ALOX/SIOX PET

Description

Transparent inorganic barrier layers such as aluminium oxide. (AlOx) and silicon oxide (SiOx) have now been around for several decades and there is an increasing number of products that can be found on the supermarket shelf that contain such vacuum deposited coatings as their principal functional layer. With applications ranging from flow wrappers for nutraceutical and cereal bars (e.g. Kind bar), lidding material (as used for the Dole fruit pots) to microwaveable rice pouches such as Uncle Ben’s, there has been and still is an increasing interest in these barrier layers and the AlOx/SiOx market is continuing to grow at an estimated rate of 7 to 8 % per year. The clear barrier flexible packaging market is, nevertheless, still dominated by polymer based transparent barrier films, which are polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) coated films and ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) co-extruded films; however, ceramic inorganic barrier layers do offer critical advantages over these films such as their superior barrier performance, humidity insensitivity, chlorine-free nature or nm-range thickness. When compared to opaque metallized polymer films, AlOx and SiOx coated films are unique in regards to offering product visibility, microwavability and suitability for metal detectors.