Traditionally, thin aluminium foils are used as a barrier in laminate structures to protect products from moisture and oxygen permeation, UV light radiation and aroma/mineral oils migration but leading brand owners now want to reduce their aluminium foil consumption in order to reduce packaging costs but also need a more consistent quality in their supply chain of metallized films.
As Bobst is known in the industry as a process specialist, it was a natural step to use this know-how to develop an innovative solution which is a major step forward in the journey to full aluminium foil replacement. Bobst DarkNight is the smarter way to achieve high barrier metallized films at a lower cost. A major cost advantage arises from the fact that it eliminates the need to use high Optical Density (OD) deposition levels (>3.0 OD) in order to achieve high OTR and WVTR barrier values as is usually required for high barrier applications.
The Bobst DarkNight process works in conjunction with Bobst Hawkeye (which comes as standard) which along with the Optimized Web-Handling System provides a new approach to defect reduction which enables the production of higher barrier films. Enhanced barrier performance means superior packaging protection properties (permeation resistance) resulting in increased shelf-life for food products. Moreover, the effective light barrier properties which Bobst DarkNight provides protects products which are particularly sensitive to UV rays.
The Bobst DarkNight process provides film producers and converters with three key advantages – defect reduction, improved barrier levels and improved visual appearance of the film. Bobst DarkNight results in improvements in both barrier and visual quality of the film.
Packaging South Asia is the cooperating media partner for drupa 2016 which is scheduled to be held from 31 May to 10 June at Dusseldorf, Germany.
