Look east young converter

The imminent closure of a significant amount of UK production capacity announced by Amcor and Alcan is in direct response to extreme competitive pressures shaping the UK flexible packaging industry, notes a new study from market intelligence firm PCI Films Consulting.

'The European Flexible Packaging Market 2006' concludes that in spite of continuing plant rationalization, the €9.3billion West European converted flexible packaging market continues to be over-supplied. Much of it is deemed not competitive, due to its high cost base. In addition, a trend by leading brand owners to switch food production and packaging out of the UK, often to plants in the new member countries of the EU, is forcing suppliers of flexible packaging to follow suit. While the leading multiplant converters in Western Europe are in a position to rationalize and relocate their capacity to meet these changes, many small and medium sized West European converters cannot and are expected to suffer. PCI notes increased interest in industry rationalization and additional plant closures are expected to balance supply and demand.

Overall, the study forecasts European demand for converted flexible packaging growing at 1.4 per cent/year from €9.3B in 2005 to approaching €10B by 2010, but expects growth in Western Europe to remain at less than one per cent per annum over this period. In contrast, demand growth in Central and Eastern Europe is forecast at approaching 7 per cent/year as packaging applications continue to evolve.

In terms of the supplier base, Alcan Packaging and Amcor continue to retain their market leadership in 2005, accounting for around 30 per cent of the European market (see table).

Specialist producer of blown film lines of most types Hosokawa Alpine (UK agent is Edlon Machinery) has over the last 10 years pioneered a range developed for monoaxial orientating a single or multi layer film. By literally stretching in one direction lineally along the web, a new film is created that will have different characteristics. This may be designed for strength; 'stiffness'; barrier properties; transmittance or opacity of mineral filled film, for example.

Orienting improves the properties of PE films in a similar way to that of PP films. The demand for 'down gauging' and the new developments of raw material manufacturers in this field cause an ever increasing interest in film orienting from film manufacturers.

OPE opportunity

The polymer suppliers seem to have recognized a potential for oriented PE films and already offer blown PE resin types, which after orienting are claimed to have the same optical properties as OPP and in some cases partially better stiffness and tensile strength, reports Alpine. The company offers trials on a freestanding line in its technical centre in Augsburg, Germany.

The orienting machine may be free standing or in line with an extruder. The process involves pre-heating the extruded film sheet through a series of rollers, orienting, annealing and finally cooling before rewinding. The ratio of linear stretching can be up to 1:10, and therefore the rewind speed is considerably faster than the inlet or unwind speed. Typical line speeds can be in excess of 200m/min and inlet film can be at any weight typically up to 500 micron and at widths in excess of 2,600mm.

Also highlighting the importance of reduction of resin costs through film down gauging, Windmöller & Hölscher's subsidiary Reinhold presented its Varex blown film line and new HSF high speed tuber at an open house in the extrusion lab in Lengerich, in July. The tuber is designed for the production of gussetted tubing with a longitudinal seam intended for form, fill and seal (FFS) systems.

FFS film tubing is conventionally extruded on blown film lines with an in-line gussetter. However, drawback of sacks made from this film lies in the weakening of the material in the area of the gusset edges, which, because of the strain the material is exposed to during the folding process, are liable to lose up to 20 per cent of their original strength. This results in the risk of gusset edge fracture and product loss. As an alternative to the in-line production of gussetted tube stock the company demonstrated a two-step process using a high-speed tuber capable of speeds up to 300m/min.

Making FFS film tubing from a flat web is advantageous in more than one respect, says Reinhold. It provides increased efficiency of extrusion, particularly when it comes to small size sacks, flexibility with film dimensions through multiple up slitting, superior film strength as a result of greater blow-up ratios, and intact gusset edges as the film is supported by an air cushion during gusseting. This allows for a reduction in film thickness by up to 20 per cent without sacrificing any of its physical strength, while at the same time providing a major potential for resin and, of course, cost savings, boasts the company.

Careful handling of the delicate gusset edges is also assisted during winding of the film tube on a Filmatic ASK winder. An oscillating winding process is provided with minimum pressure on the gusset edges, adds W&H. In addition to standard heavy duty sack material, the high speed tuber can handle multilayer products such as those tailored for pet food packaging applications.

DuPont Packaging has launched Biomax Strong, an additive that is designed to improve the performance of bio based, biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) packaging. Considered a sustainable alternative to petrochemical derived products, polylactic acid (PLA) may also be composted in industrial facilities. However, despite its strong attributes and allure, packaging and industrial products made of PLA have been hindered by performance deficiencies that include brittleness and decreased durability when compared with the competing petroleum derived plastics.

Biomax Strong is a petrochemical additive that is claimed to improve the toughness and reduce the brittleness of PLA materials. It is said to enhance their impact strength, flexibility and melt stability. When used at the recommended levels, between one to five per cent of weight, it outperforms competing products with improved toughness and minimal impact on transparency, says DuPont.

“The transparency aspects give us a strong competitive position versus other tougheners currently being tried. Biomax Strong has good contact clarity at the recommended levels and provides a much clearer container than other alternatives,” said Shanna Moore, global market manager. The additive still allows the material to meet the compostability requirements. Two grades of Biomax Strong will be made commercially available: Biomax Strong 100 is available now and was developed for use in packaging where no regulatory food compliance is necessary. The second grade, Biomax Strong 120, is expected to be ready in three to six months and was developed to comply with food contact regulatory requirements.

One way to contain costs and make better use of finite material resources is to ensure that the amount of material produced and supplied to customers is exactly right, says Arrowhive Equipment's Philip Fletcher. “Yet few material producers can even guarantee that the material wound into master rolls and shipped out to a converter for further processing is exactly the length it should be. Equally, this applies to the converting of secondary rolls. Not only do companies regularly give away a fortune in excess material because they have no way of ensuring that the wound rolls are of the correct diameter, but also they may not be able to measure process variables such as elongation or shrinkage.”

The Proton InteliSENS SL range of laser Doppler non contact speed and length gauges monitors shrinkage or expansion/elongation of materials and is designed to ensure that the roll sent out is an agreed length of 2m diameter, not 2.4 or 2.5. One customer of Arrowhive has calculated that they will save in excess of £40,000/year in material costs.

In addition it can be used to ensure the accuracy and synchronization of rollers on converting machinery (including winders); it provides for precise cut-to-length control and can be used to determine the degree of control/slip between material webs and drive elements, and for the analysis of speed variation on the process line - laminating, film extrusion, label printing (release liner/labelstock synchronization), says Arrowhive.

Micro perforated films allow tailoring of the OTR (oxygen transfer rate) to suit the application, for example MAP or cigarette filter tips. Equipment from Micro Laser Technology, of Kirchheim, Germany, can be easily retrofitted onto production machinery such as slitter rewinders. Inspection monitoring and on-line porosity metrology is available.

The Micro LaserTech.MLP 5 perforates a maximum of four rows and up to 48,000 holes/s at an average web speed of 300m/min. It is claimed to perforate hole-to-hole quality, which results in a minimum standard deviation and high reliability. The machine is a “ready for production system” integrating the Micro Perforator and the CO₂ laser source. Optical pulse frequency is up to 48,000 holes/s (four rows) or 12,000/single row. Hole diameter is 50 -120 micron, depending on material type and thickness.

Anglian Flexible Coatings, the specialist coating & laminating company based in the UK, has launched a Self Cling Coating. When applied to film surfaces such as LDPE, HDPE, OPP, polyester and metallized films in thicknesses from 12 micron upwards it enables the materials to adhere to glass, chrome and smooth plastics surfaces such as dry wipe dustboards. Providing the surfaces are free from dust coated materials can be removed and repositioned onto the surface when required. It is said to have excellent clarity. The company can take a printed film, over coat the printed surface of the film with the Cling Coating and protect it with a filmic carrier. This can then be converted into sheets. Alternatively, inkjet/laser films can also be coated and laminated to a filmic liner, to enable printing at home or in the office.

A flat die system said to produce films and coatings with an order-of-magnitude greater number of layers than conventional coextrusions has been launched by Extrusion Dies Industries, (EDI).

Layers multiplied

Yielding microlayer structures that improve moisture and gas barrier, encapsulate gels and ‘un-melts,’ and enable manufacturers to make more economical use of high cost materials, it was announced at NPE 2006. Microlayer technology will become widely used in barrier packaging, according to EDI.

The technology is based on a patented ‘layer multiplier’, system licensed from Dow by EDI. In a typical configuration, three or more extruders feed melt streams into an EDI-streamlined feedblock, which produces a uniform multi layer ‘sandwich’; this in turn is fed into a layer multiplier device built by EDI using Dow's patented design. In this device the layers are multiplied in stages: for example, three layers are multiplied into 12, which are multiplied into 48. The finished micro-layer structure is then distributed in an EDI coextrusion manifold to the target product width.

“We still do not know the practical upper limit,” said EDI president and ceo Timothy Callahan, “but in my opinion it is possible to produce 50 micron film with 80 layers.” EDI's microlayer technology integrates the Dow layer multiplier into a complete custom engineered system that includes the die, feedblock, and other tooling components for distributing the complex structure into a finished extrudate. Key properties of a polymer do not decrease proportionately with layer thickness; microlayer technology makes it possible to economize on costly high performance resins while still achieving target properties. In oriented PET film, for example, layers of more expensive high intrinsic viscosity (IV) resins can be combined with layers of low IV grades. The resulting film properties are superior to those of film produced from a physical blend of high IV and low IV PET grades.

In addition, the greater the number of layers, the less the likelihood of breakage caused by pinholes in film, particularly in biaxially oriented products subjected to post extrusion stretching. The same polymer exerts different effects on end product properties according to whether it is distributed into one or two layers or into many super-thin layers. Layer-multiplier technology makes it possible to produce film that is more flexible, for example, without reducing the overall amount of a rigid polymer used as one of the raw materials, Callahan said. “Microlayer coextrusion also promises to speed the incorporation of nanocomposites in food packaging for enhanced barrier, thermal, and mechanical properties.” The company will license the Dow technology to customers

What is believed to be the world's first biodegradable barrier technology for films will debut at SPF 2006, the Maack Business Services films conference being held at the Dusseldorf Hilton on October 24 and 25. The technology, based on a blend of silicon oxide (SiOx, for the barrier) and PLA has been developed by Alcan Packaging.

The Alcan presentation is one of 26 that will be given during the global business forum by suppliers of materials, equipment and technology, as well as by film makers and by major end users. It will be complemented in a session on biodegradable materials by presentations from Mater-Bi supplier Novamont, starch based film supplier Plantic, and by PLA processor Maag.

The preceding barrier packaging session will feature: new transparent, retortable high barrier resins from Eval/Kuraray; new developments in EVOH for stretch and shrink films from Nippon Gohsei; a look from Dow at how PVdC can be used on multilayer blown film lines together with higher temperature polymers such as polyamide, PP and LLDPE; the latest look at oxygen scavengers by Ciba; and a review of compliance testing from the Fraunhöfer Institut.

European converted flexible packaging sales by major converting groups 2005

Company Sales €M Market Share %

Alcan Packaging 1,500 16

Amcor Flexibles 1,280 14

Constantia 570 6

Sealed Air Cryovac 410 4

Clondalkin Group 350 4

Wipak 270 3

Huhtamaki 265 3

United Flexibles 265 3

Bemis 250 3

Mondi Packaging 250 3

Others including imports 3,880 41

TOTAL EUROPEAN CONSUMPTION 9,290 100

Source: PCI Films Consulting /Industry estimates