In Australia, CSIRO has established the spin-off company, Polymer Surface Technology, to commercialise its breakthrough SICOR bonding technology which has a number of application for food and beverage packaging.
SICOR is a new process that has made it possible to permanently bond, print and paint components made from low cost environmentally friendly polypropylene and other plastics.
SICOR technology has revolutionised the manufacturing cost of products involving the application of adhesives and paints including improving the adhesion of inks and laminating in a range of industries including the packaging industry.
SICOR has widespread applications in packaging and is even being used to provide speciality surfaces on plastic 'corks' for bottling wines.
The development of SICOR won its CSIRO inventor Dr W.S. (Voytek) Gutowski and his Surface Engineering & Intelligent Polymer Surfaces team at CSIRO in Melbourne, Australia, the US Plueddemann Award, 2000. The award is sponsored by Dow Corning Corporation of the United States.
The incorporation of PST follows the establishment of an internal CSIRO incubator company and quick success in securing significant new contracts.
Damien Thomas the chief executive of PST said: "These contracts have positioned the company for significant growth and include customers such as Anthony Smith Australasia (ASA) for whom PST secured development and licence agreements to develop SICOR for use with wine closures. ASA is a global leader in the production of closures.
"SICOR will also soon help build homes across the USA following the uptake of SICOR technology by a leading US buildings materials company," Thomas added.
The company claims that the SICOR technique can easily be integrated into existing manufacturing systems treating polymeric products at the required processing speeds. Once a product has been treated, any future bond with plastic will be equally strong whether the adhesive or coating is applied immediately or 12 months later.