Influence of Process Parameters on the Product Quality in Active Media-Based Forming of Paper

Reducing plastic waste is an important challenge in the consumer goods industry´s transformation towards greater sustainability. Natural fibre-based materials such as paper can already partially substitute plastic-based packaging. Shells with wrinkle-free sealing areas, as needed for gastight packaging, can be achieved by active media-based forming. Nevertheless, the specific material properties of paper, such as limited plastic elongation or anisotropy, pose challenges regarding the products quality. The evaluation of the geometric characteristics of formed paper products and how they can be adjusted by appropriate selection of process parameters has been mostly empirical. This paper presents an approach for the quantitative evaluation of the product quality in the active media-based forming of paper. The methodology is applied to different materials, material conditions and process parameters to evaluate the factors influencing the products geometry. A systematic evaluation of the experiments reveals that using material-adapted process control enables a significant increase in geometric flexibility.