Additives: Additive and White Masterbatch Portfolio for BOPE Films

An additive masterbatch portfolio has been developed and specifically for biaxially-oriented polyethylene (BOPE) film applications. Biax4ce masterbatches are newly available from Ampacet Corp., Tarrytown, N.Y., industry known for its decades of experience in masterbatches for biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film and PE blown film applications.

The Ampacet Bias4ce masterbatch portfolio includes additive as well as white masterbatches formulated to meet optimum quality and processing requirements for specific BOPE film structures. The Ampacet Biax4ce additive range includes antiblock, antistatic, migrating and non-migration slip as well as high-performance antifogs.

This latest development as indicated by the company was spurred by the fact that mono-material packaging is preferred to multi-material packaging to meet recycling targets set by the EU for plastic packaging and boost the quality of mechanically-recycled material.

Because the PP recycling stream does not exist at scale in many countries and the PE recycling stream is prevalent, the development BOPE film applications is emerging. BOPE film production also benefits from idle capacity on existing BOPP film manufacturing equipment, requiring only an adjustment in processing conditions with no major machinery changes. In laminated packaging structures, BOPE film has been shown to allow substitution of some non-PE substrates such as BOPP, BOPA, BOPET and CPP in the manufacture of mono-material PE packaging, leading to an improvement in the quality of the mechanically recycled PE stream, while requiring compromises on some packaging functionalities such as lower stiffness, gloss and gas barrier characteristics.

BOPE structures present 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 downgauging, higher output and yield, better optics and tighter gauge control.