Tetra Pak has signed an agreement to acquire the electron beam (EB) lamps business of Comet Group.

Under the agreement, Tetra Pak has acquired the rights to the EB technology along with the development and manufacturing resources for these lamps. Tetra Pak is retaining 28 employees of the acquired business, whilst production of the EB lamps will continue to be sited at Comet’s manufacturing facility in Flamatt, under a rent agreement.

For Tetra Pak, the acquisition is central to its long-term strategic goals in sustainability. EB curing is noted as an environmentally friendly technology as it is less energy intensive and does not require the use of potentially harmful chemicals and constituents as necessitated by other processes. EB is also a surface technology, whereby the amount of electrons produced and the surface depth can be precisely defined. Cost has been one of the contributing factors to hold back the technology’s wider adoption and application by the print and packaging industry thus far. Tetra Pak is already utilising this technology for sterilisation of packaging during filling processes.

Laurence Mott, executive vice president, development and engineering at Tetra Pak, commented, ‘Integrating the development and manufacturing of EB in-house will enable us to further optimise the technology for packaging and enhance our low-carbon circular economy packaging equipment portfolio.’

The deal is in line with Comet Group’s strategy announced in August 2019 to focus on its core businesses of plasma control and x-ray. ebeam Technologies was the brand through which Comet Group came to market with EB technologies for label and package printing applications. This included Gaia, an industrial end-to-end inkjet production line for safe mass personalisation of indirect food contact flexible packaging and labels, developed in partnership with Uteco Group and INX Digital.

Comet Group CEO Kevin Crofton said, ‘We can now fully focus our talent and resources on our core competencies in RF plasma control and x-ray technologies that are instrumental in creating a safer, more secure, more efficient and sustainable world of manufacturing, communication and mobility.

‘We are pleased that we have found a good new home for the EB lamps business.’