Technical standards to hand

University degree course in Packaging Science and Technology, the Packaging Education professional update program, “the” Packaging Technology scientific technical manual, offering the fundamentals of packaging technology: these are by now consolidated channels through which the Istituto Italiano Imballaggio has for some time now been expressing its commitment in the diffusion of the scientific culture of packaging. Over these last years, the Istituto has also developed a specific attention to the “service” of the sector companies, with the intent of supporting technicians, helping them to find their way amidst the “maze” of standards.
Under the UNI (Italian National Standards Unification Body) Packaging Commission the Istituto Italiano Imballaggio has promoted a rationalisation of the technical standards of the sector, for the benefit of the user, grouping them per subject.
In practical terms, the UNICoNTO Packaging service offered by the UNI enables the free consulting of the updated lists of specific standards. Paying a yearly or multi-year rate, one can in turn download entire documents in PDF format - 7 days a week - regarding close on 500 technical standards. One can find the UNI standards and the receival of the EN European standards, listed in 14 categories, classified so that one can read off the characteristics of the packaging material against the specific uses of the same. The offer also includes some technical standards on general topics, common to all types of packaging (ie environmental questions).
The list of the standards available is constantly updated and enables one to keep a check on the evolution of the same. The user can take out a one-off subscription lasting for chosen period for one or more users, connecting up to the address: https://conto.uni.com/UniSite/. «An important result - Istituto head Marco Sachet comments - that puts the packaging segment among the few segments to be organized in a simple and intelligible manner, for example the user does not have to know the exact title of the standard in question or its ID code before entering the site».