Vacuum Web Coating

Costs will rise – the squeeze is on.

Everywhere I look there are papers on the ‘Carbon footprint’ and either asking or describing what is being done to change things for the better.  However this does not appear to be as easy as was thought.

As we all will have seen the cost of energy is rising. There has been a very steep rise in the price of crude oil from less than $20 / barrel through to in excess of $120 / barrel. This impacts the coating industry in many ways.  The costs of energy used to produce the raw materials, the raw materials used to make the polymer films as well as the energy cost to metallize the films means combine to make the cost of metallizing significantly more expensive this year than it was last year and with every expectation that it will be more even more expensive next year.

In addition to the cost of oil there is also the competition for materials that is also driving the price upwards.  As China and India grow so quickly there becomes an imbalance between supply and demand for materials that in the free market results in price increases. Also as economies prosper the workforce want to benefit from the prosperity and wages rise.

Thus there are a number of predictable reasons for prices to rise sharply and continue rising for some time.

In addition to this there are the variations that arise from the way the market reacts to the changing economics.  One example of this is the move to bio-materials.  It is possible to grow crops that can be used to create energy, either directly as a fuel or to produce an intermediate that can be used as a fuel. It is also possible to grow crops that can be used to produce polymer films.  As the cost of oil rises there has been a rush to plant crops to produce either fuels or films.  Unfortunately this has had some unusual effects.  Farmers have switched crops quickly from whatever they used to produce to new crops to service this growing bio-materials market. As this switch has been uncontrolled it has resulted in food shortages and this has force up the price of food. Thus it is equally as likely that farmers will switch back as quickly to capitalise on the higher food price. Thus, until there is some control over the type and quantity of crops planted, it is likely that there will be a series of price fluctuations depending on changing quantities of crops planted.

There has also been a significant increase in the amount of land being cultivated and the effects of this have not yet been seen. It is however predicted that the irrigation of crops will increase and this will lower water tables such that water will become scarce and the costs of this will rise too.

So is there anything to look forward to, I hear you ask yourselves. Well, yes, I think there is, although this too might depend on your viewpoint.  The Middle Eastern States have combined to build the largest chemical complex in the World. This is intended on taking their own oil and processing it into all the downstream products that is often done by their current customers.  As the oil is running out they are intent on diversifying their economy to take advantage of what remaining resource they have.  They plan to build refineries to produce ethylene and propylene amongst other materials.  Already they have industries gearing up by either buying new production facilities or by buying existing businesses to later expand.  As this expansion means that some polymer films will be made close to where the oil is produced and refined it should mean a reduction in some of the shipping costs.  This increase in production may also mean that there is likely to be a glut of material for a while this too could result in a reduction of some film prices for a time.

This article is just scratching the surface of what is a complex subject that I am sure will have many more surprises to come.  The reason for my raising the topic is just to make sure that everyone is aware of the trend and expected changes to come. This will hopefully give everyone time to plan what actions they are going to take to help minimise the impact of such changes.

Patterned vacuum metallization for RFID tags?

At a recent conference in Cambridge UK one presenter stated that of the 1 billion ID tags to be produced this year of which more than 95% would be printed.

This figure is expected to increase with time.

If you take 5% of 1 billion and then divide again by something like 2,500 which is the number of 2cm x 2cm devices per sq m the answer is very few sq.m of vacuum coated film would be required.

If you do not have an oil printing system already fitted to your vacuum system and are considering fitting one you will be looking at potential markets.  Much has been spoken about RFID tag antenna as a possible market for simple metallised aluminium films for the ‘cheap & cheerful’ end of the market but in reality this market may already have disappeared.

If I were considering adding pattern metallizing capability I would not be including RFID tags as a possible product as I would regard it as chasing a diminishing market. 

What do you think?

Answer

You are correct in your thinking.

There are many designs of antenna and some of these are much larger than the 2cm x 2cm  and so the area required could be greater than you calculate but even so the area of metallized product would be low.

There is a lot of development work going into improving the conductivity of the printing inks.  The polymer matrix has been improved as well as the addition of conducting fillers have both increased the ink conductivity such that either higher conducting circuits can be made or thinner printing can be used for the same conductivity as earlier ink compositions.

This improvement of conductivity of the inks has further reduced the need for vacuum metallized RFID tags.    It is only where the very highest conductivity circuits are required such as for long distance interrogation of the tags which requires a high response signal that either metallized or metal foil laminate tags are required.  So even here metallized products are not the only product. Metal foils can be die stamped to make the circuits and for low volumes this is a competitive technology to vacuum metallization.

Similarly there are other circuits, such as solar cells, where circuits are needed that it has been suggested are suitable markets for metallized film but these too are now being integrated with printed conducting ink processes to eliminate this vacuum process from the manufacturing line.

Thus I would regard any printed circuit application as at best a temporary market opportunity and would hesitate to include this market in any investment application.

Coating and Conversion - Issue 7 Jan/Feb 2008

This journal has the usual mixture of snippets of news and articles. Of which the following two articles were, for me, the highlight of this edition.

In this issue I was delighted to find an article on web cleaning entitled ‘Wiping the slate clean’.  This article is more of an advertorial for a number of company products than an independent review of competing technologies.   The article does describe the general problem of web contamination along with some of the basics of the different cleaning techniques.  The article is also very light when it comes to detailed information on the cleanliness of the film. The two specific bits of information that were included was that the tacky roll process from Teknek could remove debris as small as 1 micron and that the ultrasonic air knife and vacuum extract from Shinko could remove particles of 1.6 microns and above.

In the past both of these techniques have been used to remove particles down to 0.3 microns although this is much more difficult and it may be that they cannot guarantee this level of quality and so are using values that are more easily achievable.

In a similar type of advertorial there is an article entitled ‘No need to get wound up’ that deals with winding issues.  Although this article is directed at the winding of webs at atmospheric pressure a number of the basics are equally applicable to winding webs in vacuum.  Also as we all take webs that have already been wound in atmospheric pressure we need to know what we are receiving and why the rolls are in the condition we see them in. 

If any of you wish to find out more about this Journal the web site is www.C2-europe.eu

Question regarding infra-red coatings

What is the infared coating & what is process for this, night vision glass is the part for this, the process is patented by any ?

Answer

Infra-red (IR) coatings covers every or any coating that has some performance in the IR.  Aluminium rises from being transparent in the ultraviolet to being reflective in the visible and this reflectivity continues into the IR.  For some solar control filters the plasma edge (where the reflectivity goes from low value to high value) is chosen to be in the near IR. Choosing where this plasma edge is allows different amounts of solar rejection.  Choosing the solar performance allows products to be produced for different areas of the world.

Some of the colour shifting products have a military performance in the IR and are used to change the IR reflectivity of military vehicles. 

Some other IR materials are used as hard protective surfaces that allow IR transparency but are opaque in the visible. 

Many optical coatings combinations of high and low refractive index materials with each layer deposited with a specific thickness in this way band pass and edge filters, dichroic mirrors and anti-reflection coatings can be produced.

Most of these types of coatings have been patented at some time. Some are such well known designs that they are out of time on patents but may have been superseded with other materials or designs to give a higher performance.

You would need to carry out a patent search on each specific type of coating to find what has been published. Bear in mind that some of the military materials although they may be patented they may not be found by some search engines, or copies be available.

Vacuum International - Year 1, Issue No.1. Jly/Sept 2007

The journal Glass Coatings has ended publication and there has appeared a new publication, Vacuum International.  This new publication covers technologies and high-tech applications of the vacuum coating industry.  This includes coating, plasma, micro- and nano-technologies and photonics as well as a special section that covers the vacuum coating for the glass industry.

            For those interested in finding out further details there is a website  www.vacuumtech.eu 

            This first edition include sections on product news, business news, followed by a number of articles:-

Thin film PV – Glass and photovoltaics: two worlds continuously moving closer.

Production techniques – Thin films: Italy leads the way.

Sun-Tech – The development of LEDs and SMD electronics on transparent polyester film.

Singulus Technologies – Vacuum coating: a technology with potential.

Pfeiffer Vacuum – From individual components to complete complex vacuum systems.

Brazing – VLT: complete supply and service for high & ultra-high vacuum applications.

GNB Corporation – Baffles improve performance.

Science & Research – Plasma treatment for protection of metals.

            A number of the articles are company specific and expand on the company expertise and products or services.   Others articles give an overview of a particular current technology.  One of these is on the use of PECVD for the deposition of silica as a protective layer on metals for corrosion resistance. This provides an interesting comparison to the use of silica transparent barrier coatings for food packaging applications.  Another is about photovoltaics (PV).  This article highlights the glass substrate based PVs that, although they currently have a significant share of the market, can be expected to be superseded by the lighter PVs on flexible substrates.

            

            I look forward to the next edition.        

The difference between a Lenticular & a stereogram embossed structure.

I have following queries:

1.What is the difference between Lenticulars & a stereogram?
2.What is lenticular sheet?
3. How can we make lenticular sheet?

Answer

A stereogram traditionally was produced by taking two photographs from two slightly different angles and printing them slightly displaced from each other. This means that when you look at the resultant picture you see a slightly blurred picture but if you can change the focal point of your eyes then they each see one of the pictures and the effect is that you see the image in a 3 dimensional way. The brain processes the different information from each eye and reconstructs what you would see in real life and makes it into a more solid image.

Lenticulars work differently.  The aim of lenticulars is to show some movement and so it is like a mini film with each image showing some changing position of the image.  For simplicity if we take a simple two image version of this with an eye open and an eye closed.  If you printed the whole of each image side by side and used a two faceted lens above the images you could produce the effect that my a small movement of the head the lens either showed one image or the other and so you could move from the eye being open to the eye being closed and so it would appear the eye 'winked' at you.  To do this with two images side by side would require a large distance between the lens and the image to get the effect to work well. To minimise this distance each image is separated into stripes and printed alternately and above this a series of lenses are used and this produces the same effect but with a very much thinner lens that can be laminated to the printed image.  The next extension of this is to use many images and a many faceted lens so that each facet is aligned with each image stripe and in this way the progression of the movement can be made less jumpy and it will appear smoother.  The key part of this process is the quality of the printing, the precision of the printing and embossing of the lenses and the registration of the two.  If you imaging the simple two facet lens to be of a sawtooth design it will be clear that this will be in a series of ridges and furrows and so the orientation is important. The effect will work in one direction but at 90 degrees there will be no effect.  The embossed polymer sheet tends to be very thick, compared to packaging film, and can be of the order 1mm thick or more.  The embossing is also very coarse compared to holographic embossing closer to mm in dimensions rather than the microns in holograms.

Incidentally there are also holographic stereograms that instead of using lenses instead digitise the information from the multiple images and use this to make to make a pixilated hologram that can be reconstructed into a 3D image by the viewer.

I hope you are able to visualize this answer.

Embossing & holography - differences

Could you please help me to understand the difference between Holography & Embossing?

Answer.

Embossing is the process of pressing a surface with some surface relief into a softer surface so that the softer surface will conform to the surface relief and take on the complimentary shape.

If the surface relief happens to be a holographic device the embossing process will transfer that holographic device into the softer material.

This softer material can be a thermodeformable polymer such that the surface relief hard surface is heated and so will more easily deform the thermoformable surface. The problem of the heat is that once the embossing surface is removed the thermoformable surface can relax and lose some of the definition. Alternatives are to have a surface that can be cured in some way, either by light or heat, so that once the surface relief pattern has be produced it can be fixed more permanently.

Thus embossed holographic surfaces can be metallized but may lose some of the image sharpness because the metallization process is hot through the deposition zone. Some companies prevent this by embossing the metallized polymer after the metallization so that they have to deform the thin metal layer as well as the polymer. 

I hope this explains the difference for you

Question re. ISO 22000

The following question has been asked.

Could you please help me to understand the significance of ISO 22000 for a producer of plain, coated & metallized film used for packaging application?

I found this information on the BSI website (web address given at the end) that answers the question

ISO 22000:2005 - Food Safety Management System Standard 

BSI provides auditing, certification and training services for ISO 22000:2005.

Introduction
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has developed the ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety Management Systems Standard. Officially called ISO 22000:2005, Food safety management systems - Requirements for any organization in the food chain, ISO 22000:2005 is an international standard and defines the requirements of a food safety management system covering all organisations in the food chain from “farm to fork”, including catering and packaging companies.

There has been a continuous increase in consumer demand for safe food. This has led to the development of numerous food safety standards. The growing number of national standards for food safety management has led to confusion. Consequently, there is a need for international harmonization and ISO aims to meet this need with ISO 22000:2005.

The standard combines generally recognized key elements to ensure food safety along the food chain including: interactive communication; system management; control of food safety hazards through pre-requisite
programmes and HACCP plans; and continual improvement and updating of the management system.

ISO 22000:2005 is intended to define the requirements for companies that desire to exceed the regulatory requirements for food safety.

Who is it for?
A truly international standard for any business in the entire food chain from 'farm to fork' and including inter-related organizations such as producers of equipment, packaging material, cleaning agents, additives and ingredients. ISO 22000:2005 is also for companies seeking to integrate their quality management system, for example ISO 9001:2000, and their food safety management system.

Benefits of adoption
Certifying your food management system against the requirements of ISO 22000:2005 will bring the following benefits to your organization:

·        Applies to all organizations in the global food supply chain.

·        A truly global international standard.

·        Provides potential for harmonization of national standards.

·        Covers the majority of the requirements of the current retailer food safety standards.

·        Complies with the Codex HACCP principles.

·        Provides communication of HACCP concepts internationally.

·        An auditable standard which provides a framework for third-party certification.

·        Auditable standard with clear requirements.

·        Suitable for regulators.

·        The structure aligns with the management system clauses of ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004.

Specific benefits include:

·        System approach, rather than product approach.

·        Resource optimization – internally and along the food chain.

·        All control measures subjected to hazard analysis.

·        Better planning, less post process verification.

·        Improved documentation.

·        Systematic management of prerequisite programmes.

·        Increased due diligence.

·        Dynamic communication on food safety issues with suppliers, customers,
regulators and other interested parties.

·        A systematic and proactive approach to identification of food safety hazards
and development and implementation of control measures.

Review information on other Food Safety Standards - BRC Global Standard - Food, BRC/IOP Packaging, and Dutch HACCP or learn how to implement a Food Safety Management System .

To find out more and to download brochures please complete our Registration and Assessment Enquiry form.

You can purchase copies of

·        ISO 22000:2005 - Food safety management systems - Requirements for any organization in the food chain

·        ISO/TS 22004 – Food Safety Management Systems – Guidance on the application of ISO 22000:2005

from BSI Customer Services on +44(0)20 8996 9001, by emailing orders@bsi-global.com or from British Standards Online (ISO 22000 only).

C.A.Bishop

Metal pigment rationalisation?

Just an observation about the metallic flake pigment business over the last year or so.

Wolstenholme sold their ‘Metasheen’ business to Ciba

Wolstenholme also dissolved their joint venture activities in North America with Schlenk and with their distributors MD-Both Industries, preferring to go-it-alone in the bronze and aluminium pigment business.

Schlenk and MD-Both have continued their activities and opened a joint venture operation in the US.

Altana Chemie has announced it is to buy Ekart.

Silberline has joined forces with Taizhu of China

BASF have bought Engelhard

So what does all this mean?  Well the good news is that the aluminium flake pigment business is good and viewed by many of these large multinational businesses as having a future and hence they want to gain a larger market share.  The implications of this could be that if you are a smaller player it may mean that you could be gobbled up by one of the bigger players aiming to strengthen their position.

So should I be buying shares in……………………..??????

Watch this space.

Biodegradable metallized packaging

It is always a sign that a topic is starting to take off when there are small one or two day conferences just on that topic that start appearing.  This appears to now be the case with biodegradable packaging.  In early July there will be a two-day conference organised by PIRA in Europe on just this topic.

We also have in the press announcements that the first biodegradable transparent barrier film produced by Alcan using silica onto polylactic acid film will be announced in October at a conference in Germany.

A second ‘first’ that has been announced is the metallised biodegradable film produced by Innovia, suitable for both industrial and home composting, has been launched.  This is a metallised cellulose-based film has passed various tests and is shown in a twist wrap application.

Although the market will eventually be worldwide both look to be initially aimed at Europe where the cost of disposal of waste material is costly and is increasing.

Having seen this starting in Europe I wonder how soon before other metallizers follow suit and announce competing products?