Coex Film Multiplies Barrier While Reducing Cost

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Coex Film Multiplies Barrier While Reducing Cost

Scrap created by printing set-up is cut in half

Overview/Context

A laminated film is the typical construction for regular pouches, stand-up pouches and zipper pouches in the food industry. The outside layer is often a 48 gauge PET film that is reverse printed. To protect the printing, an inner layer of sealant film is laminated over the printed side. When an oxygen/aroma barrier is important, the outer PET film often has a PVDC coating.

The Situation
PVDC-coated PET has a number of downsides. PVDC coating doubles the cost of PET film. Since the printing process inevitably produces scrap, the scrap is doubly expensive. Also, PVDC yellows the PET, making graphics less attractive. It has a fairly high odor and it often has long lead times. There have even been some questions about its safety for use in food packaging.

The Challenge
Danafilms Sales Representative Rod McDowell saw the opportunity for a lower cost alternative and brought it to the Danafilms R&D team. He knew we had an excellent, cost-effective monolayer sealant film that was FDA-approved for food contact. Could the resin blend that created that film be coextruded with something to give it the oxygen barrier food packagers needed?

The Solution
Danafilms engineers took their deep knowledge of resin properties and designed a coextruded EVOH blend film. This film provided ten times the oxygen barrier of PVDC-coated PET. It was also less expensive, odorless, crystal clear and safe for food contact. It could seal at high production speeds through a variety of contaminants, including crumbs, food particles, moisture, grease and oil.

Using Danafilms coextruded EVOH blend sealant film allows converters to reverse-print on inexpensive PET film. The cost of scrap created by printing set-up and errors is cut in half. The cost of the overall laminated construction is also much lower.

Danafilms’ new coex film hit the market in early 2007 and has been commercially successful in trail mix packages, pet treat packages and other applications using pouches, stand up pouches and reclosable zipper pouches.