An innovative, energy-efficient two-step manufacturing process, EcoForm, to produce CPET (Crystalline Polyethylene Terephthalate) trays for use in the food packaging industry.

Project Information

EcoForm

Grant agreement ID: 683891

DOI 10.3030/683891

Project closed

EC signature date 29 May 2015

Start date 1 June 2015

End date 31 October 2015

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Nanotechnologies

Total cost € 71 429,00

EU contribution € 50 000,00

Coordinated by

GR8 ENGINEERING LTD
United Kingdom

Objective

GR8 Engineering Limited (GR8) is a UK based SME with 85 years of combined experience and specialisation in injection moulding, injection compression moulding, stretch blow moulding and the application of Coralfoam technology. GR8 was incorporated in 2010 with the sole ambition of producing high quality plastic food packaging, specifically CPET (Crystalline Polyethylene Terephthalate) ready meal tray, using our novel EcoForm process.

The UK ready meal industry is worth £2.6B (BBC News, The Rise of Ready Meals, Feb 2013: www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21443166) and 1.3B black (CPET) trays are used in ready meal packaging in the UK annually. (Kent CC News Bulletin, pg 1: http://www.kent.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/15018/KRP-press-release-M-and-S-Sainsburys-03-July-2014.pdf). Our first target market is food packaging and provides enormous commercial potential for GR8 within the UK, Europe and globally. We know our industry, our market drivers and our buyer needs, and we aim to revolutionise the thermoforming industry with our unique EcoForm technology, growing our business to over £10M per annum in royalties and machine revenues by 2020. We will patent our processes and scale up our business to become a high-growth SME, recruiting new expert staff to enable this.

We require funding to refine and commercialise our EcoForm technology, which has been proven using a single cavity prototype of the injection mould machine and an initial prototype of the thermoforming system. We aim to progress our EcoForm process from a single cavity prototype mould to an 8 < 16 cavity production mould. Our project will drive growth and innovation into a greener food packaging sector and enable us to develop a finalised prototype in readiness for commercialisation. EcoForm has been designed with a unique environmentally based approach that offers; reduced materials wastage, faster production rates and improved design flexibility; and promises cost-effective, high volume manufacturing.

Fields of science

• engineering and technology › mechanical engineering › manufacturing engineering
• engineering and technology › other engineering and technologies › food technology › food packaging

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.2.1.2. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Nanotechnologies Main Programme
• H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument

Topic(s)

• NMP-25-2015-1 - Accelerating the uptake of nanotechnologies, advanced materials or advanced manufacturing and processing technologies by SMEs

Call for proposal

H2020-SMEInst-2014-2015

See other projects for this call

Sub call

H2020-SMEINST-1-2015

Funding Scheme

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

Coordinator

GR8 ENGINEERING LTD

• Net EU contribution: € 50 000,00
• Address: 26 ST JAMES INDUSTRIAL ESTATE WESTHAMPNETT ROAD ; PO19 7JU CHICHESTER ; United Kingdom
• SME The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed. Yes:
  Region
  South East (England) › Surrey, East and West Sussex › West Sussex (South West)
• Region: South East (England) › Surrey, East and West Sussex › West Sussex (South West)
• Activity type: Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
• Total cost: € 71 429,00