Material System - TX

Material System: a material or material construction that a supplier uses across a range of packaging components, and that carries one compliance profile. A Material System is often known in the market by a brand, range or technology name.

This concept was first published as Material Platform. It was renamed because "material platform" is already an established term in fashion and apparel.

Full definition

• A Material System is the material base that packaging components are built on. It can be a single material or a construction of several: layers, coatings, print, technologies. Examples: a specific PET resin, a glass furnace profile, a board with a defined ink system, a laminate of up to seven layers, a coating for beverage cans.
• A Material System with only one material is still a Material System. "System" refers to the compliance boundary, not to the number of materials.
• Compliance is a property of the Material System, not of the individual packaging component. One furnace, one compliance profile. One resin, one compliance profile. Compliance questions arrive at component level, which is the wrong granularity.
• Material Systems already exist commercially and usually already have names, because suppliers market them as products (for example PrintKote, Stretotheen, Optilayer, Nitro Cans). Use the name the industry already uses.

Prove without revealing

Everyone wants transparency, but nobody wants to be transparent. The Material System resolves this.

• The supplier shares the compliance profile of the Material System, not its composition.
• Example: a beverage can coating marketed as X73. The supplier is willing to share the PPWR compliance profile of X73, but not its exact material composition.
• Conformity is proven at Material System level. The recipe stays with the supplier.

Identity

• One Material System ID
• One compliance data set
• One stable Digital Link resolving to it (GS1 Digital Link, ISO/IEC 18975)

When is it a new Material System

• New Material System: a change in material construction, coating or ink system that changes the compliance profile.
• Same Material System: a change in format, dimension, cutter guide or print image.

Position in the model

• Material System: material level. One compliance profile per material construction.
• Packaging Master: groups packaging components that share material composition, ink or coating system and geometry. A Packaging Master is built on one or more Material Systems.
• Packaging System: a unique combination of Packaging Masters. One dossier per Packaging System.

What it is not

• Not a materials database.
• Not a raw material specification.
• Not a disclosure of composition.

Example: the leverage

300 customers each order 30 printed boxes: 9,000 items and potentially 9,000 compliance questions. They all share the same board, ink system and compliance profile. Do not assess compliance 9,000 times. Assess the Material System once.