Saturday 11 April 2009

TETRA PAK

www.tetrapak.com

I like Ruben Rausing. He seems like a cool guy. Studying economics in the 20s and seeing the coming changes in society caused by industrialisation and urbanisation and the problems of feeding a crowded city:
Ruben Rausing started to build up a packaging industry, which considerably contributed to the restructuring of Swedish retailing, a modernisation, which led to self-service, convenience shopping and supermarkets. A primary objective was to replace bulk selling of unpacked goods with consumer adapted packaging for flour, sugar and salt. Another product, which was both perishable and demanded a lot of management, was milk. How could bulk milk and the unpractical glass bottle be replaced?
Rausing's idea, inspired by his wife, was to create a continuous paper cylinder filled with milk which was then sealed, eliminating trapped air and improving shelf life. Think of those sausage machines, where the filling is fed into the casing continuously and sealed at fixed intervals. Think of that, but milky:



The original Tetra Paks were tetrahedral in shape, which I guess is where the name comes from, and looked quite neat:



Now, Tetra Pak offer nine different packaging forms:



Left to right:
  • Tetra Recart "Beef stew, or macaroni cheese? Now you can pack food you would normally pack in cans or glass jars in the environmentally friendly Tetra Recart"
  • Tetra Fino Aseptic "The no-nonsense package specially designed to pack all kinds of milk, juice and teas"
  • Tetra Rex "Probably the world's most popular and widespread carton package"
  • Tetra Gemina Aseptic "Combines modern, eye-catching looks and a fresh image with the convenience, safety and nutritional benefits of aseptic packaging"
  • Tetra Wedge Aseptic "A great way for young people to express their personality through what they drink"
  • Tetra Prisma Aseptic "A premium package that's ideal for high quality fruit juices, flavoured enriched and cultured milks, iced teas and organic products"
  • Tetra Brik Aseptic "Easy to store, safe and hygenic" (A non-aseptic version for chilled products is also available)
  • Tetra Top "The package that adds real shelf confidence to your products"
  • Tetra Classic Aseptic "Stands out from the packaging crowd"
The machines used to process and fill these cartons are very impressive. Look at this:



Who could have imagined a machine as huge as that would be simple enough to be operated by a woman?

I love watching footage of industrial production lines.



The clips here are beautiful too. I especially like the last clip ("Paketering i Tetra, Brik och Pure Pak, ca 1965") with that jolly little background music which about halfway through sounds like it's about to mutate into the instrumental version of (I've Got A) Golden Ticket used over the titles of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Think of that, but milky.

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