The invention concerns a packaging element of moulded plastic with an inorganic barrier layer with good penetration barrier effect against water vapour and gasses, which packaging element has a coating produced under vacuum with materials with the said penetration barrier effect. The invention also includes a method suitable for production of the packaging element.
Foodstuffs have been packed in packaging of glass or aluminium for some time. Both materials offer one hundred percent protection against the penetration of gasses and water vapour. This means that no gasses can penetrate from the outside to the inside through the packaging walls, which protects the foodstuff from spoiling. At the same time, gasses cannot escape from the inside to the outside, which protects the product from aroma loss and desiccation.
Both packages are far from optimum from an ecological viewpoint and offer little scope for freedom in the design of the packaging form. Aluminium has the disadvantage that it cannot be used for production of transparent packaging, and glass packaging—as well as a high own weight—has the disadvantage that shattering or glass breakage must always be expected. Plastic packaging offers clear advantages here. As plastics usually however only have an inadequate gas barrier effect, such packaging must be fitted with an additional barrier layer. Various possibilities are known here:
One example is the thermoforming of multilayer flat foils which on the inside contain an oxygen barrier layer e.g. of EVOH. Transparent barrier packaging can be produced with this technology. However, this packaging has the disadvantage that because of the thermoforming process, its design freedom is very restricted. It is also known that on any sterilisation process (of the filled package), the gas barrier created by the EVOH temporarily collapses, which for a particular time allows the passage of oxygen through the wall of the packaging into the foodstuff. Similar restrictions apply to bottle-like containers with EVOH barrier layers which can be generated by a combination of injection and blow moulding or extrusion and blow moulding.
A further possibility is containers with integrated “in-mould label”, in the production of which a film with the desired barrier is inserted in an injection mould and then back-sprayed with plastic. Here too, however, the design freedom of the resulting containers is greatly restricted by the production process.
EP-B-1 048 746 also describes the production of containers with barrier effect by means of vacuum coating. The barrier packaging is produced by forming the container (injection moulding, thermoforming, blow moulding) and subsequent vacuum coating with a barrier layer of a suitable material. The packaging is sealed with a flexible barrier film as a cover film.
The resulting plastic barrier packaging is not yet optimum from the following aspects:
The invention is therefore based on the object of refining a packaging element of the type described initially so that the packaging elements such as containers and cover lids do not have the disadvantages associated with the prior art.
The object of the invention is achieved in that the vacuum coating is overlacquered to protect against abrasion and corrosion and to improve the mechanical stability.
The packaging element can be moulded by thermoforming of flat film material, by injection moulding or a combination of injection and blow moulding or extrusion and blow moulding.
The vacuum coating can be applied with one of the methods described below:
The over-lacquering of the vacuum-coated packaging part takes place for example by dip-coating, flood coating, cast lacquering, spray lacquering, pad printing or by ink jet. To reduce the layer thickness applied or for better distribution of the lacquer on the packaging element, the lacquering process can be followed by a centrifuging process.
Suitable lacquers are general lacquer systems based on natural binders, polycondensation resins, polyaddition resins, polymerisation resins or other binders e.g. sol-gel lacquers, silicates and silicones. The binders can also be cross-linked with different cross-linking resins e.g. isocyanates, melamine or urea resins, silanes or metal alkoxides.
In particular to improve the oxygen barrier properties, lacquers based on EVOH, PVDC, cationic or radical UV-hardening lacquers or sol-gel lacquers on the basis of alkoxysilanes and/or metal alkoxides and/or inorganic particles are preferred. These lacquers can also be cross-linked with various cross-linking resins such as isocyanates, melamine or urea resins, silanes or metal alkoxides.
Lacquers which, in addition to the oxygen barrier, also have sterilisation-resistant properties are again in particular lacquers based on EVOH, PVDC, cationic or radical UV-hardening lacquers or sol-gel lacquers based on alkoxysilanes and/or metal alkoxides and/or inorganic particles. These lacquers can be cross-linked with various cross-linking resins e.g. isocyanates, melamine or urea resins, silanes or metal alkoxides.
Particularly preferable are sol-gel lacquer systems and UV-hardening lacquers on the basis of acrylates or cationic cross-linking epoxides. Hardening takes place thermally or by radiation hardening. Hardening by UV light or electron beam is particularly preferred.
Packaging parts can for example take the form of a container to hold a filling and/or a lid for a container.
The coating and over-lacquering of the container and where applicable the lid can be performed on the inside or outside. The external coating for example allows the application of the barrier layer and the over-lacquer layer on the packaging which is already filled and closed.
A barrier packaging produced according to the invention with a container to hold a filling can for example be closed as follows:
Packaging elements according to the invention can also be lids for packaging made from glass, cardboard or other materials e.g. lids for glass bottles, screw caps for drinks cartons etc.
The method according to the invention allows the production of packaging elements from a larger number of raw materials. Above all, transparent plastics with good forming properties are suitable such as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), cycloolefin copolymers (COC), cycloolefin polymers (COP), polyvinylchloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyamide (PA) and laminates made of said materials.
Compostable and biologically degradable polymers and/or polymers based on renewable raw materials can also be used as starting materials to produce packaging elements.
Suitable compostable polymers are in particular polymers certified to EN 13432 and based on renewable or non-renewable raw materials, such as polymers based on starches (starch blends), PLA (polylactide), polyesters of the PHA type (polyhydroxyalkanoate) e.g. PHB (polyhydroxybutyrate), PHV (polyhydroxyvaleate), cellulose materials of chemically modified cellulose, further materials made from chemically modified cellulose, and specific synthetic polyesters made from crude oil or natural gas.
Polymers based on renewable raw materials are e.g. made from sugars, starches, vegetable oils or cellulose. Maize, potatoes, cereals, sugar cane and wood are the starting materials most often used.
Suitable polymers based on renewable raw materials are in particular specific polyesters e.g. based on PDO (bio-propandiol), specific polyamides e.g. made from ricin oil, and PE (polyethylene), polypropylene (PP) and PVC (polyvinylchloride), and based on bio-ethanol from e.g. sugar cane.
The vacuum coating with over-lacquering according to the invention allows the production of packaging elements of renewable raw materials with high barrier effect and with certified compostability according to the criteria of standard EN 13432.
If resistance to sterilisation conditions is required, preferably biopolymers are used such as PHA or polypropylene based on renewable raw materials.
In a particularly preferred embodiment of the method according to the invention, the production of packaging elements, the coating and the over-lacquering are performed in sequence.
The tables below show the influence of the barrier layer and various overlacquering systems on the oxygen barrier of packaging elements before and after sterilisation treatment.
Table 1 shows the barrier effect of packaging parts of polypropylene (PP) uncoated and coated with silver (Ag), steel (V2A) and tin (Sn), without overlacquer layer.
Table 2 shows the barrier effect of packaging parts of polypropylene (PP) coated with silver (Ag) and steel (V2A) with an over-lacquer layer of different lacquer systems.
Table 3 shows the barrier effect of packaging parts of polylactide (PLA) coated with silver (Ag) and steel (V2A) without over-lacquer layer.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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07405266.3 | Sep 2007 | EP | regional |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP08/07048 | 8/28/2008 | WO | 00 | 2/11/2010 |