Course Overview
Introduction to Polymers, Rigid & Semi-Rigid Plastics, Flexible Packaging, Design Basics for Plastics
Get to know polymers and plastics from their base elements to their most complex integrated applications. Polymers are designer products formed and formulated with specific attributes. They are a diverse and adaptable raw material
Course Details & Pricing
Daily
Price
Learning objectives
- Polymer terminology
- Properties based on molecular structure & weight, density, polarity and thermal history
- Physical and barrier properties based on class of polymer
- Materials, processes and applications in moulding and sealing
- Applications of metalizing
Who should attend?
- Everyone wishing to understand the role and potential for polymers in Consumer Goods Packaging
- Professionals in the areas of Purchasing, Sales & Marketing, Packaging, Design and Production
- Employees changing fields in packaging
- Employees new to the packaging industry
Course Topics
Introduction to Polymers
- Polymer raw material sources
- Polymer terminology, spelling and abbreviations
- Thermoset, and thermoplastic polymers
- Monomers, homopolymers and copolymers
Polymer Chemistry for Non-Chemists
- Factors influencing a polymer’s properties
- Properties related to molecular weight and polarity
- Polymers related to polymer crystallinity
- Tg Tm and properties imparted by thermal history
- Properties imparted by mechanical history
- Viscoelastic properties
Common Packaging Polymers
- Application properties and common applications of the polyethylene family
- Application properties and common applications of:
- polypropylene, polystyrene, poly(vinyl chloride)
- poly (ethylene terephthalate) and polyamide
- Application properties of polymers used as coatings
- Comments on sustainable and selected lesser used polymers
Property Comparisons
- Values provided are for establishing relative orders
- They do not refer to any specific product
- Many resins offered as polymers are actually copolymers
- Polymers may be heavily modified with additives
- No two polymer producers manufacture identical resins
- Therefore values for commercially available resins can vary significantly from the example values
Sheet and Film Extrustion
- Polymer extruders
- Single and multi-layer cast & blown film extrusion
- Film orientation
- Thermoforming plastic sheet
- Other profile extruded dimensional products
Flexible Packaging Laminates
- Why multi-layer construction
- Aluminum foils and aluminum vacuum metallizing
- Wet and drybond laminating techniques
- Extrusion coating and laminating
- Common heat seal materials
- Form-fill machines and pouch styles
- Specifying flexible packaging laminates
Injection Moulding Plastic
- Injection moulding: closures, dairy tubs, pails, pumps, jewel boxes, cosmetic containers and parts
- Extrusion-blow moulding: bottles, and other narrow-mouth containers, jars, box and drum liners, handleware, multi-layer containers
- Injection-blow moulding: bottle and other narrow-mouth containers, wide-mouth jars, precision finish containers
Blow Moulding Plastic
- Extrusion blow moulding process (EBM)
- Weld lines and wall thickness control
- Multilayer bottles
- Injection (IBM) and injection-stretch blow moulding (ISBM)
- EBM and IBM compared
Plastic Bottle Design Basics
- General Bottle Design Elements
- Bottle Design Elements
- Vertical and Horizontal Design Elements
- Round and other shapes
- Avoid Sharp Corners and Small Radii
- Shapes for Semi-Solid products
- Shapes for Viscous products
- Design for easy conveying
- Common dimensions
- Multi-Axis curves and labeling
- Bottle shape and fill level
- Bottle shoulders and finish
- Handle design and top loading
- Squeezable LDPE Bottles
- EBM Pumps and pour spouts
- Collapsing bottle designs
- EBM unit dose vials
- Plastic Beer Bottles
- PET Bottle with crystallized finish
- Bottle design variations
- Environmental stress cracking
Plastics and the Circular Economy
- Golden Design Rules for Plastics Packaging
- How to design for sustainability
Complete Plastics Packaging Course Industry Experts
The PAC Complete Plastics Packaging Course is developed and presented by industry professionals, ensuring you get the most up to date information while advancing your career.
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Paul Waller, P.Eng., MBA, Cert.P.P. President Plastics Touchpoint Group, Inc.Paul Waller obtained his B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering at McGill University in Montreal and his MBA at the Schulich School of Business, York University in Toronto. Mr. Waller is an Honored Service member of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), Past-President and past-Councillor of its Board of Directors for the Ontario Chapter, Past-Chair of the Flexible Packaging Division of SPE and Past-Chair of the Canadian Plastics Sector Council. Mr. Waller is a licensed Professional Engineer, a member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario, a member of PAC Packaging Consortium and the first candidate to receive the Canadian Plastics Sector Council’s Certified Plastics Practitioner – 3rd level for Blown Film Extrusion.
Mr. Waller started his career in Dow Chemical Canada’s polyethylene technical service group before moving to Esso Chemical Canada’s Vinyl division. After working with BOPP at Mobil Chemical Canada, he became Sales Manager of blown film machinery at Macro Engineering Co. Ltd. Mr. Waller subsequently joined the Canadian Plastics Institute as Seminar Manager and became Manager of Education Services when it merged with the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. Mr. Waller then joined Haremar Plastic Manufacturing Limited as Director of Technical Operations before founding the Plastics Touchpoint Group, Inc. in 2000.
Mr. Waller designed and delivered the classroom portion of the Blown Film Technology Course for the Canadian Plastics Training Centre in Toronto and SENAI in Brazil. He has delivered in-house training to more than 1,200 participants in film manufacturing companies on five continents in the last 20 years. Mr. Waller has been presenting the Polymers section of the PAC Packaging Certificate Program since 2007. -
Daniel Lantz, DBA, EP, MCIWM PAC NEXT Director PACDan has more than 30 years of experience in end of life materials management. He worked in recycling operations for six years. He worked with Stewardship Ontario in the design of the Blue Box Program Plan and in the design and operation of the current BC-wide EPR-based recycling program. Dan teaches the Packaging Circularity course for PAC. Dan was the strategic advisor to the Canadian Plastics Industry Association for 30 years. Dan has written and presented over 100 papers/presentations on waste diversion. Dan has specialist knowledge of EPR and stewardship, package design optimization and recycling program and facility design and operation.
Course Downloads
Related Courses
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Packaging Essentials Course | VirtualView Course -
Paper Packaging Plus Course | VirtualView Course -
Packaging Circularity Course | VirtualView Course