Bobst Manchester has commissioned AlOx-optimised CO 750 coating line at its Competence Centre in the UK to offer innovative combination coating solutions to its customers.
Image: The AlOx-optimised CO 750 coating line. Photo: courtesy of BOBST.
The Manchester’s Centre of Excellence for High Barrier is equipped to enable research and development work on new barrier solutions for the packaging industry.
Bobst expects the new line to allow it to further leverage its know-how of vacuum and wet coatings and develop solutions to meet the industry’s requirements for sustainable packaging incorporating a combination of coatings.
The firm said that centre, comprising the CO 750 coater and K5 EXPERT productivity metallizer, will allow it to accelerate this process while offering a fast prototyping capability.
In a statement, Bobst said: “A major development which utilizes the BOBST ability to offer end-to-end process solutions is the AlOx Integrated Conversion Solution which allows production of high barrier clear recyclable films which crucially are protected during the conversion process to preserve the barrier properties of the film.”
The AlOx coated film is initially produced on the vacuum metallizer following which a specially developed top coat is applied on the coating line. The resulting film can then be converted as normal without any damage to the AlOx layer.
The firm said that the two-step process is claimed to be extremely cost-effective. It also provides a wider window of operation with the vacuum metallization process which is followed by a topcoat applied in atmosphere.
The CO 750 allows customers, who seek for metallizing trial, to also conduct coating trials on the metallized material. Testing of barrier and adhesion levels can also be carried out in the on-site laboratory.
Last year at the Bobst Manchester’s in-house laboratory, the firm said it had installed two new MOCON units, including the MOCON OX-TRAN2/22 for permeation of both oxygen (OTR) measurement and MOCON PERMATRAN-W 3/34 for measuring water vapour (WVTR), to enable testing on metallized film as well as AlOx clear barrier film.
The centre is also equipped with the Brugger KFT-C Flex Durability Tester to simulate the strain packaging material could be exposed to during conversion processes and in typical storage, transport and retail environments.