The Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics at Clemson University is a one-of-a-kind facility where industry professionals and students mesh together on a daily basis. Mixing top-tier academics with an average of 600 businesses each year, a montage of design strategy permeates the facility.

Major sponsors of the institute include Harris Smith, EskoArtwork, OMET, Mimaki, Environmental Inks and Coatings, Luxology, CapePack, TOPS, Asahi and (most recently) Roland. 

Roland has generously placed one of their large-format digital UV-printing and die-cutting systems, a VersaUV LEC-330, at the institute. The printer enables designers from any background to enter into the packaging workflow seamlessly. Substrates are virtually limitless. More than 70 different materials can be simulated (even clear varnish), as well as instant, shrink-ready and color-accurate proofs. 

Institute powers up foodservice packaging by integrating innovative printed electronics

One innovative use of the unit is by graduate researcher Alexandra Hartman, who is studying printed electronics. Her most recent project involves creating an interactive children's to-go food package (see image) that uses trace-work designs around the principle of circuitry, printing a conductive silver ink to bridge micro-speaker technology. A recordable speaker was reverse-engineered to enable a package to emit sounds when activated. The speaker was looped into a printed electrical system on a paper substrate. Using conductive adhesives, the circuit is completed through a Z-axis transition. 

The system enables the user (a child) to interact with the to-go package. A game toy was designed to activate the electrical circuit and play pre-recorded audio clips when placed on special locations around the packaging. The audio bridged with pictorial images to aid in comprehension and learning.

The entire system was digitally prototyped in the Sonoco Institute's EskoArtwork Packaging Supply Chain Laboratory. The paperboard substrate was designed via ArtiosCAD, and embellished three-dimensionally through Adobe Illustrator and EskoArtwork's Studio Toolkit plugins. The game pieces were designed in Solidworks and paperboard inserts were created to hold components in place. From here, the students were able to note possible design flaws, visually confirm how the products and the packaging interact, and prep for rapid prototyping, printing and cutting. 

Not only do the high-quality colors and print add to the appeal of this functional package, the system's ability to print clear ink on top of the functional device allowed the packaging to appear three-dimensional from a flat substrate, and further immerses the user into the realism of the packaging.

Written by R. Andrew Hurley, faculty. and Alexandra Hartman, graduate student, at Clemson University's Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design and Graphics (www.clemson.edu/sonoco_institute). Contact Andrew Hurley at 864/650-4954.

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