Bobst OneBarrier webinar suggests new sustainable PE structure

Dr Carolin Stroller senior scientist at Bobst Manchester explains the sustainability requirements of the flexible packaging value chain in the Bobst OneBarrier webinar on viii June 2021.

At its OneBarrier webinar on 8 June 2021, Dennis Hughill, the regional sales director of Bobst Manchester, introduced senior enquiry scientist Dr Carolin Struller from the visitor'south R&D at Manchester. Struller began by explaining that the CEFLEX plan has three pillars for flexible packaging sustainability that demand to exist achieved past 2025. "When looking at global market trends for sustainable, flexible packaging, the trends tin be grouped into 3 pillars of sustainability – mono-material polyolefins; compostable, biodegradable, bio-based films; and, paper or fiber-based solutions. Today, the webinar focuses on a new approach using polyolefin (PP/PE) based solutions based on a unmarried polymer family to better recyclability."

Struller said, "2025 is round the corner, and collaboration has come out of the necessity of meeting the CEFLEX goals. Make owners are also initiating discussions and developments with all the suppliers in the value chain. We are illustrating just one solution which moves us from polyester to polyolefins and from polar to not-polar structures. Additionally, nosotros take conducted various tests on our trial materials since decisions must exist based on facts."

She added that the OneBarrier approach took its definition of a mono-material from the CEFLEX guidelines. These state that the packaging structure needs to be compatible with the electric current mechanical recycling process and comprise at to the lowest degree xc% by weight of PE or PP – other components such as adhesives, coatings, and inks can each have a maximum of 5% by weight.

The presentations reiterated that the solutions crave deep collaborations between suppliers of technology, equipment, and raw materials. The webinar proposed a concept and a applied solution for a mono-material full-PE transparent construction as an alternative to metalized polyester film – a further evolution of earlier mono-material MDO PE high barrier solutions. The collaboration with Dow, Zermatt, and Sun Chemical, yielded an EVOH-free solution incorporating the AlOx GEN Ii process and eliminating the demand for a topcoat.

The OneBarrier procedure

Struller outlined the oneBarrier process, saying the first stage is the resin production by Dow – a special resin designed to maximize thermal resistance and coating and degradation reception to accomplish the barrier requirements. Next, the film was produced by Bobst customer Zermatt who used a PE diddled moving picture line with an MDO module in Spain to make 12 rolls of MDO PE film.

The MDO PE film reels were sent to Italy, where a primer layer was applied using a Vision D 850 at Bobst Italia'due south Competence Centre. Then an AlOx deposition using the Gen Ii procedure was applied on an Expert K5 vacuum metallizer in Bobst's Competence Centre in Manchester. The side by side footstep was to utilise Sunday Chemical's Paslim solvent-free bulwark agglutinative on the Nova SX 550. The overall process eliminates the need for a topcoat. The examination projection was contrary printed on a CI flexo press.

Roman Cazenave of Dow explains that the circular economy requires flexible packaging to retain its value to be of involvement to recyclers

Roman Cazenave, the group marketing director for EMEA of Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics, spoke of the need to produce flexible packaging that retains value even for the recyclers. The peculiarly adult PE resin for this culling moving picture development must accept the stiffness and optical properties that the market expects. He added that the packaging using the new structures should work well on filling and sealing machines and thus enable the direction of friction (COF) and have highly efficient heat sealing properties.

Bernd Bayer, head of R&D of Hosokawa Alpine Germany, explained how the MDO unit stretches the blown flick every bit much equally ten times but that the stretching process creates a neck and thicker edges that require trimming. The company already has 50 MDO units installed in the market. Recently it introduced the MDO 04 V+ system that heats, stretches, anneals, and cools the film, followed by its TRIO edge trimmer, which is key to economically providing a thin and flat flick structure. In add-on, the trimmed cloth is reused on the same blown motion picture line.

Richard Sandbrook deputy applied science manager Bobst Manchester explained some of the Bobst K5 Expert GenII vacuum metalizing technology features, specifically designed for thin PE materials. The Expert K5 uses a thinner metal layer to create the needed barrier with uniformity and higher transparency. It also has a plasma characteristic for introducing polarity on mono-textile PE structures.

The conversion trial summary of the bulwark properties achieved in the OneBarrier solution trial using AlOx on an MDOPE flick as shown on 8 June 2021

Struller summed upward past saying that while before mono-material solutions using MDO PE films used EVOH, the thought was to eliminate EVOH to reduce the cost and even so meet the oxygen and moisture barrier compliances and market place requirements for transparent flexible films. This was ultimately achieved using Dow's special resin and extruding it on a Hosokawa Tall blown moving-picture show line with an MDO unit and after the advisable primer coating using the AlOx Gen II process for an extremely thin metalized layer. The result was a topcoat-complimentary structure that meets the strictest compliances that inquire for less than 2% of contaminants and is significantly cheaper than the before PE MDO flick using EVOH.

Bobst says the OneBarrier solution is bachelor immediately, and information technology's ready to aid with its implementation and execution. However, this will require a considerable commitment to sustainability besides every bit expertise and testing adequacy. Every bit shown, information technology will also demand special resins, adhesives, coatings, and hardware from the respective suppliers. These are, namely, Dow and Lord's day Chemical. The main hardware components are Hosokawa Alpine's diddled moving-picture show line with its MDO 04 V+ unit, Bobst'due south K5 Expert vacuum metallizer, and its coater laminators.

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