Company: Toray Plastics (America)

Website: www.toraytpa.com

Packaging Snapshot: Toray Plastics (America), Inc., featured advancements in three families of packaging films—Torayfan clear barrier BOPP, Torayfan white BOPP, and Lumirror high barrier PET—at Pack Expo International 2018 at McCormick Place in Chicago. These portfolios are manufactured with Toray’s proprietary technology and provide CPG companies and converters with creative solutions that deliver robust performance with a lower total cost. Desirable film features include; thin and ultra-thin offerings, transparent high-barrier, metallized to replace foil, a white pigmented appearance, bio-based materials, integrated sealant technology with improved hermeticity and seal strength, easy-open packaging and lidding, ‘premium feel’ outer webs, and solutions for digital printing and e-commerce applications. Additional product announcements will be made at the show.

“Sophisticated consumer preferences are driving packaging design decisions,” says Tammy Williamson, associate product manager, Torayfan Division. “People’s desire for fresh and ‘clean’ foods, product visibility, sturdy, ‘on-the-go’ packaging, portion-control, and e-commerce convenience, along with their expectation that a company demonstrate a verifiable commitment to sustainability is clear. Toray has a legacy as a leader in film technology innovation, including bio-based films, and sustainable business practices, and we are very excited to share our knowledge with Pack Expo attendees this fall.”

The products highlighted at the show were:

  • Torayfan CB3 portfolio, a new generation of transparent high-barrier BOPP films. CB3 films are available in 70 and 80 gauges in sealable and non-sealable versions. These new films are PVdC-free and offer superior barrier-durability protection for nuts, seeds, snacks, cookies, dried fruit, and confections.
  • New Torayfan white pigmented BOPP films for snack food packaging. They are metallized on one side in sealable and non-sealable versions and are available in a variety of barrier levels and heat-seal strengths. Toray’s white films combine the pigment, sealant, and barrier in one web, enabling the manufacture of a standard two-ply lamination.
  • Toray’s new Lumirror high-barrier PET films designed to provide extended shelf life. New MK6HB metallized film offers outstanding oxygen and moisture-barrier protection, and PA1HB is a clear-barrier film that delivers outstanding oxygen barrier. Both offer superior aroma protection.
  • New Over the Mountain high-barrier BOPP films. These OTM films are designed with integrated sealant technology, improved hermeticity (air tightness), and the seal-strength to withstand the air pressure changes that occur when products are transported in changing altitudes, which can cause a package to burst. They’re also robust enough to eliminate the need for a separate sealant film and allow a switch from a complex three-ply lamination to a two-ply structure. Converters value not needing the separate sealant web and the extra lamination step. OTM films are ideally suited for the regional manufacturer that wants national distribution and for e-commerce applications.