In-house barrier and adhesion measuring for film producers and converters
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| Permeation measuring |
Bobst Manchester's In-house Laboratory is equipped with a range of world class instruments for barrier and adhesion measurement to offer a full service to customers. Companies who send their film to Bobst Manchester's Centre of Excellence for High Barrier for metallizing trials can then have it tested by an experienced team using the latest measuring equipment.
The latest equipment includes two new MOCON units, the MOCON OX-TRAN2/22 for OTR measurement and MOCON PERMATRAN-W 3/34 for measuring WVTR. These measurement systems are used for testing the permeation of both oxygen (OTR) and water vapour (WVTR) on metallized film as well as AlOx clear barrier film; barrier levels are imperative in the case of material being used for food packaging to ensure the food doesn't spoil and meets the required shelf life.
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| Durability Tester |
Another new addition is the Brugger KFT-C Flex Durability Tester which is used to simulate the strain packaging material may be exposed to during conversion processes and in typical storage, transport and retail environments. This is a very useful test for laminated metallized or AlOx film as after the material has been subject to this rigorous process, it can then be tested again on the MOCON units to establish how the barrier figures have been affected giving the customer a good insight into how their material will perform in a real life situation.
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| Adhesion measuring |
The laboratory also has a Mecmesin MultiTest 2.5-I Tensile Tester, this is used to perform the EMA (European Metallizers Association) EAA (ethylene acrylic acid) test which measures metal adhesion levels. The test will show whether the material is suitable to be used for packaging as poor adhesion between the metal and polymer substrate produces de-lamination which leads to packaging failure. Testing can be done at Bobst Manchester to show the difference in adhesion levels between standard metallized film and film produced using the unique BOBST AluBond® process.
