In-house barrier and adhesion measuring service offered to film producers and converters

Packaging Solutions

Bobst Manchester’s in-house laboratory is equipped with a range of instruments for barrier and adhesion measurement to offer a full service to customers; companies who send their film to the Centre of Excellence for high barrier for metallising trials can then have it tested by our experienced team using the latest measuring equipment.

The latest equipment includes two new Mocon units, the Mocon Ox-Tran2/22 for oxygen measurement and Mocon Permatran-W 3/34 for measuring water vapour. These measurement systems are used for testing the permeation of both oxygen (OTR) and water vapour (WVTR) on metallised film as well as AlOx clear barrier film; barrier levels are imperative in the case of material being used for food packaging to ensure the food doesn’t spoil and meets the required shelf life.

Another new addition is the Brugger KFT-C Flex Durability Tester which is used to simulate the strain packaging material may be exposed to during conversion processes and in typical storage, transport and retail environments. This is a very useful test for laminated metallised or AlOx film as after the material has been subject to this rigorous process, it can then be tested again on the Mocon units to establish how the barrier figures have been affected giving the customer a good insight into how their material will perform in a real life situation.

The laboratory also has a Mecmesin MultiTest 2.5-I tensile tester, this is used to perform the EMA (European Metallisers Association) EAA (ethylene acrylic acid) test which measures metal adhesion levels. The test will show whether the material is suitable to be used for packaging as poor adhesion between the metal and polymer substrate produces delamination which leads to packaging failure. Testing can be done at Bobst Manchester to show the difference in adhesion levels between standard metallised film and film produced using the Bobst AluBond process.