{"id":373259,"date":"2026-03-30T16:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T16:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/373259\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T16:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T16:51:08","slug":"a-new-manufacturing-process-uses-lasers-to-seal-paper-packaging-instead-of-glue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/373259\/","title":{"rendered":"A new manufacturing process uses lasers to seal paper packaging instead of glue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although paper is a more environmentally friendly packaging material than plastic, it\u2019s often contaminated with additives, such as adhesives used to create a secure seal. That complicates the recycling process and reduces the quality of recycled paper. Now, German researchers at four Fraunhofer institutes have developed an alternative process that can seal paper packaging<\/a> without glue or plastic using a carbon monoxide laser.<\/p>\n

The new system, currently called the Papure project, leverages the expertise of the Fraunhofer institutes, each of which focuses on areas such as polymer research, engineering and packaging, and laser beam technologies. The first step of the new sealing process involves analyzing the chemical composition and morphology of various paper types using techniques such as scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to determine if they can be sealed without an additive. The amounts of ingredients such as hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin, talc, and calcium carbonate in the paper can affect the strength of the final packaging\u2019s seals.<\/p>\n

Once a paper type is approved, it\u2019s irradiated with a CO laser in a controlled process that rapidly heats its surface, converting the lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose into short-chain compounds. From there, what researchers call \u201cfusible cleavage products\u201d remain on the paper\u2019s surface and act like a natural glue, creating a tight seal when heat and pressure are applied. The researchers are still fine-tuning the various parameters of the Papure project, including laser intensity and paper seam design, to maximize bond strength. But in current testing, they\u2019ve found that a 2cm seal that\u2019s just 3mm wide is strong enough to support a 44-pound load.<\/p>\n

The researchers have already built a \u201claboratory-scale modular paper processing manufacturing unit\u201d capable of producing a flat, four-sided paper bag design that\u2019s commonly used today by companies like Lego<\/a>. They\u2019re also working to streamline and shrink the design of the laser and sealing modules and to integrate measurement systems that can assess the quality of the seals being produced and automatically adjust various settings to ensure they\u2019re meeting a specific bond strength target. By the end of September, their goal is for the pilot machine to produce 10 packages per minute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although paper is a more environmentally friendly packaging material than plastic, it\u2019s often contaminated with additives, such as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[246,61,60,43,82,216,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-373259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-tech","14":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}