Strongest, thinnest film for flexible packaging

Total, one of the largest integrated oil and gas companies in the world, gives flexible packaging converters a new opportunity to achieve films that are up to 25% thinner and stronger than existing solutions for film on the market.

Its new metallocene polyethylene (mPE) film material, called the Lumicene Supertough 32ST05, is a downgauging breakthrough for multilayer structures that addresses the need for lightweight, easy to process and high-performance solution for industrial packaging. The material is applicable to food and personal care/hygiene products.

Even at low temperatures, the step-change mPE innovation offers a distinctive combination of strength and toughness that thinner films cannot achieve. Hence, these technical features allow converters to create a very strong film using less material but with the easy processing advantages of LDPE. The result is super thin, highly-durable, lightweight multilayer films that offer excellent processability on extrusion and conversion lines.

Several multilayer applications already demonstrating the grade’s extensive potential include compression packaging, such as for deepfreeze and lamination films, and highly-demanding shrink applications, for example glass bottle unitisation, as well as heavy mattresses and lightweight diapers.

Carl Van Camp, senior vice president of Polymers Division says: “The downgauging story is a never-ending quest to push the thickness limits of packaging down. Where these limits of downgauging are reached, Supertough 32ST05 steps in to give the necessary boost in toughness to overcome the thickness barrier.”

Supertough 32ST05 is the latest addition to Total’s Lumicene portfolio. The Lumicene grade slate covers the full range of low (mLLDPE), medium (mMDPE) to high (mHDPE) densities.