The new focus of plastic beer packaging: high barrier nylon

Due to the low price of PET raw materials and the PET containers have many advantages, such as high strength, high transparency, excellent gas barrier properties, etc., the application field is continuously expanding, becoming the fastest growing resin in plastic packaging. PET bottles have been widely used in carbonated drinks, tea drinks, mineral water, etc. However, PET is used as a beer bottle, and the gas barrier property still cannot meet the long shelf life requirement of the beer package. PEN's excellent gas barrier properties, high temperature resistance, strong UV-shielding ability, and low gas adsorption properties make PEN the single best plastic beer packaging container available today. However, the raw material cost is quite high. The price of PEN is about 10 times that of PET and can only be applied to some more high-end beer.

The high price or barrier properties of a single material cannot meet the needs of beer packaging. Various composite materials or coating processes increase the cost and increase the difficulty of processing, forcing people to continuously search for new technologies or materials to meet the huge demand. Market demand. The new nylon products with low cost, high barrier, and excellent processability have become a new hot spot for the industry as a barrier material for beer packaging.

Japan's Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Corporation has developed a new type of nylon MXD6 (N-MXD6). The thermal properties such as melting point and glass transition temperature and crystallization process are similar to those of PET, and are particularly suitable for combination with PET. Multilayer bottles for co-injection molding using N-MXD6 and PET have been used in beer packaging in many countries.

EMS will also launch Grivory HB, a new high-barrier PA product in the near future. According to reports, the product has a similar barrier to PEN, but the price is much lower than PEN, dedicated to beer packaging.

Eastman Chemicals and Nanocor have jointly developed the PA nanocomposite Imperm for multilayer blow molding, which is used as a barrier core material for PET/PA/PET three-layer bottles. It has been used in non-sterile beer packaging. Imperm core thickness only accounts for 10% of the total thickness of the bottle. There is no need for an adhesive layer between PET and Imperm, nor does it affect the transparency of the bottle. It is claimed to last for 200 days.

Honeywll is working to develop a PA nanocomposite Aegis OX that is less expensive than glass. It is said that the material can reduce the oxygen transmission rate (OTR) of PA6 by 100 times, and the oxygen infiltration amount is almost zero. Honeywell believes that this barrier system can compete with any other beer barrier package, fully satisfying the requirements of oxygen infiltration and carbon dioxide leakage within 120 days, and believes that a further 180-day shelf life requirement can be achieved through further adjustment of the process. The three-layer PET beer bottle made of this material has been adopted by Anchor Beer Company of Los Angeles, USA.

The development of recycling technology will also solve the worries of PET/PA composite packaging. Reimotec, a German manufacturer of plastic monofilament and packaging tape extrusion equipment, claims that the company invented a technology that can directly recycle and process PET/PA bottles into packaging tapes without compatibilizers.