The Condition of MDSP Industry In the USA

There are now two specialized agencies on MDSP in the United States,( All are ngos), One is the SPMC commission, part of the American flexible packaging association (FPA), This is an organization for enterprises, although it was established as early as 1994 (at that time, there was no initiative on MDSP in China). But so far there are only eight members, Alcan 、Amcor 、Beacon Convertors 、Oliver 、Bemis Perfecseal 、Rollprint 、Technipaq and Tolas. But so far there are only eight members,

The author has contact with 6 companies except Beacon and Technipaq, and the two companies that are not in contact with the small print education have not yet entered the Chinese market. This is enough to explain that the industry does not need too many competitors. If the followers do not have the technical or cost advantages, they will face the outcome of being eliminated. Among the eight companies mentioned above, Tolas is a CTF that was disguised from the veteran and conservative Bemis company, one of the US soft packaging giants more than 30 years ago, so that the product line is very single. And the performance of the product is very close to Bemis's Perfecseal brand products responsible for MDSP business, such as Tweed Tyvek and the derivative bags, coils and blister packs (Tray Lid).

The latest news: on Tolas company in December 2006, Tolas company was another packaging company in the United States - Oracle bought packaging company, but this purchase is a new Oracle in the packaging market expanding a means of integration, while Tolas company will continue as before, positioning in MDSP, just found a very good partner for capital support and complementary products.

In addition, Tolas's market so far has been limited to North America, so the acquisition will have no impact on the domestic MDSP competition.

Another notable company is Rollprint standards and certification, the company's history can be traced back to 1933, the United States established flexible packaging enterprises originally is started with printing, its strength has been concentrated in areas such as research and development production and printing, film Bag, but in 1969, when one item about immediate Bag (Header Bag) reports of patent approved area MDSP become one of its major markets.

In September 2005, Rollprint and others jointly established a flexible packaging enterprise named Alliants in Singapore, which is mainly for the asia-pacific market, but has not yet entered the MDSP field on a large scale. Meanwhile, Rollprint has repeatedly scored high marks in the FPA's annual rankings in recent years, but unfortunately there is no MDSP product.

Another mdsp-related organization in the United States is the medical device packaging committee (MDPC), part of the American federation of packaging professionals (IoPP). John Spitzley, a former Medtronic executive in charge of packaging, and Curt Larsen, a senior consultant from dupont, are co-chairmen of the committee. Of course, since IoPP is a non-governmental organization and operates in a profit-oriented enterprise mode, the position of co-chairman is recommended by the industry and applied for by volunteers, which ensures the technical authority and work initiative of the personnel in the field of MDSP.

Here's a quick rundown of the basics of IoPP. IoPP is a loose organization organized by packaging practitioners themselves to better share and communicate all kinds of technical and business information. Of course, IoPP also organizes and holds many seminars on Packaging and provides professional training courses so that those who have passed will be certified as "Certificated Packaging Professionals (CPP)" by IoPP. In the United States, where the number of packaging practitioners is relatively large and the position functions are quite standard, the number of people who have passed the certification is not very large, and there are probably less than 10 people who have passed the certification outside of North America.

This is not to say that CPP certification is difficult, but by the packaging industry career status. In 2006, the most recent year for which data are available, there are about 6,000 IoPP members in the United States, of which about 1,500 are CPP members. In terms of industry regulations outside the United States, Canada has 142 IoPP members, and the rest of the world has a total of less than 100 IoPP members, including two members from the Chinese mainland (one of whom I am writing for) and six members from the Hong Kong special administrative region.In fact, in terms of the number of packaging industry employees in China, has far exceeded the number of American printing parts.

IoPP's medical device packaging committee also has 6 working groups in charge of specific affairs, including the integrity research of sterilization packaging system, packaging material technical specifications, labeling affairs, industry benchmark research, material database, industry standards and laws and regulations affairs. In addition to the first working group is currently vacant, the need for someone to apply for a voluntary version of the material, the other working groups are small head.

The Market trend of MDSP

Although the scale of MDSP market in North America is not very large, it gathers several of the most well-known companies in the industry, and it is also a stage for companies to show their technical strength and product innovation.In recent years, due to the upstream industry of MDSP - medical equipment manufacturing industry to low operating costs, labor, rich in Asia, Africa, Latin America and other regions to transfer food packaging, especially in Asia, China, the European and American big companies have led the industry to set up offices and production bases in China, such as Bemis, an Amcor, Alcan, Wipak, Prent (first-class high-end blister box of suppliers in the United States, part of the market in the field of medical apparatus and instruments) and the upcoming Oliver, etc.

The operation of the project is from the United States, Mexico, and Ireland, turned from the electronic commerce in these projects, high-end customers will stubbornly requires the use of them in the country of origin for years has been using the same material or product, and medium and low-end customers may give some room for change, but also very careful to do some necessary verification work.

At present, there are two main trends in the development of MDSP in foreign countries: one is the use of functional materials made by relying on high technology to achieve some special sterilization packaging and protection requirements of kodak, such as the use of some special functional coating and film;Secondly, from the perspective of consumer convenience, some non-technical innovative design is carried out, which can often bring unexpected experience to consumers or users, and they are very willing to accept it, such as convenient opening design, color rendering design of glue transfer interface, etc.In addition, if the use of RFID tags as one of the innovative technology, although it is not too much, but RFID tags are mainly for the field of circulation services, if the medical device products have less experience in the circulation link, or the customer base is more fixed printing detection, ordinary labels are also completely applicable.