Barrier coatings for the packaging industry

In Germany alone, the market for the packaging industry is approximately DM 40 Billion. A large portion of this is food packaging, where special demands are made for barrier requirements of packaging films. Through the use of thin substrate films and minimal coating material, vacuum coating processes can achieve barrier properties equivalent to those achieved through polymers using high amounts of material - PETP and BOPP are normally used as substrate films; aluminium is primarily evaporated. Within the past few years, newer so-called "transparent barriers" (e.g. silicone oxide, aluminium oxide or metal oxide mixtures) have been developed and, to a certain extent, are ready for introduction to the market. However, due their high cost, until now, they have only been used in small amounts.