Standup pouch packages are widely used for many products packaging such as pet food, coffee beans, dry nuts, liquid laundry detergent, cookies, windshield washer fluids, juice, yoghourt etc.
Along with the widely different applications for the standup pouches, the structures for the standup pouch packages become so complicated. Of course, the purpose is to meet the specific requirements for each specific application that may need to combine multiple functions at the lowest cost. Of course, that’s the work for our flexible converters.
However, when it comes to the side of the product manufacturer, it is better for them to get a basic understanding on the materials used for standup pouch packages, that is quite great help to assist them to get the best package for their products. so in this post, we are going to give a basic introduce on the most common plastic substrate films used in standup pouch packages.
PET Film
PET film is short for polyester film, that is a great substrate film for standup pouch packages as of below advantage.
- High transparency
- Great tensile strength
- Great stiffness
- Great printability
- Human health safety
High transparency enable the print colors to be presented in the minimum loss when the design artwork is printed, and great tensile strength make the standup pouch more durable, and great stiffness will provide better standing up effect when the products are filled into the packages.
BOPP Film
BOPP film is short for biaxially oriented polypropylene film, with quite popular application in plastic packaging
- High transparency
- Good tensile strength
- Low cost
- Great printability
- Human health safey
Matte BOPP Film
Matte BOPP film is to achieve matte finish efect on the outer side for the BOPP film, that’s how it gets its name.
With matte finish effect, some standup pouch packages become high level in human eyes sight, and quite popular in pckages for pet foods, dry nuts, coffee beans, yoghourt products etc.
However, as of the limit for its property, not all the matte finish packages are achieved by matte BOPP film. we will give a further analysis on how matte finish is reallized in future posts.
PA Film
PA film is short for polyamide film, with a much popular name-nylon film (short as NY film), its advantage property as below
- Good barrier to oxygen
- Great tensile strength
- Anti-puncture property
- Human food safety
- Good printability
Good barrier to oxygen property enable nylon film to be used for vacuum packaging and provide longer shelf life for most products. Great tensile strength enable the package stronger, such as the 3Liter Standup pouch package for windshield washer fluids, the package will have to contain nylon film. As to anti-puncture property, for many pet treats that may contain bones or sharp products, nylon film will provide good protection.
VMPET Film
VMPET film is short for vacuum metallized polyester film, that is realized by depositing a thin layer of aluminum atoms onto the surface of PET film, and finally achieve a good bright metallic film at much lower costs, with main property as below.
- Great barrier property
- Sunlight shielding
- Bright metallic effect
The standup pouch packages that contain VMPET film is able to get vivid print effect, longer shelf life and high quality packages, however the drawback is Non eye see through. Some customers would like to get their packages with clear window so the consumers will be able to see the inside products ,and buy it. We will talk further on this topic in future posts.
K Film
K film usually include K-PET film, KOPP film, and KPA film, that is achieved by coating a layer of PVDC emulsion on top of the relative substrate film, and intended to achieve higher barrier property.
AlOx/SiOx Coated PET Film
AlOx/SiOx Coated PET film are achieved with great barrier property that is only a little worse than aluminum foil, however this film is clear transparent, that is widely used for some packages that require good barrier performance and see-through property.
Aluminum Foil
Aluminum foil is considered as the best barrier property of all substrates in flexible packaging, with below advantages.
- Great barrier property
- Sunlight shielding
- Fragrance protection
So when it comes to extremely strict requirements for barrier property, such as coffee beans, tea, juice, aluminum foil is the most ideal packaging material.
Co-extrusion Film
Co-extrusion film is to achieve better property with Nylon or EVOH trapped between the different layers of the film during produce process.
Paper
When it comes to paper used in flexible packaging industry, kraft paper tops over any other paper as of excellent property as below.
- Excellent mechanical property
- lower cost
- Human food safety
However, there are different levels of kraft paper based on applications, quality, and some kraft paper bags are really of great quality difference in the final packages. we will share our actual experience regarding this topic in future posts.
LDPE Film
LDPE film means low density polyethylene film, that is the most used plastic film in flexible packaging industry, and usually working as the inner seal layer for final standup pouch packages.
CPP Film
CPP film is short for casted polypropylene film that is usually working as inner seal layer.