Theft secure heat seal and cold seal blister cards
Recently a few new variants of the traditional double/folding blister card made of cardboard have been introduced to the market under the name Natralock and Blisterguard. The new packaging focuses on tear resistance, with the purpose of making the packaging difficult to open in the store. Consumers should only be able to open the package, by using scissors or a knife, after the product has left the shopping floor.
In theft secure blister cards the back of the cardboard, used to make the blister cards, is laminated with a thin plastic film. This plastic film layer is coated with a heat seal adhesive that can be activated using heat and pressure. Once the front and back card are joined and sealed, the plastic layers become invisible to the eye, and from the outside the consumer will only notice cardboard. Buying cardboard in stead of plastic is considered to be more environmentally friendly, and this should reflect positively on the corporate image. At the same time good theft resistance is achieved. From a sustainability point of view this kind of packaging is mostly compared to traditional clam shell packaging. If compared to a full plastic packaging, the manufacturers of this new type of blister cardboard ( Natralock from MeadWestvaco and Blisterguard from International paper ) claim environmental burden reductions that are quit substantial.
Ecobliss Blister packaging in the Netherlands has also added a similar double card, tear resistant technology to their extensive range of blister products. The system of Ecobliss is introduced under the name ‘Ecostrong’. The carded theft resistant packaging of Ecobliss is based on a laminated front card combined with a heat seal back card. Theft resistance in Ecobliss’s Ecostrong technology is achieved by applying a single layer of PET film to the front card of the packaging. The laminated front card does not require any additional heat seal adhesive. The PET film used by Ecobliss is specially developed for the purpose of creating tear strength in the blister card.
In stead of using a double layer of plastic laminate ( as in the Natralock or Blisterguard technology ) the tear strength of any Ecostrong packaging can be exactly determined by choosing the right thickness of the tear resistant laminate. In Ecobliss’s Ecostrong system the tear resistant laminate can also be used in combination with their cold seal technology. Large customers of Ecobliss such as Dane Elec are using Ecobliss’s Ecostrong blister card technology since a few years. Soon the website of Ecobliss will also display the Ecostrong technology.