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Eco-friendly packaging such as moulded pulp products have gained commercial importance in the recent years. However, it remains a greatly under-researched area, and there is an arising need to consolidate the best practices from research and industry in order to increase its implementation. The goal of this paper is to give an overview of the main aspects involved in the manufacture of moulded pulp products. This includes a classification of moulded pulp products, historical and current applications, production processes, materials, mechanical properties and environmental sustainability. Moreover, based on the latest research in the field, an innovative drying technique that utilizes concepts derived from impulse drying is presented, and the implementation of this process technology is discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTIONMoulded pulp products, also referred to as moulded pulp or moulded fibre products, are primarily used for the packaging of manufactured products and for food-related carriers, such as food containers and serving trays. Because of form (geometry) and aesthetic limitations, moulded pulp products have mostly been limited to the egg tray market for many years. However, demand is now increasing because of their sustainable qualities.1 Environmental, social and economic concerns result in a growing search for more sustainable products and industrial processes. As it consists simply of water and wood fibres (i.e. primarily cellulose), moulded pulp is a renewable material and a biodegradable solution. The manufacturing process includes the recovery of discarded materials from manufactured and recycled products made of wood fibres, such as cardboard, newspapers and magazines. These qualities have enabled growing adoption within the packaging industry. Companies are eager to embrace alternatives to oil-based forms of packaging, because of government regulations and customer demands. Increasing R&D effort for standardizing design and testing practices is essential in order to meet the growing demand for eco-packaging with high-quality features.Reviews of the historical development in industrial applications of moulded pulp packaging, recent manufacturing innovations in the field and an overview of an industrial scenario in the UK are 5 While these articles give great insight into historical developments, they are outdated, and they report few of the recent innovations within the field. Consequently, not enough attention has been given to the different manufacturing processes, and there is a gap related to environmental considerations. By means of a comprehensive review, this paper fills the identified research gap by describing wide-ranging aspects of the manufacturing process of moulded pulp. The research method adopted in collecting and reviewing the publications focused the literature survey exclusively to moulded pulp. It excluded similar products used in the packaging industry, such as cardboard or honeycomb panels.The content has been organized to present the main aspects ...

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 Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.  You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain  You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.

Injection compression molding (ICM) provides enhanced optical performances of molded polymer optics in terms of birefringence and transmission of light compared to Injection molding (IM). Nevertheless, ICM requires case-dedicated process optimization to ensure that the required high accuracy geometrical replication is achieved, particularly especially in the case of surface micro-features. In this study, two factorial designs of experiments (DOE) were carried out to investigate the replication capability of IM and ICM on a micro structured Fresnel lens. A laser scanning confocal microscope was employed for the quality control of the optical components. Thus, a detailed uncertainty budget was established for the dimensional measurements of the replicated Fresnel lenses, considering specifically peak-to-valley (PV) step height and the pitch of the grooves. Additional monitoring of injection pressure allowed for the definition of a manufacturing signature, namely, the process fingerprint for the evaluation of the replication fidelity under different process conditions. Moreover, considerations on the warpage of parts were related to a manufacturing signature of the molding processes. At last, the global part mass average and standard deviation were measured to correlate local geometrical replication performances with global part quality trends.