We recently had a freewheeling discussion with Shailesh Nema, Director and Country Manager and Anurag Mehta National Sales Manager of Michelman India in which got to know a bit more about the company’s Innovation facility coming up in Mumbai. As Shailesh Nema said, “Already in an advanced stage of fitting out, the Michelman Innovation Centre for Coatings (MICC) should be ready with its dual station cutting edge technology pilot line capable of coating, printing and laminating in January 2018 and we are looking at starting it up with a grand inauguration on 31st January 2018. The facility is located in central Mumbai with close proximity to Mumbai airport, so packaging professionals can fly in and out the same day.”
The discussion centred around Michelman India’s plans of involving the industry to use the pilot line to develop new structures using locally manufactured substrates and laminates. Apart from maintaining a set of substrates, the Michelman Innovation Centre for coatings facility will provide formulations of Michelman’s primers, coatings and extrusions that can be tried and tested. “We already have enquiries from several companies who are ready with new ideas and are keen for us to start up the innovation facility. Let me also make it clear that the technical services and solutions provided at Michelman Innovation Centre for Coatings in Mumbai will be provided by us, free of charge.” said Nema.
Michelman India shall provide their infrastructure and capability to build different prototypes of packaging structure for their business partners.
Michelman offers sustainable water-based technologies that can increase the safety and shelf life of food products. Recent innovations include oxygen barrier, safety from mineral oil migration, moisture and water-resistant and oil and grease resistant coatings. Nema further apprised us that “The doubling of coating manufacturing capacity at Michelman’s plant in Singapore is planned keeping in mind the particularly fast growing packaging market in India.”
Michelman’s water-based barrier coating solutions makes mono material structures capable of replacing existing multilayer structures. These coatings are compatible with packaging substrates such as PET, BOPP, PE and paper and offer FDA compliant substrates for direct food contact.
Michelman has also developed a topcoat solution that allows for better machinability of AlOx. The coating protects the brittle AlOx layer, as well as prevents barrier performance loss during printing and converting. This also prolongs the shelf life of the packaged contents. This technology has aroused keen interest globally including the Indian market. Nema added that, “Several companies in India are looking at the Michelman AlOx solution and are quite keen on becoming first movers in the industry.”
Nema’s key message to brands, film manufacturers and converters is, “Come, innovate with us and let’s develop sustainable solutions.”
