What Materials are used in Flexible Printing?
We live in a world where all kinds of goods are wrapped and stored in elastic packages. Manufacturers can shape such things as they want, ensuring convenient transportation, meeting storage requirements, and preserving food taste and fresh and appetizing appearance.
This type of wrapping has replaced rigid, bulky boxes and bottles. Producers prefer to pack both edible and inedible goods into elastic wrapping due to its availability and a large variety of shapes, and designs. The next classes are distinguished:
- films in rolls, including lidding films, used to pack goods such as cheese, sausages, and other foodstuffs;
- pillows and sachets for storing household chemicals, liquid and dry feed and care products;
- wrapping for sweets and other bulk things.
Numerous industries, including construction, food and chemical ones, can’t distribute goods avoiding this type of wrapping. Elastic wrappers from the below-mentioned materials have high barrier features, which allow meeting storage requirements and ensuring proper transportation.
The Main Chemical Components
Depending on the composition, multiple types of wrapping are chosen for packing different classes of goods. However, all the materials used for storing food and goods must meet certain requirements:
- be resistant to all sorts of impacts to ensure safe transportation and avoid crapping or breaking on the road;
- be resistant to moisture, sunlight, and vapor penetration to preserve smells and prolong shelf life;
- be resistant to extreme temperatures to allow storing both frozen and hot goods;
- high load capacity: the parameter is critical for bags, in which consumers usually put a great number of products.
- plasticity to withstand tearing.
Taking into account these requirements, the next types of flexible packaging materials are considered as the leading ones in modern industries:
- LDPE and LLDPE (a linear one), which gained their popularity due to the following advantages: high strength, elasticity, low specific gravity, and low water absorption. Meanwhile, it is not dangerous for humans and nature. Linear low-density modification has a particular chemical structure, which allows it to deal with both low and high temperatures.
- Polypropylene (PP) takes second place on the list of the top 3 most used materials around the world of consumption. Only polyethylene has managed to overtake it. The material is applied to enterprises engaged in the manufacturing of bottles for liquids, containers, and thin food films.
- Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) has a number of distinctive properties, such as excellent strength and resistance to abrasion or deformation during bending or stretching.
It is widely used in plants involved in the production of films, and preforms for cans and bottles. The final consumers are the tire and textile industries, enterprises for packaging materials and bottles, and other spheres.
- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) is a polymer of artificial origin, which has found wide application in the production of packaging. Besides of different sorts of films, it is used to make blisters and beverage bottles.
These substances are not the only modifications of polymers used for the production of wrappers. Another example of flexible packaging materials exists. HDPE is applied to the enterprises engaged in the production of containers for all sorts of liquids. While this type of plastic is widely applied in all countries of our globe, the legislations of many states try to limit its use and turn to more eco-friendly alternatives.
The Main Trumps of Plastics for Wrappers
Each type of flexible packaging material possesses its beneficial properties, that make them so popular. If we talk about plastic materials for elastic wrapping production, here are the next ones:
- Wear and moisture resistance. Products from polymers are exceptional in terms of tearing and wearing. Packages do not tear or stretch.
- Resistance to changes in temperatures and preserving properties in extreme (low or high) temperatures.
- Extended product shelf life. Products stored in plastic packages stay fresh for months, wrapping also preserves the taste and smell of the goods.
- Lightweight. Packages from the above-mentioned types of plastic are not bulky and weigh less than other types of containers.
- Perfect protective properties. Bags and bottles protect food or liquids from breaking or leakage.
The main drawback of plastic wrapping is its negative influence on the environment. Currently manufacturers try to stick to the use of recyclable, environmentally friendly kinds of plastic, which can be recycled to decrease pollution and the amount of waste. However, plastic is still the most common option for flexible packages manufacturing.
