Atmospheric plasma enhanced hybrid barrier films through reel-to-reel process

New functional packaging coatings on paper, paperboard or plastic films are used for special and enhanced properties in the field of paper converting. The ever-increasing demands for the product properties, e.g. gas and grease barrier, combined with simultaneously increased line speeds make it challenging to achieve the desired level of performance required for these coatings. When using non-polar plastics such as polypropylene or polyethylene as base material, increasing of surface energy by pre-treatment with e.g. plasma or corona is necessary for adhesion. To answer these challenges, methods for atmospheric plasma pre-treatment and deposition of the functional hybrid coatings on polyolefin substrates have been developed in this work. The target of the developed coatings was to obtain barrier (e.g. oxygen and grease) and antimicrobial properties for polyethylene coated paper. The applying of the hybrid coatings was performed with atmospheric plasma assisted on-line spray coating method at a reel-to-reel extrusion coating pilot line.