Who’s afraid of sustainability challenges?

SAES Coated Films at Fachpack (booth 6-149) with its latest products for mono-PE ultra-high barrier flexible packaging.

European targets require that the recycling rate of plastic packaging must increase to at least 55% by 2030. This target cannot be achieved if the industry does not make a strong commitment to eco-design of technologically innovative packaging, capable not only of ensuring product protection, but also compatibility with the end-of-life recycling process.

SAES Coated Films pioneered this path years ago, optimizing its water-based coating technology Coathink™, which provides a high barrier to plastic films both alone and in synergy with metallization or AlOx deposition, of which SAES is a specialist.

Technological alternatives. From this set of technologies, a whole family of coated films has been generated, to meet the needs of demanding applications such as coffee packaging. Coffee is a very demanding product: it has high intrinsic value, must have a long shelf life, and its aroma and flavour are strongly influenced by oxygen and/or humidity in the atmosphere. Historically, aluminium foil has always been present in coffee packaging because it was considered the only material capable of guaranteeing maximum performance and minimum risk.

Today, there are alternatives. Refining a development begun years ago, SAES today offers the market an entire family of high barrier films based on MDO-PE. MDO (Machine Direction Oriented) PE due to its mechanical characteristics can replace PET or nylon layers; in addition, the coated and metallized film by SAES allows the design of 100% PE structures replacing the function of aluminum foil. If we consider the application of one of the best performing films in SAES portfolio, developed specifically for coffee, in a structure such as MDO-PE / SAES high-barrier MDO-PE / LDPE, we obtain a packaging with OTR 0,1 cc/m2x24h and WVTR 0,2 g/m2x24h.

The solution has demonstrated excellent machinability and is currently adopted by several coffee producers. We are confident that this success is just one example of how experience and technological expertise can drive the change needed to achieve sustainability goals and continue to preserve the functionality of barrier packaging.

SAES Coated Films is at Fachpack 2024
at booth 6-149
 www.saescoatedfilms.com