Lumafield uses CT scanning to take a look inside Heinz’s sustainable ketchup cap

Jon Bruner, Head of Marketing at Lumafield, recently posted a thread on X (formerly Twitter), as well as a blog post on the company’s website showing an industrial-level CT scan of a new sustainable ketchup cap from Heinz. The fully recyclable cap is a first of its kind within the company, and was made possible through a collaboration with Berry Global.

Lumafield’s industrial CT scanning allowed for an exploration of the intricacies of Heinz’s new cap design without damaging it, even while fully assembled and closed.

The first image compares the new cap with the old cap. The old cap featured a silicone valve, which posed challenges when recycling. Describing the old cap, Bruner said on X: “There are three plastics in this cross-section. The bottle is PET, and the cap is unlabelled but likely polypropylene. Inside the cap is another material.”

 The new cap has a uniform composition of polypropylene, which simplifies recycling. Lumafield says that currently only 3% of polypropylene products are being recycled in the United States, but it is becoming more widely accepted.

Bruner explains on X that the silicone valve from the old cap is replaced by a complex set of channels and an antechamber inside the cap in the new version. Ketchup is a shear-thinning fluid that becomes less viscous as it’s deformed. The bottle being squeezed forces ketchup through these channels, where it becomes thinner and dispenses at the familiar rate.

The new cap appears as a uniform colour in the Voyager software, which indicates that it is made of the same material throughout. This scan compares it to the old cap, where the silicone valve is more dense than the surrounding plastic.

Lumafield says that industrial CT scanning plays a pivotal role in the development of sustainable packaging, as it offers a non-invasive method to analyse, refine, and perfect packaging solutions. The company says that it reduces the need for physical prototypes, which accelerates the development process, cuts down on waste, and avoid costs associated with scrapped prototypes and recalled products.