Packaging Technology and Science

This study examined different managerial scenarios for the cost reduction of transport pallets rented by a pet food manufacturer that produces pet food sold in local and international markets. A computer simulation model was developed on the basis of the empirical case to analyse the flow of pallets from the factory, the subcontractors and the distribution centre and to determine the system performance measures in terms of the average waiting times and the number of pallets in queues. The analysis showed that problems occurred when slow-moving products occupied the rental pallets for a long time and because too much inventory was kept at the distribution centre. Two managerial scenarios were then proposed to alleviate these problems, involving pallet movement decisions by internal management. The results suggested a choice of decision supports to determine which managerial scenario was suitable for the business. The proposed implications may be beneficial to similar industries where a supply system of rental pallet service is applied.

It was demonstrated that chitosan can be melt-processed with an ethylene methyl acrylate copolymer ionomer or with an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer to create antimicrobial extruded films. The key to a successful antimicrobial blend is to use the solid chitosonium acetate that remains after evaporating water from a chitosan solution, as opposed to using the original chitosan powder that had never been dissolved in dilute acetic acid.

This paper investigates the diffusion of limonene through three types of polypropylene (PP) materials (PP-H, PP-B and PP-R) by using molecular dynamics method and evaluates the influence of types of polypropylene material on the diffusion behaviour of limonene. The diffusion coefficients of limonene in PP-H, PP-B and PP-R are obtained at 313K and 353K, and the accessible free volumes for polymers PP-H, PP-B and PP-R are calculated by using the probe radius r_p = 0.09, 0.11, 0.128 and 0.209 nm, respectively. The simulations show that the limonene molecules squirm slowly in the polymer cell rather than jumping and that the movements of limonene in PP-R are more active than that in PP-H and PP-B.

The study determines the sorption of surrogates into the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and PET/polyamide-blended bottle wall. The diffusion coefficients as well as the partition coefficients were determined. From the results, the contamination profiles for the surrogates were calculated. The contamination occurs only in the first 10–20 µm of the PET bottle wall surface.

In this paper, product transport system is treated as a two substructure-coupled system composed of product system (including critical element) and vehicle connected by packaging and setting, and the inverse substructure method is applied to the analysis of the dynamic characteristics of the system. To check out the accuracy of the method, we completed the experiment, and the predicted substructure-level frequency response functions are in overall agreement with those measured.

The application of active antimicrobial packaging containing thymol for fillet salmon reduces the microbial count and stabilises salmon chemical constituents, increasing its shelf-life with no modification of sensorial properties.