Smart Packaging's Next Chapter: From a 1992 London Definition to an IoT-Era Hotspot

What Exactly Counts as Smart Packaging?

The term has an established definition that dates back to 1992, when experts at the 'Smart Packaging' conference in London described it as an integrated component or inherent characteristic within a package, a product, or a product-package combination. Such an element gives the packaging functions that meet specific requirements, or it is reflected in how the product itself is used.

Market Status: Moving from Concept to Cross-Industry Use

Smart packaging has already found its place in the market and can be applied across almost every product field, including electronics, food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and household goods. It increasingly extends product functionality and serves as a carrier that integrates various innovative technologies; the high-tech wave is pushing packaging toward a higher level of development.

Future Forecast: Falling Costs Open the Door to Wider Adoption

Early smart packaging technologies were generally used for high-end goods and luxury packaging. As the cost of technologies such as NFC and printed electronics declines, smart packaging will be applied more and more to lower-priced products. In the coming years, smart labels are expected to be used increasingly widely on everyday consumer goods.

Smart packaging will eventually be everywhere.

Will Smart Packaging Be the Next Market Hotspot?

The development of smart packaging depends on coordinated advances in multiple fields, especially printed electronics. With the arrival of the IoT era and the upgrading of social consumption, it is inevitable that some sectors will upgrade from traditional packaging to smart packaging. Whether it is IoT smart packaging or functional smart packaging, there is enormous room for imagination and a vast potential market.

Zhongke Tiangong, as a provider of overall solutions for unmanned smart packaging factories, is committed to building unmanned smart packaging factories. The company has been increasing its investment of manpower and resources in the development of smart packaging technologies, and keeps pace with China's transition from industrialization to informatization, focusing on tracking new trends in smart technology, promoting mature technologies, and reducing costs.

Looking at the development trend of the smart packaging industry, both end-user demand and industry-side demand provide a huge market. Smart packaging will become the core driving force for the development and industrial upgrading of the printing and packaging industry, and it is also a technological high ground that leading printing and packaging companies must compete for.

—This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-350092.html