In the first half of November, we visited the GT Packs Industries plant in Greater Noida. Ramdhan and Gagan Dhiman, the father and son, who owns the company took us around and explained their business.Essentially, the company extrusion coats and joins a variety of substrates such as paper, film, and non-woven fabrics to add the barrier properties required for their application, primarily in food, health, and pharma packaging.
Starting in 2015, the company relied primarily on its extrusion coater laminator and added 6 and 8-color rotogravure presses for printing food packaging with water-based inks apart from converting equipment.The company has plans to add a long gravure press possibly with 13 colors soon. It manufactures and exports PE coated paper, paper sachets, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) laminated fabric, BOPP laminated bags, laminated non-woven fabric, and laminated paper bags, and several other types of packaging.
Sharing the company’s experience in the recent pandemic period, Dhiman, said, “GT Packs caters to the pharmaceutical industries by producing and manufacturing the packaging for alcohol swabs, nasopharyngeal swabs, oropharyngeal swabs and laminated non woven used in PPE kits that are primarily used for Covid-19 testing.”
Generally using lighter weight paper substrates between 20 to 160 GSM, GT Packs’ packaging is used in the food industry for making salt and paper pouches, sugar pouches, packaging for tea leaves, jaggery, spices, and bandages. It primarily provides paper laminated with aluminum foil or coating, for the pharmaceutical segment. The aluminum coating provides a barrier layer for the powders such as Eno and increases the shelf life of the product. At the same time, the company’s focus is on easy-to-tear packaging and pouches.
Gagan Dhiman showed us the extrusion coater laminator (ECL) and demonstrated it in detail. The benefits of employing an extrusion coater laminator include the ability to melt low-density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic granules and extrude a thin coating of the desired polymer as wells as the ability to combine two films in a laminate using the polymer instead of an adhesive. The polymer melt forms a strong bond and an appropriate barrier layer as desired, preventing moisture and even odors from passing through the laminate.
Dhiman explained the process of extrusion in great detail to us – a process that requires expertise in low and high melt LDPE and HDPE temperatures and the control of the die and the quenching point in the surface oxidation process. The sustainability of the laminates is a highly relevant issue and Dhiman explained that they are working on a product with 50 gsm paper laminated with a 9-micron film that is bio-degradable in 4 to 5 years. The laminated paper rolls are die-cut into the appropriate shapes and sizes, while the waste paper and trims are by and large responsible recycled and pulped.
