● Pilot · Product development · Lemi · Finland
Molded fiber packaging — also called molded pulp packaging — is formed directly from a fibre slurry into three-dimensional products: trays, clamshells, cups, carriers and protective packaging. It is one of the fastest-growing plastic-replacement categories in foodservice and e-commerce.
Loonshot Factory is where molded fibre products get developed before production. We take your concept, your feedstock — or ours — and run the full development chain on industrial pilot equipment: pulping, refining, forming trials and laboratory validation. You leave with a documented, transferable process recipe, not a lab curiosity.
WHAT WE DEVELOP · 01
Our pulping line handles recycled textile fibre and non-wood agrofibres with no commercial molding reference in the Nordics: reed (Phragmites australis), cereal straws and oat husk, sugarcane bagasse, agave bagasse and blends. If your product story depends on a novel feedstock, this is one of few Nordic facilities that can pulp it, refine it and form it under one roof.
See agrofibre pulping →Forming pressure, temperature profiles and dwell times behave differently for every non-wood pulp. We map those parameters systematically so your process transfers to production equipment — yours or a contract manufacturer's — with data behind every setting.
Traditional molded fibre tooling takes six to twelve weeks per mold. We iterate with CNC-machined high-temperature tooling and 3D-printed prototype molds — new geometries become physical samples in days, not months. Design, form, test, revise, repeat.
On-site pulp and paper lab covers mechanical testing, moisture behaviour and furnish characterisation, with an extended external network for barrier, food-contact and compostability testing. We support EN 13432, Nordic Swan and food-contact documentation as part of the development program.
Lab & instruments →PROCESS · 02
STEP 01
Product spec, feedstock, target properties, certification requirements.
STEP 02
Batch pulping and refining trials establish the furnish window for your fibre.
STEP 03
Molding trials with prototype tooling; parameter mapping across pressure, temperature and dwell.
STEP 04
Laboratory testing against your spec; certification testing routed where required.
STEP 05
Documented process recipe and scale-up data package, ready for production investment or investor DD.
Projects enter at the depth you need — from a single trial campaign to a standing development partnership. See the four engagement tiers.
QUESTIONS · 03
The terms are used interchangeably. 'Molded pulp' historically meant thick-walled products from recycled paper slurry (egg cartons, protective packaging); 'molded fiber' now covers the whole category, including thin-walled, smooth-surface foodservice products made with thermoforming. What matters in practice is the process class: thick-wall slush molding, transfer molding, and thermoformed fiber each need different tooling, dewatering and drying strategies — and different development programs.
Manufacturers run production, not experiments. A production line is the most expensive place to discover your fiber drains too slowly, your geometry traps water, or your compostability claim doesn't survive testing. A pilot facility answers those questions early, at small scale, with instrumented equipment and lab backup — so the process you take to a manufacturer or investor is already demonstrated.
CONTACT
Tell us the product, the fibre and the target market — we will tell you what the development path looks like.
