Plas "smart packaging" showcases the innovation strength of Wuliangye's "Great Power Fragrance"

Inside a tiny 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 dedication have forged today's extraordinary achievements. Plas has built a complete industrial chain from raw materials to finished products and has become a leading large-scale modern packaging enterprise whose main business covers three major industries - smart packaging, functional materials and deep processing, and home decoration - with outstanding core capabilities and clear comprehensive advantages.

Innovation Leap: A Packaging Industry Leader That Started from Workshop 615

Along with the development of Wuliangye Group 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 brilliant rising 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 followed by independent innovation". It has obtained 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, we hold more than 100 patented technologies for bottle caps alone," said Hu Changhong, recipient of the honorary title of "Sichuan Craftsman" and head of the "Model Worker Innovation Studio" at Plas.

R&D and application of packaging industry technologies is a key innovation field for Plas. The Plas technical team represented by Hu Changhong insists on technological innovation driving corporate development and has successfully developed and produced the core components and breakage-based anti-counterfeiting technology for the eighth-generation Wuliangye bottle cap.

At present, Plas's bottle cap products have evolved from simply meeting sealing functions in the past to meeting multiple functions of sealing, food safety and anti-counterfeiting. They not only improve the consumer opening experience but also incorporate professional industrial design concepts. These "high-tech" and "high-aesthetic" 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 production base for large all-plastic caps and a world 3D packaging center, Plas possesses 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 care 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-alcohol-content baijiu. At present, all materials for bottle caps and box bodies are developed in-house, which strongly guarantees food safety and functional requirements," said Wang Shatong of the "Model Worker Innovation Studio" at Plas.

The application of new materials has driven the vigorous development of the functional materials and deep processing industry and has developed new, safer alternative packaging materials for the baijiu packaging industry, allowing 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 Wuliangye Group but also sold externally," said Hu Changhong.

Plas has now established a production base for PET polyester bottle chips and functional materials in western China and has successfully developed a number of products with independent intellectual property rights through functional polymer synthesis modification, polyester chip blending modification, functional polymer blending modification and other routes.

Digital Empowerment: "Smart Packaging" Leads the Upgrading and Development of the Modern Packaging Industry

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

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

The anti-counterfeiting and traceability system and the "physical + information" anti-counterfeiting mark provided by Plas 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 optically variable, holographic hot stamping and information anti-counterfeiting, with first-, second- and third-line anti-counterfeiting identification features. The overall packaging structure achieves 7-code interconnection, which can meet the usage needs of different groups such as suppliers, stores and consumers," said Hu Changhong.

The smart packaging featuring "high anti-counterfeiting, high aesthetics, high experience and high premium" realizes "one item, one code". It uses advanced IoT technology to complete full life-cycle data collection and whole-process traceability for suppliers, production lines, warehouses, transportation, stores and consumers. This not only allows consumers to enjoy more product services but also provides basic data support for manufacturers and brand owners in digital marketing and digital management. At the same time, relying on accumulated data assets, Plas provides domestic and overseas customers with integrated smart packaging services covering the "whole industrial chain and whole value chain".

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