Plas's "Smart Packaging" Showcases the Innovative Power of Wuliangye's "Great-Nation Strong Aroma"

Inside a small plastic bottle cap lies the quality code of Wuliangye's "Great-Nation Strong Aroma". Sichuan Yibin Plas Packaging Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Plas") is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wuliangye (000858.SZ) and produces plastic bottle caps and other packaging materials for Wuliangye. More than 20 years of quiet hard work have forged today's extraordinary achievements. Plas has built a complete industrial chain from raw materials to finished products and has become a large modern leading enterprise in the packaging industry, mainly engaged in three major industries — "smart packaging, functional materials and deep processing, and home decoration" — with outstanding core capabilities and obvious comprehensive advantages.

Innovation Leap: a packaging industry leader that came all the way from Workshop 615

Along with the Wuliangye Group's development into a large modern enterprise group, Plas, as one of its diversified businesses, has also undergone leapfrog growth and expansion. From Workshop 615, which specialized in producing anti-counterfeiting plastic bottle caps in 1997, to a dazzling new star of China's packaging industry with annual revenue of more than 7 billion yuan, Plas has walked an innovation path of "introduction and absorption, then independent innovation", accumulating more than 300 authorized patents, and has been awarded the titles of "National Industrial Design Center", "China Smart Packaging R&D Center for Alcoholic Beverages" and "Sichuan Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Functional Polyester Materials".

"We introduced foreign patented technologies and production equipment, started our first production line, and soon set up our own technology development department to begin independent innovation. After more than 20 years of development, for the bottle cap product alone we have more than 100 patented technologies," said Hu Changhong, holder of the honorary title of "Sichuan Craftsman" and head of Plas's "Model Worker Innovation Studio".

R&D and application of packaging industry technology is a key innovation area for Plas. The Plas technical team represented by Hu Changhong insists on technology innovation driving enterprise development, and has successfully developed and produced the core components of the eighth-generation Wuliangye bottle cap and its tamper-evident anti-counterfeiting technology.

At present, Plas's bottle cap products have moved from simply satisfying the sealing function in the past to meeting multiple functions of sealing, food safety and anti-counterfeiting. They not only improve the consumer's opening experience but also incorporate professional industrial design concepts; the "high-tech" and "high-appearance" bottle caps have earned Wuliangye unanimous praise from consumers and the packaging industry.

As the pioneer of deep-cavity thin-wall injection-molded transparent boxes, a domestic large-scale production base of all-plastic caps and a world 3D packaging center, Plas has a world-advanced cluster of automated equipment and has formed an anti-counterfeiting plastic packaging industry cluster, with product areas covering alcoholic beverages, beverages, condiments, dairy products, medical and health products, and daily chemicals.

"To improve the safety of raw materials, in 2014 we replaced all PC material (polycarbonate) with PET material (polyester resin), so as to meet the special storage requirements of high-proof baijiu. At present, the materials for all bottle caps and box bodies are developed by ourselves, effectively safeguarding food safety and functional requirements," said Wang Shatong of Plas's "Model Worker Innovation Studio".

The application of new materials has driven the vigorous development of the functional materials and deep processing industry, developing new and safer alternative packaging materials for the baijiu packaging industry and enabling Plas to gradually grow into a leader in the baijiu packaging materials industry. "The transparent material of the packaging box and the transparent PET material inside the bottle cap are our functional materials; they are not only supplied to the Wuliangye Group but also sold externally," said Hu Changhong.

Plas has now established a production base in western China for PET polyester bottle flakes and functional materials, and has successfully developed a number of products with independent intellectual property rights, such as functional polymer synthesis modification, polyester chip blend modification and functional polymer blend modification.

Digital Empowerment: "Smart packaging" leads the upgrade and development of the modern packaging industry

Digital transformation is an important strategy of the Wuliangye Group. Plas attaches importance to the development and application of anti-counterfeiting technology, helping to build a "digital" Wuliangye and interpreting digital "Great-Nation Strong Aroma".

As an implementing unit of China's National 863 Program, Plas was among the first to apply RFID technology (radio frequency identification) to anti-counterfeiting and traceability in alcoholic beverage packaging, and together with technical partners developed industry-leading single-chip dual-band physical anti-reuse RFID technology, which has been applied to baijiu packaging in batches.

The anti-counterfeiting traceability system and "physical + information" anti-counterfeiting mark that Plas provides for the eighth-generation Wuliangye won first place among the top ten outstanding cases of "anti-counterfeiting traceability and brand protection" released by the China Anti-Counterfeiting Industry Association in May 2022, and each year it safeguards tens of millions of bottles of Wuliangye products worth tens of billions of yuan.

"We have applied a number of advanced technologies such as micro-nano optical variable, holographic hot stamping and information anti-counterfeiting. They feature first-, second- and third-line anti-counterfeiting identification characteristics, and achieve 7-code interconnection in the overall packaging structure, which can meet the usage needs of different groups such as suppliers, stores and consumers," said Hu Changhong.

The "high anti-counterfeiting, high appearance, high experience, high premium" smart packaging achieves "one item, one code". Using advanced Internet of Things technology, it completes full-lifecycle data collection and whole-process traceability for suppliers, production lines, warehouses, transportation, stores and consumers, not only allowing consumers to enjoy more product services, but also providing basic data support for manufacturers and brand owners to carry out digital marketing and digital management. At the same time, relying on its accumulated data assets, Plas provides customers at home and abroad with integrated "full industrial chain - full value chain" smart packaging services.

In line with the trends of digital transformation and green development, Plas will continue to focus on market demand, actively explore a new "product + service" model, improve its "R&D and innovation design platform, lean manufacturing platform and big data service platform", build a green development full industrial chain of "packaging materials, packaging products, anti-counterfeiting traceability and recycling", and jointly promote the innovation and development of green smart packaging.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-379659.html