Plain and Printed Laminates

Plain and Printed Laminates

In the world of flexible packaging, Laminates are combinations of different or similar films designed to optimise the mechanical and functional properties of each single film which when glued together with an adhesive, so acting to multiply the performance of the individual films. Adhesives are typically solvent free systems but can be solvent, water, UV, extrusion or hotmelt systems.

Typical laminate combinations include:

• PET/PE. Clear or metallised Polyester (PET) laminated to LDPE film in a typical 12/50 or 12/70 combination. Clear PET film can be reverse printed or surface printed and the PE film can be selected to offer the desired performance properties such as peelability or modified to have high hot tack, etc.

• CPP/BOPP. Can offer the high seal strength performance of CPP film with the outstanding optical and mechanical properties of BOPP film. Again with reverse or surface print in a wide variety of gauge combinations and surface finishes including matt.

• PET/Alu/PE. This typical triplex structure incorporates Aluminium foil for improved oxygen and light barrier performance for food stuffs such as ground coffee where quality deteriorates rapidly on exposure to Air.

• Infinite Laminate Combinations & permutations. In fact the list is truly infinite. You can select type Ionomer sealing layers where product contamination of the sealing area is a problem, in combination with any of the other materials you may choose. You can have evoh clear gas barrier films or evoh/pa/pe coex films or peelable films or evoh/pa/ps.

And all these can be supplied printed flexo or gravure and/or coated with cold seal coatings.

Gravure print does by consensus give a higher quality product than other printing methods but traditionally higher origination costs have made it only suitable for longer runs. New technology is now available in Europe for the first time to allow simultaneous automated cylinder changing and less set up waste through "electronic line shaft" technology, which when combined with origination charges that are competitive with flexo, brings the option of gravure print to the short run brand owner!