“This enables our customers to reduce their packaging weights while keeping the same protection for the contents,” explains Robin Lewis, technical product manager for Incada. The stiffness improvements have also led to a revision of Incada Exel’s grammage range to better suit the demands of the current customer base. Other substantial improvements have been made to the odour and taste properties so that Incada now comes in under the Robinson test’s detection limit of 0.6. The whiteness is increased by 7.5 units to 120 on the CIE scale. Improvements are found in the L value which is critical for colour reproduction. Runnability is also improved, so Incada will now be able to function even better in customers’ processes.

“Incada was introduced in 2001 and since then we’ve made many small changes to improve its quality,” Lewis says. “This is a big leap forward and it will definitely strengthen our market position.” The biggest change of all in relation to the production of Incada, though, has nothing whatsoever to do with printability or the economy of customers’ production processes. Incada is manufactured at Iggesund Paperboard’s mill in Workington. This spring the mill changed its energy source from fossil natural gas to biomass, which is burned in a new high-tech power plant. Overnight the mill eliminated its fossil carbon emissions from more than 190,000 tonnes a year to zero. The reduction is the equivalent of taking more than 65,000 cars off the road every year.

“This adds even more power to our sales message. Paperboard is widely seen as a very sustainable packaging material. By changing our energy source and upgrading Incada we are now at the top of the folding box board market in terms of both product properties and sustainability,” Lewis concludes. The new Incada can be ordered this autumn with deliveries beginning in November.

Caption: Iggesund is giving Incada a real facelift – whiter, lighter and stiffer.