GoKawiilBut what if you could skip the adhesive altogether?
That's the idea that three firms from Germany - Fraunhofer, Hermann Ultraschall, and Henkel - have come up with.
It's no coincidence they are all German, as the country is known for its Packaging Valley, external, a hub for the packaging industry.
Their efforts to innovate are partly a bid to satisfy ever tightening regulation around commercial recycling, and rising fines for those who fall foul.
With that in mind, German research organisation Fraunhofer established the PAPURE project in 2023 to develop a laser-based heating process that can seal paper packaging without an adhesive at all.
From September, when the project is set to officially close, Fraunhofer hopes to find an industry partner to take the technology to market. Fraunhofer researchers exhibited their work at the Interpack packaging trade show in Dusseldorf in May, and are hopeful that the interest they attracted will come to fruition.
"There are not really many paper sealing technologies without any foreign materials, so it's a great technology and we feel it's likely that we can bring it to market," says researcher group leader Fabian Kayatz.
"If we are optimistic, we will have the first solution out in two years."
Also in 2023, engineering firm Hermann Ultraschall bought the rights to develop a patented ultrasonic paper sealing technology, a process which it likens to welding.
"We are really actively at the moment in discussion with several really big players in the market with the focus of bringing this technology into mass production," says Michael Baumann, the company's head of business development packaging.
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