2005 IS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF BAG-IN-BOX PACKAGING

03/30/2005 | It has been 50 years since William R. Scholle invented bag-in-box as a disposable package for battery acid. Today bag-in-box is widely accepted worldwide as a packaging technology of choice for food, beverage, and non-food liquid products.

Founded in 1946, the Chicago-based Scholle Chemical Company produced battery acid for car batteries. In 1955, Bill Scholle invented bag-in-box as a single-use disposable package for the electrolyte. Shortly after his development of bag-in-box packaging, the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Bureau of Explosives approved its use for shipping. Delco Batteries became a major customer and used the system to ship 30 million gallons of battery acid annually.

Bag-in-box packaging consists of flexible plastic bags designed to hold liquid or pumpable products within boxes, crates, drums, totes, tanks, IBCs or shipping containers. The bags always have at least one spout or fitment that is used to fill and/or empty the bag. They range in size from 1 liter to over 6,000 gallons and can be manufactured from a variety of plastic films for different applications.

Today bag-in-box packaging has become a multi-million dollar global business. Scholle Corporation remains the largest global supplier of bag-in-box packaging, manufacturing bags in 15 factories located in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America, and serving customers in over 50 countries. Bag-in-box has revolutionized the wine industry where it has increasingly replaced traditional bottles and corks; in the soft drink industry as a delivery system for fountain syrup; in the dairy industry where it is the standard container for bulk milk for dispensers; and in the food industry where tomatoes, bananas, pineapple, and other processed fruits and vegetables are aseptically packed in bags in either drums or totes.

Over the last half century, the bags have become increasingly sophisticated as technology has led to better barrier films, more ergonomic taps, and more functional connecting systems. At the same time, bag-in-box fillers have gone from single-head, manual machines to high-speed automatic rotary fillers and even form-seal-fill equipment that both manufactures the bag and fills it in one operation.

In recognition of Bill Scholle’s invention, the Packaging Education Foundation inducted him into the Packaging Hall of Fame, and he was honored in 1983 as Aimcal Man of the Year for his development of metallized polyester for liquid packaging. In 2001 the Purdue Department of Food Science posthumously recognized him with an Outstanding Food Science award, and there is now an endowed chair in his name.

Scholle passed away in 1997, but Scholle Corporation is still owned by his family and is led by his son, William J. Scholle, out of Irvine, California.