Stefan Welker, Strategic Segment Manager for Rigid Packaging at Industrial Physics, brings deep technical expertise in aluminium packaging, quality assurance and process optimisation. He leads advancements in digitalisation, automation and precision testing across rigid and flexible formats, enabling manufacturers to enhance efficiency, lightweight safely and maintain regulatory-grade performance.
In an interview for “End-user Revolution: Aluminium’s Impact on Modern Living” e-Magazine, Welker explores how aluminium packaging manufacturers can elevate quality control from a compliance task to a strategic lever for sustainability, material efficiency and competitiveness. It covers market demand trends, sector-wise growth outlook, the impact of tariffs, digitalisation of testing systems and how advanced measurement technologies enable safe lightweighting and improved packaging performance.
AL Circle: How do you see the technical evolution in the aluminium packaging industry? What quality control solutions does your company offer for flexible packaging?
Stefan Welker: Aluminium packaging is evolving on two fronts: rigid formats like beverage cans and closures are being lightweight through tighter process control, while flexible laminates and foils are being redesigned to deliver the same protection with less metal and more recyclable structures.
In rigid aluminium, our Torus systems provide precision measurement of score depth, end curl and colour consistency – critical for safe lightweighting on high-speed can lines. In flexible packaging, the focus shifts to surface uniformity, seal strength and barrier validation.
Through technologies across the Industrial Physics portfolio – including film thickness, seal integrity, and gas permeability testing instruments – we help converters and brand owners prove that thinner foils and laminates still meet functional and regulatory performance requirements. Whether rigid or flexible, our mission is the same: enable precision, reduce waste and prove quality through data.
AL Circle: How do you foresee the demand growth for aluminium foil in flexible packaging by the end of 2025 and in the years ahead?
Stefan Welker: Aluminium foil will remain a critical material in flexible packaging through 2026 and beyond. Its unmatched barrier to oxygen, light, and moisture keeps it essential for pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and high-sensitivity foods. These applications will sustain steady demand even as the industry works to reduce total aluminium use.
Converters are redesigning multilayer laminates that once combined foil, PET, nylon, and polyethylene. New formats replace some of these layers with recyclable polyolefin films or high-barrier coatings while using thinner foil gauges to maintain protection. This shift – driven by sustainability goals and emerging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws – balances performance, weight and recyclability.
Looking ahead, growth will stem from improved material efficiency rather than new end uses: higher recycled content, downgauge foil, and better process control. Foil’s role is becoming leaner but more indispensable wherever absolute barrier performance remains non-negotiable.
AL Circle: How do your machines contribute to sustainability? Do they help packaging companies lower energy consumption and optimise operating time?
Stefan Welker: Sustainability in aluminium packaging is not only recycling at end-of-life, it begins with avoided grams at production and avoided waste in the plant. At the same time, it is important to make optimal use of machine time and thus avoid machine downtime at all costs.
Non-contact, automated, high-resolution testing is a direct enabler of safe lightweighting and identifies negative trends in the manufacturing process at an early stage – this allows a warning to be given before a defect occurs, which in turn means that the process can be adjusted in a controlled manner before a machine breaks down. If you can validate score depth, coating performance, seamer integrity and colour/ink coverage with high repeatability and statistical clarity, you can reduce metal mass with confidence. Every micron eliminated is permanent carbon avoidance. Every defective unit prevented is energy not consumed. Every downtime avoided contributes to sustainability.
In parallel, digital automation reduces rework and downtime. Predictive detection of drift extends tool life - and every avoided tool change saves carbon. So, our sustainability contribution is not abstract. It is tightly coupled to waste avoidance, tool life extension, energy conservation by avoiding over-processing, and enabling the decarbonisation potential of safe lightweighting.
To read the complete interview, click here.
