Extrusion International 3-2020

29 Extrusion International 3/2020 Furthermore, an outer skin layer of virgin polymer can be used to sepa- rate the printing surface from the PCR. Good printing result require the uniform surface and material to print. The advantageous alternative to the ABL tube (Aluminium Barrier Laminate) The challenge is to produce coextrud- ed Ultra High Barrier Tubes which are full recyclable. Packaging can be called recyclable if the amount of 2nd or foreign material is below 5%. For cosmetic tubes normally PE is used as the basic polymer and EVOH or PP as foreign polymer. By optimizing the die design and precise manufactur- ing of the toolings it is possible to re- duce the EVOH layer thickness down to 3 to 10 μm, depending on the bar- rier requirements. By using two or more different barri- er layers, the barrier properties of the tube can be tailored to the require- ments of the filling. For example, an outer barrier layer can be combined against the solvents of the printing ink and an inner barrier layer as an oxygen barrier to protect the filling. Even plastic products become sus- tainable. Novel plastics based on sustainable, organic materials, such as wood or sugar cane waste, are used. Recycled goods from the own production or third-party processing can also be processed to high-quality products on BREYER systems. Material savings Here is thebasic principle: Rawmaterial which is not used, does not need to be recycled. There are several approaches to this. One possibility for material sav- ing is to reduce the total wall thickness. The same tube characteristing can be reached by using stiffer raw material combinations without affecting the haptic of the tube. Another possibility to reduce the ma- terial consumption is to use foamed layers. This decreases the weight of the tube and thus also the amount of material can be reduced. The sur- face structure can be changed so that it can be printed better and also ac- celerates the handling in subsequent processes (headers, printing, etc.). Tube production from flat film Compared to the seamless extruded tubes shaped by a tubular die as de- scribed above, another kind of tubes are made from a web laminate and have visible side seam. Laminate film itself is usually sup- plied by international players of the film industry to the tube manufactur- ers. High speed film lines, side-seam- ers and printers allow an economic mass production of such film but the individual design for small orders is not given resp is not economically. Therefore Breyer has developed its TubeFlex flat film extrusion line. The extrusion line with working width of 500 and 1000 mm allow the produc- tion of slitted flat film with a flex- ible configuration of different lay- ers, for different tube diameters and lengths. Barrier layers out of EVOH, PA, PET, COC are also possible. Furthermore properties as color and haptic which is most important for the first impression of the tube prod- uct, can be easily adapted by using different polymers like PET, PP, PA, PE or other blended Polyolefines. An isolated inner layer even allows the usage of recycled material which are not in contact with the product in the tube. Thanks to the development of inline web printers with digital or analog printing process also small lots can be realized in an economic way. The advantage for laminate tube pro- ducers is that they can now produce their own individual flat film with in- dividual designs with a high flexibility also for small tube order lots. Further- more the adding value is the in-house production of the filmweb. BREYERGmbHMaschinenfabrik Bohlinger Str. 27, 78224 Singen, Germany www.breyer-extr.com Calendering system for both side polished film BREYER TubeFlexmultilayer flat filmextusion