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New coex line broadens food pack offerings

Coextruded blown film is new to Enhance Packaging Technologies. ‘Pancake’ die technology gives maximum flexibility.

New coextruded blown film line for Enhance Packaging has broadened its structural offerings. Bubble of film (top) is totally con
New coextruded blown film line for Enhance Packaging has broadened its structural offerings. Bubble of film (top) is totally con

For years, Enhance Packaging Technologies has closely guarded the production techniques for its unique Sclair™ film. But about a year ago, the company installed a new line for coextruded blown films that are not part of the Sclair family. About this line the firm is less guarded so Packaging World agreed to explore it.

Why install a coex line in the first place when the wholly owned subsidiary of DuPont Canada (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) has long been successful with laminations? Economics. Although a coextruded film often lacks the high-barrier properties available in a lamination, management at Enhance saw opportunities for a coex film to provide sufficient barrier. For these applications, Enhance now can produce a one-step coextrusion rather than a multi-step lamination and achieve savings from this more economical method of assembling discrete film layers.

Pouched drink in Puerto Rico

According to Bruce George, business manager for aseptic packaging, one of the early customers to employ a five-layer coextrusion from Enhance is Alipak Corp., a unit of Processadora Campofresca, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Alipak makes and markets Sakito Extreme, a 10% juice drink packed into a 250-mL (8.45 oz) pouch that’s made and filled on unidentified form/fill/seal equipment. This product is sold at retail in multipacks, first in an eight-color printed bag of 10 pouches, and more recently in a printed carton that is similar to Kraft Foods’ Caprisun brand.

The pouch material is approximately 4 mils thick with a core of ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer. Linear-low-density polyethylene is the sealant layer.

The target market for Sakito Extreme is children from five to 14 years old, says Gonzalo Escobar, general manager at Alipak. The coextruded film from Enhance was selected because it produces fewer leakers and it exhibits more tear resistance than other films that were tested.

Enhance incorporates two other features in the coextruded film for Sakito Extreme. In the masterbatch for the outer layer, Enhance uses a pearlescent colorant for the background to the printed graphics. In addition, George says, the outer film is a patented LLDPE formulation that allows easy penetration of the attached straw. “Then the material mechanically seals itself, if you will, to the straw so it won’t leak,” he adds. This technology is far from new; it’s been used on all the school milk pouches made from Enhance materials for years.

Die influenced selection

Once Enhance decided the market for the coextruded film was sufficient, it took just one year to determine what it needed, draw up detailed specifications, select the supplier, and install and start up the line in late 2000. Full commercial production was achieved by spring of 2001, George reports.

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