If you enjoyed the recent Pack To The Future (#PTTF3) event, you will undoubtedly love this one too. Brian Weeks of Interactive Product Solutions, who spoke at PTTF3 on ‘Printed Electronics in Packaging’, is running a similar event in London that I believe will appeal to you.

Event details:
The theme is ‘Game Changing Developments for Brands and Packaging based on Smart Phones’ & will focus on commercial realities in relation to the impact of smart phones on specific business areas.

Session is designed to be highly interactive and they are operated as ‘working group sessions’ to stimulate discussion and action.

The day will conclude with a facilitated discussion for about 1 hour when we review the presentations and points raised and debate the commercial implications.

Background:
Mobiles are changing the game for:

• Brands
• Retailers
• Packaging converters
• Security solutions providers

Fact: More than half of mobile phones being used now are Smart Phones – 130 million+ of them are being used in Europe today and the number is continuing to grow rapidly month on month.

This means major interactive opportunities for Brands, their suppliers and solution providers in:
Marketing Communications – Mobile Marketing & Promotions
Product Promotion & Authentication in the hands of consumers.

This new world presents many questions & challenges:
Do you understand how these solutions might work for you or your customers?
Can you afford to ignore the activity & innovation going on in the smart phone-enabled mobile marketing / promotion area?
Has ‘easy’ Product Authentication been on your wish list?

The aim is to enable participants, from across the value chain, to explore how they may exploit new technologies for their companies benefit.

We believe significant opportunities exist for companies, who may have traditionally focused on limited media channels to communicate with their customer, to not only broaden their approach but also use their packaging to maximum effect.

Speakers will include:
1. Introductory session by Brian Weeks of Interactive Product Solutions
‘Bringing Products & Packs into the Digital Space using Touch Transfer Technology’

2. Andrew McPhee of Obvious Engine who deliver technology & products that make the space and objects around you come alive, bridging the online to offline gap for Product Makers, Retailers, Games – Companies and Brands
‘Augmented Reality and the Interactive Product Experience’

3. Christian Guichard of Authentication Industries whose unique tailored solutions for Brand owners deter counterfeit products through a mix of encrypted data and printing techniques -
‘Innovative Approaches to Product Authentication’

4. Glenn Needham of Near Field Solutions will answer the question about how NFC will establish itself for focused Consumer interaction -
‘NFC Product Authentication’

5. Jeremy Plimmer of Product & Image Security Foundation will present an overview of smart phone enabled product authentication solutions emerging in the marketplace –
‘Smart Phone enabled Solutions for Consumer Authentication & Supply Chain Management’

6. James Bevan of Vandagraf International will present an overview of market sizing and forecasts in the mobile world –
‘Existing Markets & Emerging Opportunities for Smart Phone Enabled Authentication & Brand Promotion’

Some other players invited to participate include: Alpvision, AuthenticateIT, Digimarc, Gentag, Graphic Security Systems Corp, i-movo, Inksure, Popimscode, Printechnologies, Schreiner Etiketten, tesa Schribos, Yottamark and others – Attendance to be confirmed.

For the agenda or more information on the Session, (which is open to non-members and can be attended purely on a single Session basis – you don’t have to be a full member of the Programme to attend) go to the Session webpage

The final Agenda and Session Welcome Pack will be sent out about 1 week prior to the Session.
Numbers are limited to 30 and the fee for attendance(£120 + VAT) can be paid by Purchase Order/BACS or by credit card.

When: 16th April 2013  – 10.00am for a 10.30am start (coffee from 10.00) and finishes at about 16.00.
Lunch is included.

Where: Institute of Materials, Mining & Minerals (IOM3) Head Office, Carlton Terrace in Central London.

If YOU or any of your friends or colleagues would like to come, please ask them to REGISTER BY email to Brian Weeks via:  info@ipieurope.com .

Hope you can make it!

As many of you may know, as well as running Design Cognition, I am Chairman of the East Midlands Packaging Society (based in Nottingham UK) and in that role, my main focus again this year is to entice more of you, our valued members, to take part in events and also to encourage ‘new blood’ into the industry.

By popular demand we are pleased to announce the THIRD  in our very successful PACK TO THE FUTURE  series of collaborations between academia and industry to explore insights into the changing global landscape impacted by issues such as Global Warming and water & oil depletion that will affect consumer demand and some of the exciting emerging technologies that will enable us to adapt & thrive.

We are pleased to be working with Loughborough University Design School on this occasion and as previously have a fantastic line-up of leading edge thinkers & ‘doers’ with which to ‘whet your appetites’. This time topics will include:

Explaining the Future – Peak Oil, Peak Water & Climate Change

Printed electronics in packaging

LumeJet – photonic imaging technology

Please make sure that you book early to this FREE event to avoid disappointment, as both previous events have been heavily oversubscribed!!!!

All are welcome, members and non-members, but pre-registration is essential – OR  drop me an email if you have any questions: chris@designcognition.com

We’ve also got other fantastic events lined-up later in the year, in which you could participate in a number of different ways and at a number of different levels – it’s up to you how far you want to get involved.

Much of it will be FREE and could directly benefit you personally and your business.

You may want to participate yourself, or you know someone else that could be interested. Either way, I’m looking for partners and I’d love to hear from you. The aim of the whole exercise is to help raise the profile of packaging but also to facilitate the integration of academia and industry for everyone’s benefit. So this is applicable to:

Students – who may want to learn & enhance career options

Universities – looking for business avenues/partnerships to help commercialise their ideas

Product development companies, packaging suppliers & design agencies – wanting to keep up with latest technology & also identify high calibre students for job placements & opportunities

Come along and listen to some exciting & leading-edge talks from the university & from the packaging design industry. Network with industry & academic experts – with various table-top demonstrations, discuss your design projects in an informal atmosphere and get practical mentoring help & advice.

Some of the previous highlighted topics have included:

Smartphone technology & how it can enhance the consumer experience

Using packaging technology to tackle counterfeiting

University research into brand design

Display technology for packing applications

Design of packaging for reuse / recycling

You can find out more about this and other East Midlands Packaging Society events on our ‘ning’ site:

East Midlands Packaging Society website

and also on our LinkedIn Group & Facebook Pages:

EMPS LinkedIn Group

EMPS Facebook page

So whether in academia or business – You decide how you want to get involved, which could be as a speaker, sponsor, exhibitor, trainer or as a participant – how could it best benefit yourself? I really do think that ‘everyone’s a winner’ with this. More details to follow in future blogs.

If you’ve got any other ideas yourself, let me know.

Chris Penfold

Chairman – East Midlands Packaging Society

chris@designcognition.com

00 44 115 846 1914

As many of you may know, as well as running Design Cognition, I am Chairman of the East Midlands Packaging Society (based in Nottingham UK) and in that role, my main focus this year is to entice more of you, our valued members, to take part in events and also to encourage ‘new blood’ into the industry.

We’ve got some fantastic events lined-up, in which you could participate in a number of different ways and at a number of different levels – it’s up to you how far you want to get involved.

Much of it will be FREE and could directly benefit you personally and your business.

You may want to participate yourself, or you know someone else that could be interested. Either way, I’m looking for partners and I’d love to hear from you. The aim of the whole exercise is to help raise the profile of packaging but also to facilitate the integration of academia and industry for everyone’s benefit. So this is applicable to:

Students – who may want to learn & enhance career options

Universities – looking for business avenues/partnerships to help commercialise their ideas

Product development companies, packaging suppliers & design agencies – wanting to keep up with latest technology & also identify high calibre students for job placements & opportunities

The first of our events is on 19th October at Nottingham Trent University, 4.30 – 8.30pm with a free buffet and refreshments (see flyer attached).

All are welcome, members and non-members, but pre-registration is essential – just drop me an email to: chris@designcognition.com

Come along and listen to some exciting & leading-edge talks from the university & from the packaging design industry. Network with industry & academic experts – with various table-top demonstrations, discuss your design projects in an informal atmosphere and get practical mentoring help & advice.

Some of the highlighted topics will include:

Smartphone technology & how it can enhance the consumer experience

Using packaging technology to tackle counterfeiting

University research into brand design

Display technology for packing applications

Design of packaging for reuse / recycling

You can find out more about this and other East Midlands Packaging Society events on our ‘ning’ site:

East Midlands Packaging Society website

and also on our LinkedIn Group & Facebook Pages:

EMPS LinkedIn Group

EMPS Facebook page

This is the first of three planned university partnership events during the next 12 months, so whether in academia or business – You decide how you want to get involved, which could be as a speaker, sponsor, exhibitor, trainer or as a participant – how could it best benefit yourself? I really do think that ‘everyone’s a winner’ with this. More details to follow in future blogs.

If you’ve got any other ideas yourself, let me know.

Chris Penfold

Chairman – East Midlands Packaging Society

chris@designcognition.com

00 44 115 846 1914

There are an ever-increasing number of ‘medical device’ products coming to market or existing products changing their classification to ‘medical device’ to give greater flexibility in the market. The boundary between Medical Devices and packaging is becoming ever-more blurred as the followng areas converge: smartphone technology, materials technology, internet capabilities & bandwidth, Wi-Fi and Near Field Communications (NFC). This is particularly evident in the area of patient compliance (adherence) and to a lesser extent, also in the areas of anti-counterfeiting and Track & Trace.

The route to CE marking depends on the risk classification of your device and also on how many you manufacture. The development of a device is heavily regulated and various criteria need to have been checked and decisions/design routes justified and recorded.

The Manufacturers or their authorised representative must follow one of several routes in order to CE mark their devices and legally sell or distribute them on the European market.
The Brand owner for the device will also have some of the responsibilities of the manufacturer.

The Team at Design Cognition have been involved in many successful device developments and understand what is required to develop a device/product that will meet the stringent criteria laid down by the various authorities. We can provide support for your project from concept through development, authorisation and commercialisation or even for the reviews. We are here to help, so give us a call!

Chris Penfold

Plastics are a crucial component of many products and packs these days and their selection can have a significant impact on a products performance, quality, cost, shelf life and even stability, so it’s vital to make the correct selection.

This one day introductory course is intended to give delegates a greater appreciation and understanding, of what you need to consider when working with plastic components – whether they be actual product or packaging.

This great interactive course is being held THIS MONTH, so don’t delay in booking your place.

For further information on this course visit Plastic Materials in Packaging   or email training@designcognition.com

Alternatively give us call on +44 (0)115 8461914

We came across this story today and are excited about the possibilities & opportunities that this could present to the packaging industry, especially in the area of ‘added-value’ electronic & ’smart’ packaging. At it’s heart is the discovery of a new way of splitting layered materials to give atom thin “nanosheets”. This has led to a range of novel two-dimensional nanomaterials with chemical and electronic properties that have the potential to enable new electronic and energy storage technologies. The collaborative* international research led by the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN), Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and the University of Oxford has been published in this week’s Science. The scientists have invented a versatile method for creating these atom thin nanosheets from a range of materials using common solvents and ultrasound, utilising devices similar to those used to clean jewellery. The new method is simple, fast, and inexpensive, and could be scaled up to work on an industrial scale.

For decades researchers have tried to create nanosheets from layered materials in order to unlock their unusual electronic and thermoelectric properties. However, previous methods were time consuming, laborious or of very low yield and so unsuited to most applications.

“Our new method offers low-costs, a very high yield and a very large throughput: within a couple of hours, and with just 1 mg of material, billions and billions of one-atom-thick nanosheets can be made at the same time from a wide variety of exotic layered materials,” explained Dr Nicolosi, from the University of Oxford.
These new materials are also suited for use in next generation batteries – “supercapacitors” – which can deliver energy thousands of times faster than standard batteries, enabling new applications such as electric cars. Many of these new atomic layered materials are very strong and can be added to plastics to produce super-strong composites. These will be useful in a range of industries from simple structural plastics, through packaging, medical devices and even to aeronautics.

Source: Trinity College Dublin via www.nanowerk.com

You can read more Design Cognition related packaging stories in Technology

Chris Penfold

Semiconductor Research Corporation & Stanford Develop Unique Combination of Elements for Thermal Nanotape That Transforms Packaging Applications
Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), the world’s leading university-research consortium for semiconductors and related technologies, and researchers from Stanford University have developed a novel combination of elements that yields a unique nanostructure material for packaging. This advance should allow longer life for semiconductor devices while costing less than current state-of-the-art materials. In addition to chip manufacturers, several other industries could also gain greater product efficiencies from related thermal energy management technology.
For semiconductors, the improvement will come in the form of packaging for devices. Presently, manufacturers must rely on tiny pins or thick solder to bond sections of the semiconductor in order for the device to perform. However, current solder materials tend to degrade and fail due to heat and mechanical stress. In order to continue the scaling of integrated circuits, SRC and Stanford have researched materials that provide a high thermal connectivity — comparable to copper — with the flexible compliance of foam. The answer has been created through a nanostructured thermal tape that conducts heat like a metal while allowing the neighboring materials to expand and contract with temperature changes (metals are too stiff to allow this). This ability to reduce chip temperatures while remaining compliant is a key breakthrough for electronic packaging.

Checkout the full story @ Nanowerk News: www.nanowerk.com

You can read more Design Cognition related packaging stories in Technology

Chris Penfold

If you are involved in the design or development of injection moulded thermoplastic parts, whether packaging, delivery systems or devices, and want to save huge amounts of time, money & hassle, this 1 day course is for you – especially if you would like to be able to:

- Understand the key terms and phrases associated with injection moulding machines, the process and a basic multi cavity hot runner mould tool configuration.

- Have the knowledge and confidence to interact on an even level with suppliers when specifying, sourcing and managing a plastics moulding, tooling project through to final acceptance.

- Recognise common moulding faults and implement a course of remedial action quickly.

- Create a bespoke mould tool specification documents for your own components. This will enable you to not only understand your current suppliers documentation, but also compare alternative suppliers on a like-for-like basis.

There is an EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT, but HURRY, the discount ends Friday 24th December 2010.

To find out more, check out: Packaging Training Courses – More Information

or email Training@DesignCognition.Com

Alternatively just give us a call on +44 (0) 115 8461914

Look forward to seeing you there!

A breakthrough in a University of Cincinnati engineering lab that could clear the way for a low-cost, even disposable, e-reader is gaining considerable attention and this technology could have ‘far-reaching’ implications and provide all sorts of opportunities in the field of packaging, with the ability to ‘print’ moving pictures (of a quality seen on glass) onto flexible packaging.

Electrical Engineering Professor Andrew Steckl, together with UC doctoral student Duk Young Kim, have researched into an affordable, yet high-performance, paper-based display technology which has demonstrated that paper could be used as a flexible host material for an ‘electrowetting’ device. Electrowetting (EW) involves applying an electric field to coloured droplets within a display in order to reveal content such as type, photographs and video.

Steckl’s discovery that paper could be used as the host material has far-reaching implications considering other popular e-readers on the market such as the Kindle and iPad rely on complex circuitry printed over a rigid glass substrate. Steckl says: “It is pretty exciting. With the right paper, the right process and the right device fabrication technique, you can get results that are as good as you would get on glass, and our results are good enough for a video-style e-reader.”

He imagines a future device that is “rollable, feels like paper yet delivers books, news and even high-resolution color video in bright-light conditions” – perfect for packaging applications (in my opinion)! If you combine this with the Sony technology (Rollable OTFT screen) that we wrote about recently, the packaging possibilities are endless!

Read more about this type of technology in our ‘Technology’ folder.

You can read the full Steckl article at www.nanowerk.com

Chris Penfold

Here’s how ‘Eco Warrior’ and ‘Gaia Capitalist’ David de Rothschild made his catamaran ‘Plastiki’ out of recycled PET bottle packaging -- turning waste into resource and into an (almost) completely recyclable boat, that he then sailed from San Francisco to Sydney.

You can read the related article I wrote earlier today here: Sailing through the Plastiki soup in search of Paradise

Chris Penfold