EVENT PREVIEW | PLASTIC POUCHES


Right: Like many other manufacturers, Constantia Flexibles is working to make pouch laminates more sustainable


All-PP pouches Two companies presented details of all-polypropyl- ene (PP) pouches, which would make recycling easier. Marco Izzi, application development and technical service engineer at Basell Polyolefine in Italy, said the company offered a ‘non phthalate’ grade of PP for retortable pouches. This has been made possible by the company’s polymerisation technology, whose fifth generation of catalysts are phthalate free. Similarly, Borealis offers a number of PP grades for use in mono-material pouches. Stefan Ortner, application technology manager


Constantia offers a mono-material PE laminate


that uses oriented PE as an outer, printable layer and typical PE sealing films for the inner layer. An alternative is to use a thin barrier coating – rather than a barrier layer such as EVOH – on a PE base layer. “The combination of oriented PE, new barrier technologies and lightweight sealant layers can improve the environmental footprint of recyclable laminate structures,” he said.


Repeat performance A similar approach was presented by Lila Shpako- vsky, CTO of Israel’s Tadbik Flexible Packaging. She told delegates about her company’s Repeat technology.


It is a pouch made from multiple layers of PE film – including barrier film – laminated together. It is filled and sealed using standard packaging lines and aimed at applications such as vegetables, nuts, dried fruit and pet food. “Recyclability is part of packaging integrity,” she


said. “More easily recyclable flexible packaging will be a key driver.


for flexible packaging, told delegates that one aluminium can weighs about the same as eight stand-up pouches (SUPs) – making SUPs a sustain- able option in terms of weight reduction. However, a hard-to-recycle SUP is harder to


justify, so Borealis is one company that is trying to address this by working to convert multi-material SUPs to mono-material equivalents. He said that PP in its many forms has a broad


property window – in aspects such as thermal properties, optics and mechanics.


n Next year’s Plastic Pouches conference runs on 2-3 April 2019 in Vienna, Austria. For more details, contact Emily Renshaw on +44 117 3148111 (emily.renshaw@ami.international).


CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: � www.ami.international � www.sloop-consulting.com � www.ceflex.eu � www.cflex.com � www.tadbik.com � www.lyondellbasell.com � www.borealisgroup.com � www.toppan.co.jp/en � www.michelman.com


Barrier benefits lift pouch performance


A key attribute of pouches is often its barrier properties – allowing them to replace aluminium cans, for instance. So, the better the barrier, the more effective the pouch. Toppan Printing says that its GL


Film is a transparent barrier film has a PET base with a vapour-deposited AlOx or SiOx layer, plus a top coating layer. This is then printed, before a


48 FILM & SHEET EXTRUSION | June 2018


heat sealable film layer is added. It is available for retort and non-retort applications. It recently developed GL-LP, a mono-material barrier that combines a coated BOPP layer with a CPP sealant film and adhesive. Similarly, Michelman presented


details of its oxygen barrier coating that helps to make thinner pouches. It can be applied at low coat weight to


retain or improve on the shelf life of packaged food. The technology has been tested on peanuts, mustard and crisps. In each case, taste testing showed no difference with packaging made from conventional laminates. “It can reduce overall packaging cost by up to 25%,” said Robin Cooper, marketing strategic program manager.


www.filmandsheet.com


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