The "trends" and "futures" mentioned in this topic are mainly reflected in the fact that a considerable part of the future of the plastics industry is predictable, and it has even begun to develop. It is feasible in terms of cost and consumers' point of view. And it is looking forward to. The above situation can be referred to as "trend" and there is sufficient confidence that its continuity. Other changes, which are more difficult to predict from the perspective of technical feasibility, fall under the category of “promises,†which means that if there are many factors such as production technology, reasonable costs, and market acceptance, this change is possible. It will become mainstream in the future.
The development potential is favourable. New developments using new and improved polymers as packaging films will continue. The film made of this new polymer is mainly used as a barrier against oxygen, and its tensile strength and toughness are also strong. Although studies have found that plastic films made of liquid crystal polymers also have high toughness, it is necessary to effectively put liquid crystal polymers into production, at least to reduce their expensive production costs by more than 10 times. This is undoubtedly a difficult task and the possibility of success is extremely low.
The two highly oxygen-barrier polymers currently used - EVOH and PVDC - also have considerable shortcomings. The former rapidly loses its oxygen barrier function under the sudden increase of temperature, while the latter easily decomposes when the temperature changes suddenly. Although these two kinds of polymers are constantly improving, it is almost impossible to invent a polymer that has both advantages and disadvantages.
Due to the multiple functional requirements for packaging films, coupled with the requirement for high efficiency and low cost, high-efficiency films are still under continuous research and development. Co-extrusion is an important process for the development of such high-precision films, and the development of coatings and other film processing methods also account for an important seat.
We can find the importance of the latter from the following two cases:
(1) Films containing inorganic coatings, and those containing silica generally have better gas barrier performance than PVDC and are easier to recycle than synthetic membranes containing PVDC components because PVDC is easily decomposed during cycling. .
(b) The use of insoluble printed materials for surface treatment of the film can be exempted from air pollution, leaving users innocent.
(c) Multiple extrusions may allow surface printing but do not damage the exterior, and it has always been the practice to cover the prints. The new approach will undoubtedly promote the use of low-cost multiple extrusions. From the perspective of the market, the quality of printing is absolutely decisive for food packaging.
In terms of product packaging technology, the so-called controlled atmosphere packaging (CAP) has been used. After the development of low-cost and high-permeability films, it is believed that it can be applied to this process to synthesize revolutionary multi-purpose products. The scope of application includes a variety of fresh and processed foods. It is estimated that the display period can be increased by several times.
For example, the level of citrus makes it possible to pack high-speed and low-cost packaging with a film that exerts a shrinking tension, so that the moisture in the fruit is retained. Even oranges or grapefruit produced in Israel, after arriving in Omaha several months later, are still full of fresh fruit.
The situation of consumers in the Far East countries buying small quantities of daily-use products is common, prompting independent packaging services in these regions to become a new trend. The market for small plastic bags is expanding outside the United States, but it is an American tradition that has always loved to use large-scale economic products. There is no usability. In India and Latin American countries, the use of small quantities of edible oil is increasingly popular. Although this trend is still in its infancy, it is believed that in the near future, a strong market for small plastic bags can be developed in many regions outside the United States.
However, the biggest consumer market resistance for plastic film packaging is believed to be the widely used sealed packaging. With continuous development of resins and hybrid resins, this situation is expected to change. It is estimated that within 10 years, all small plastic bags will require too much effort to be sealed and can be opened and closed, mainly because this development will be extremely popular, prompting all businesses to seek. As long as some technical obstacles are overcome, the most difficult opening and closing problems, and even sealing and opening and closing problems, may be resolved. Plastic bags with these functions will also be available within 10 years.
In addition, blister packs and shrink packs, which have always been regarded as difficult to open, have a very interesting history. Because they are mainly used for packaging non-food products, there is no conflict with sealed openable plastic bags that are used in the main food market. . Because the market is different, even if people are eagerly expecting the opening and closing of plastic bags to be available as soon as possible, they will not exert much pressure on the blister and the shrink packaging. Moreover, there are mechanized pouches on the market that have zipper opening and closing functions, but the cost is very high. Together with blisters and shrink packaging, it has a good appearance, and it is always the choice of most manufacturers. In a word, for the non-food packaging, the function of removability is always small.
The prospects for plastic bags For the developers of food packaging resins, their dream has always been to seek to produce multi-purpose bags of resin, meaning that they can be used to produce films that meet a variety of requirements and can be gas-tight. This is entirely a technical and marketing challenge and it can only be considered a "promising future." Films made of resin are required to be tough, transparent, and heat-resistant. At the same time, they are more gas-tight and moisture-proof than PVDC, and the price cannot be much higher than OPP. It is believed that the motivation behind the development of such resins is that such multilayers are best suited for recycling and offer great advantages.
Multi-purpose food packaging resins need to overcome a major obstacle, that is, each small resin patent company is very likely to impose long-term restrictions on newly-developed resin products. This situation is invisible to both the inventor and the user. It can be imagined that both the monopolist and the minority of the controllers will impose predatory pricing policies on the entire production line for the new film. This kind of price control behavior has a very heavy impact on the long-term market of multi-purpose bag resin producers, but major food manufacturers rarely pay attention to the controversy of this situation.
It is well known that the use of multi-purpose pouch resins is common in non-food packaging; for example, LDPE pouches, PVC blister packs with cardboard substrates, ionomer cross-linked polymers, stretch packs using EVA or LLDPE, etc. And so on, they all use resins that make multi-purpose bags.
As far as food sterilization is concerned, the use of technologies other than inherent heat sterilization in order to preserve the freshness of the product is a goal that food manufacturers have always sought. Radiation sterilization has been considered the best method 30 years ago, but no significant progress has been made so far. Since the generalization of radiation sterilization, plastic packaging methods also need to make corresponding changes, because radiation will change some of the properties of plastic packaging resin, for example, to make it vulnerable, discoloration and cross-linking. The microwave sterilization method is a new choice for manufacturers and it is believed that they will become popular one day, partly because although the radiation sterilization method is currently used by more than 70% of households in the United States, the instant inventor does not promote it as official. Cooking method. In addition, plastic and paper packaging materials can be penetrated by micro-radiation, and these materials will benefit from the development of microwave sterilization. However, the shift from the old sterilization method to the use of microwave sterilization requires a huge investment, which causes food manufacturers to deter and the new method is not entirely dominant in the preservation of the original flavor of food. In general, food manufacturers have abandoned the tradition. Sterilization methods are not particularly keen.
During the sterilization process, the food and the container are treated separately, which can preserve the umami taste of the food, and any material container is suitable for use. But similarly, the traditional method has entered the transitional stage and the pace is not rapid. Sterilization equipment can now handle foods other than pure liquids, and can also accommodate packaging methods that cannot resist rejection. With the increase in the use of sterilization systems, the use of plastics will increase, but it is limited to rigid plastic containers rather than plastic films.
To sum up, as the article begins to talk about, for plastic packaging films, development is still bright in the foreseeable future, both in terms of technological trends and possibilities.
In order to carefully analyze the future development, we can find that several major forces competing against each other can affect the development direction of plastic film in many ways: all kinds of powerful anti-plastic environment/policy/waste disposal campaign will all have a bearing on the future. Growth creates pressure, and opponents mainly come from some inevitable economic, social and technological counter-development forces. However, we are convinced that positive development forces will eventually have enough capacity to break the restrictions. (This article is an excerpt from Plastic Films, Technology and Packaging Applications. The authors are Kenton R Osbom and Wilmwer A Jenkins.)