Tokyo Pack 2024: Henkel and Indonesian film manufacturer reduce packaging layers for dry foods

Henkel Adhesive Technologies and Indonesian film manufacturer Panverta Cakrakencana have co-developed new films with an improved oxygen barrier layer that minimizes the number of layers in dry food packaging.

Henkel is showcasing its product range at Tokyo Pack 2024 in Japan, October 23–25, including standing pouches and laminated reels, where packaging converters and brand owners can see and evaluate the oxygen barrier performance.

“Henkel has supported us throughout the entire process, from initial trials to ongoing production,” says Marcus Hengky, sales manager at Panverta.

“Thanks to the collaboration with Henkel, we have been able to increase the added value of our product portfolio and now also appeal to brand owners who want to replace traditional multi-layer packaging with thinner and more efficient solutions made from a single material.”

Cutting down layers

Flour, rice or pasta can quickly spoil or lose flavor when exposed to air, light or moisture. Therefore, packaging for dry foods must be airtight, light-proof and moisture-proof.

Dry foods are often packaged in multiple layers to protect them from the environment. This usually consists of an outer layer, a barrier layer and an inner layer for many types of packaging.

Depending on the specific requirements for barrier properties and shelf life of the product, two to five layers may be used, resulting in significant waste. These composite materials are often difficult to recycle because they cannot be easily separated.

Henkel and Panverta crafted a solution to improve the oxygen barrier performance of metalized cast polypropylene (CPP) to less than 0.5 cc/m² day and CPP with aluminum oxide coating films to less than 8 cc/m² day.

The jointly developed innovations ensure that these vital oxygen barrier properties for dry food packaging can be achieved when switching from multi-material designs to monomaterial PP.

Recyclable oxygen barrier coating

Henkel’s contribution to the collaboration is the recyclable Loctite Liofol oxygen barrier coating. The Liofol product range offers film and packaging manufacturers both offline and inline coating options.

Due to its oxygen barrier properties, the coating enables a new packaging design using only one material. “This reduces the amount of material used in food packaging without compromising quality and integrity,” Henkel highlights.

The coating is also certified recyclable by cyclos-HTP and recognized by the Association of Plastic Recyclers as meeting the Critical Guidance Protocol for PE films and flexible packaging.

“As monomaterial packaging does not need to be separated into different components, the recycling quality is increased while the effort and cost of recycling are reduced,” says Henkel.

The oxygen barrier layer can be applied to oriented PP and PE films at high machine speeds in excess of 150 to 200 meters per minute and a weight of less than 1 g/m² in both flexo and gravure printing processes and is also characterized by “excellent transparency.”