Use Laser Technologies to Redesign Your Food Packaging Strategy

Food packaging is not usually thought of as a sexy area of product design. The design of milk cartons, crisp packets and microwave meal containers has not changed much in recent years, despite a high level of competition in the grocery retail sector. But looks can be deceiving.

If you are looking for a way to make your food products stand out from other brands, packaging is actually a great place to start. By using modern technologies like laser cutting, food businesses can create complex, imaginative packaging designs that will attract the attention of customers to the delicious products inside.

Create Beautiful Branded Packaging With Laser Cutting

Laser cutting allows you to process a wide range of materials with incredible precision. You can cut foil, cardboard, paper, industrial plastics and wafer thin films to create much more intricate designs than standard processing machinery can achieve. The use of lasers has other advantages too. Analogue machinery that uses punches and blades often damages materials during processing. With laser cutting processes, all of the corners on your packaging will be flawless and you can create elegant products in an almost limitless variety of shapes.

Test Out Prototypes Before You Sell Them

Laser cutting and 3D printing also enable food manufacturers to create a selection of prototypes before they decide upon a final design. These prototypes can be subjected to physical tests and market research until you find one that appeals to consumers and delivers the physical properties that you require. It's much cheaper than using conventional machinery and allows you to be more flexible about the kind of packaging you use.

Use Laser Perforation to Keep Products Fresh

Laser technology can also be used to ensure that your packaging keeps its contents fresh. Tiny perforations can be added to plastic packaging which allow oxygen molecules to enter but keep out dust, bacteria and other contaminants. That way, fresh products can remain attractive and edible for much longer periods.

Make Card or Paper Containers Easy to Open

Laser technology can also be used to make food and beverage packaging more user-friendly. For example, laser cutting is used to score milk cartons and coffee bags so that they are both secure and easy to open when needed. In these cases, it's vital to get the depth of the channels exactly right. Too shallow, and the cartons won't open. Too deep, and they won't be shut fast.

If your company operates in the food or beverage sector, harnessing the latest technology can have many advantages. Laser cutting and perforation open up new vistas of creativity in the form that your packaging can take. They help to keep products fresh, allow you to test them cheaply and enable easy-open functions. With the cost of laser cutting devices falling, it's a technique that even small and medium sized manufacturers can explore.