Additive Masterbatches for Monomaterial PE Film Applications

A new portfolio of additives and white masterbatches formulated to meet optimum quality and processing requirements for specifically oriented monomaterial PE film structures has been launched by Ampacet. The Ampacet Biax4CE additive line includes antiblock, antistatic, migrating and non-migrating slip, as well as high- performance antifog masterbatches. Oriented monomaterial PE film structures, whether by machine direction orientation (MDO-PE) or biaxial-orientation (BOPE), advance the fulfillment of sustainability goals by replacing hard to recycle film structures, including popular standup pouches, with monomaterial PE recyclable structures.

Photo Credit: Ampacet Corp.

As part of its sustainability initiative, Nova Chemicals is currently producing MDO films using Ampacet Biax4CE. Said Nova’s applications development manager Erica Canavesi, “At NOVA Chemicals, we are using our extensive expertise in plastics development to create innovative solutions that are sustainable and drive towards a circular economy for plastics. We are currently developing oriented polyethylene films that can be used as building blocks to create fully recyclable packaging structures. The MDO films produced with our resins and Ampacet Biax4CE additives show excellent optical and physical properties, helping us to deliver products that enable our customers and the packaging industry to reach recycled content and decarbonization goals.”

In laminated packaging structures, oriented PE film allows for substitution of some non-PE substrates such as BOPP, BOPA, BOPET and CPP in the manufacture of monomaterial PE packaging, leading to an improvement in the quality of the mechanically recycled PE stream. BOPE structures boast advantages over BOPP, including greater seal strength, improved packaging seal integrity and better puncture resistance. BOPE also has proven superior to PE blown films in down-gauging, higher output and yield, better optics and tighter gauge control. Oriented PE films benefit from the improvement of certain physical properties over cast and blown PE films including stiffness that enables improved downstream processing.