap packaging with cardboard is used as an effective in-store display package in the toiletries and cosmetics sectors because it enables an attractive display of the product and is highly eco-friendly. The market for such packaging is worth around 30 billion yen.
Forms of packaging where the product is attached to a piece of cardboard include blister packaging, where a clear plastic cover molded into the shape of the outline is placed over the product and glued to the cardboard behind the product. However, with the recent rise in environmentally consciousness, there has been a growing need for new packaging that reduces the amount of plastic used in order to reduce the use of petrochemical resources.
Shrink wrap packaging with cardboard, where the plastic cover is replaced with shrink film, already existed, but because the heat-shrunk film comes into close contact with the product, it is difficult to remove the product and improvement was necessary. Further improvements were also necessary in terms of increasing the area for displaying where to open the package from, and enhancing the visibility of the product information and the decorative qualities of the product.
This new packaging is a completely new form of package in which the shrink film is attached to the inside of cardboard in the shape of a carton. With the development of this structure, ease of opening has been vastly improved with the film on the inside of the carton being opened simultaneously when the outer carton is opened. In addition, because the area available for printing is greater than with previous shrink wrap packaging with cardboard, it is possible to improve decorative qualities with a wide range of designs, and enhance universal design functions with clear displays of information.

Features
- Very easy to open
With previous packages it has been difficult to remove the film because it is in close contact with the product itself.
With this new type of packaging, the package is a combined structure with the shrink film attached to the inside of the carton. This means that the package has become easier to open because when the carton section is opened, the film is also torn away.
- Differentiation in shops is possible
Because the form is completely different from previous shrink wrap packaging with cardboard and the area available for printing has been increased, it is possible to present the product more attractively in stores by enhancing decorative qualities with various designs and by adding universal design functionality such as easy to read displays.

Price
The price will differ depending on specifications, but it will be possible to reduce costs by around 10% in comparison with conventional blister packaging.

Future targets
In addition to the toiletries industry, Toppan Printing plans to expand sales of this new form of packaging to the food, medical, pharmaceutical, and electrical goods industries, and is targeting sales of 500 million yen for this packaging and related orders in fiscal 2012.

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* The information in this press release is current as of the date of publication and is subject to change without notice.