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Anlagen und Verfahren zur Beschichtung und Veredelung

Machinery and Processing for Coating and Converting

I n t e r n a t i o n a l
8-2012
www.coating.ch

EVENTS & EXHIBITIONS

ICE ASIA 2012 –

TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW
WITH SELECTED
EXHIBITORS
INTERVIEWS WITH
- FRANK SCHÄFER,
KROENERT

- LEE FAIRHURST,
SPOONER INDUSTRIES

- DETLEF MERKLINGER,
POLYTYPE CONVERTING

PRINTED ELECTRONICS
ASIA
- PRINTED THIN FILM
TRANSISTOR – THE LINK
FOR ALL KINDS OF PRINT-
ED ELECTRONICS

OUTLOOK:
TRANSPARENT CONDUC-
TIVE FILMS 2012–2022

LABORATORY COATING
EQUIPMENT: RESEARCH &
DESIGN FOR INLINE COAT-
ING

«PLA 2ND LIFE» –

RECYCLING OF POLYLAC-
TIDE FOR PACKAGING
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Labor und Technikumsanlagen

Laboratory and pilot lines

Sebastian Ruhland, Dipl.-Ing. (FH), Research & Development, Brückner Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG

R&D for Inline Coating (ILC)

Increasingly, BOPET (bi-axially oriented polyethylene terephtha-
late) films require enhanced surface characteristics to provide
the properties required and to simplify or improve further pro-
contamination of the BOPET film with dust. A further step
would be the application of a coated conductive layer in
order to substitute the ITO (indium tin oxide) used for solar
cessing procedures. Optical applications like flat panel displays panel applications.
and flexible printed circuit boards are just some examples of the • Anti-fog
challenging requirements. But, film surface properties are also An anti-fog layer can also be applied inline, for example to
essential for standard packaging applications or shrink sleeves. help to ensure that wet-packed goods like vegetables remain
clearly visible despite the high moisture levels.
Here the inline coating (abbr. ILC) technique plays a vital role: • Silicone
It is necessary to install a coating system between the MD Release liners are needed as a medium for adhesive labels,
(Machine Direction) and TD (Transverse Direction) stretching where they protect the adhesive layer. Usually these sili-
unit. With such an inline coating process it is possible to coat cone-coated release liners are produced in an offline
both sides of the BOPET film: process using silicone as a barrier, but inline coating is also
capable of producing siliconized BOPET films.
• Barrier
Last but not least, barrier properties of BOPET films are
becoming increasingly important especially for high-tech
products such as OLEDs, solar panels and fuel cells. There-
fore it is also possible to create an optimized BOPET film for
the barrier layer by an inline coating step.
Fig. 1: Multilayer structure of an inline coated BOPET film
There is a wide variety of film applications for which the ILC
The water-based coating has the function of a primer and chem- process can be applied:
ically modifies the BOPET film surface to achieve special prop-
erties, which are needed for various types of applications:

• Printing
For printing it is necessary to establish a suitable surface for
water- and solvent-based printing inks in order to achieve a
clear print image. This can be done either by corona or
flame treatment after stretching the films or by using the
inline coating technique. The advantage of the coating is
that it can be adjusted to suit each printing ink; further-
more, the effect is stable in the long term.
• Metallizing
The ILC improves the final quality in the case of metallizing
BOPET film: the bonding of the metal layer to the BOPET
film will be increased and the barrier properties with regard
to oxygen and water vapour will also be improved. Fig. 2: BOPET film applications with inline coating
• Slip and anti-block
Slip and anti-block properties can be influenced by mixing The great advantage compared to R2R (roll-to-roll) coating is
fine inorganic particles into the coating formulation during that ILC saves costs due to the use of the stretching oven as a
the inline coating process. Thus it is possible to substitute drier, together with the low coating consumption. Through the
the anti-block in the co-extrusion layer for selected applica- TD-stretching of the dried coating, the final coating thickness
tions, for example to make minor adjustments to the optical reaches values of approx. 60-120 nm and can therefore be
properties of the BOPET film. One application here is opti- regarded as a chemical (pre-)treatment which is stable in the
cal films. long term. Furthermore, there is also a reduction of both work-
• Anti-static flow and manpower. These factors result not only in an
Anti-static properties are needed especially during explo- improved quality for the BOPET film but also in added value for
sive converting steps like coating/printing with solvent- the film producers.
based inks (e.g. shrink sleeves for bottle labels). An anti-
static coating is also very useful in helping prevent a

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Labor und Technikumsanlagen

Laboratory and pilot lines

Inline coaters are already installed or planned for over 50% of Compared to industrial lines, the output and material consump-
all new BOPET stretching lines. For optimal performance, the tion is quite low at max. 300 kg/h (BOPET thick film), whereas
coater should be fully integrated into the operating system of
the stretching line. It is essential to understand the complete
coating process from mechanical engineering to the chemistry
in order to reach the appropriate quality of the film surface.

Brückner has the capability to develop new process technology

and test new coating formulations from laboratory scale (using
the KARO IV labstretcher) to pilot scale. Extensive research has
been conducted and showed that the processes can easily be
transferred to industrial stretching lines.

The following three examples will provide a brief overview of

the inline coating developments at Brückner. Fig. 5: Inline coater with corona station at an 8.7 m wide BOPET line
1. Development of ILC: from labstretcher to pilot line and indus-
trial lines the properties of the stretched films are comparable with the
2. Siliconization of BOPET as a release liner industrial process.
3. Coating thickness analyzer
A coating for improved metallization is currently being devel-
DEVELOPMENT OF ILC: LABSTRETCHER  PILOT LINE  INDUSTRI- oped and was recently successfully tested on the labstretcher
AL LINES. Whenever possible, basic developments are investi- Karo IV as well as at the Brückner pilot line.
gated on a laboratory scale using a laboratory extruder, a coat-
ing film applicator and the Karo IV labstretcher in order to test This coating was also used on an 8.7 m wide industrial PET
materials and coatings. This uses only small amounts of mate- stretching line to check its performance for the industrial
rial and the cost remains low. This equipment is also used by process. The coated and stretched PET film was subsequently
customers and producers of coating materials, as the results are metallised on a vacuum roll-to-roll PVD plant. The result was
very efficient and representative. very satisfying, and the metallised rolls are now being sent to
converters for further process and quality tests.

Film Properties

Fig. 3 Basic R&D with laboratory extruder/coating film applicator/labstretcher

As a next step, promising recipes for coating are tested using

the inline coating system on the Brückner pilot line. On this
occasion the direct reverse gravure kiss coating method is used.
The pilot-line equipment is capable of producing inline coated
PET films in the sequential as well as in the simultaneous
(LISIM®) stretching mode. Water-based acrylic, polyester or
polyurethane coatings can be applied with a coating weight (wet)
in a range of 1.5–30 g/m at a viscosity of 5–500 mPas, depend-
ing on the design of the gravure roll. Besides this, it is also pos-
sible to pre-treat the films with corona before the coating step for
improved coating results.

Fig. 6: Data sheet of an inline coated BOPET film

Fig. 4 Inline coating of PET film during simultaneous production with LISIM® technology

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Labor und Technikumsanlagen

Laboratory and pilot lines

treatment followed by biaxial stretching with a ratio of 3.5 x 3.5

(MD x TD) at the new Karo IV labstretcher HT, which is capable
of stretching films up to 400 °C. Both thermal curing and UV
curing silicone systems showed a good performance during tri-
als with PET films at the Brückner coating and stretching labo-
ratory.

Fig. 7: Advantages of BOPET-/ BOPP release liner compared to paper

Fig. 9: Laboratory coating equipment from Brückner in clean room
INLINE SILICONIZATION OF BOPET FILM FOR
RELEASE LINER APPLICATION. Release liners for The additional annealing step in the second oven of the Karo IV
labels are required for the expanding market was used to suspend the shrink properties of the PET foil and
in pressure-sensitive labels. Today silicon- to harden the thermal curing silicone.
coated paper is still dominant, with plastic
films representing a market share of 15%.
However, market investigations predict a high-
er growth for plastic film release liner in
future, for a variety of reasons:

MARKET TRENDS IN THE LABEL INDUSTRY. An

increasing number of products require a so-
called «No-label-look» solution. A printed,
transparent label creates the effect of a con-
tainer or bottle, which has been printed direct-
ly, thereby giving the product an exclusive
Fig. 8: No label look appearance. The no-label-look is becoming Fig. 10: KARO IV Labstretcher (High Temperature)
label increasingly popular for labelling a variety of
applications including mineral water, bever- The UV silicone systems required an additional curing step in a
ages, shampoos and shower gels, and many other personal care UV chamber after the film stretching. The coating weight (after
products. stretching) amounted in all samples to < 1.0 g/m ; lower weights
should be possible and are easy to achieve through the inline coat-
In addition to the cost advantage compared to the direct print- ing process due to the stretching factor. Optimized silicone formu-
ing of bottles and containers, this technique permits easy lations demonstrated a release force of approx. 30 cN/2.5 cm; the
changes in the printing design and printing method. In order to optical properties were as follows:
produce no-label-look labels, it is necessary to use high quality As a next step the laboratory results will be tested in a contin-
transparent film labels without defects or spots within the uous process on the Brückner pilot line before they are applied
adhesive layer. Silicone-coated PET or PP release liners play a to commercial lines.
vital role here. The liner must offer an extremely smooth sur-
face so that no roughness will be transferred to the adhesive of
the label. Using the inline coating technique during the produc-
tion of BOPET film, it is possible to fulfil these requirements
together with all other known advantages like top cost effective-
ness and low energy consumption.

Brückner Maschinenbau has evaluated this process on the labo-

ratory scale for application alongside the inline coating process.
Fig. 11: Data sheet of an inline siliconized BOPET film (laboratory scale)
LAB SCALE TRIALS WITH LABSTRETCHER KARO IV. PET film was
coated by an automatic film applicator coater with prior corona

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Labor und Technikumsanlagen

Laboratory and pilot lines

COATING THICKNESS ANALYZER. Functional thin film coatings on and the measurement system. Then the film sample will be
BOPET film enhance the film properties and the product value measured line by line in an adjustable distance of e.g. 15 mm;
with improved printability and metallization, antibacterial proper- the data from each point is saved. The result is shown in a chart
ties, release properties, barrier properties and others. In order to as coating thickness distribution with a view on the coated film
evaluate the coating quality of inline coated BOPET films it is surface.
essential to examine the coating thickness of the end film after the
stretching process, which means the measurement of the dry coat-
ing thickness as well as the coating distribution over the working
width. The challenge is to determine the transparent organic coat-
ing resin (acrylic, polyurethane, polyester) with a coating thick-
ness of approx. 60–120 nm that is applied onto an organic trans-
parent plastic film (PET).

For this purpose Brückner Maschinenbau has developed an

offline measurement system for the automatic determination of
the coating topography. (The inline measurement is not yet
available.)

PRINCIPLE. A contact gauge emitting a continuous spectrum

from 200 nm to 1100 nm is attached to a film sample. Light is
fractionally reflected at the different boundary layers of the Fig. 13: Principle of coating thickness analyzer
film. Reflected light of the same wavelength interferes depend-
ing on their phase-shifts: The maximum film size to be measured is 800 x 450 mm at a
measuring accuracy of 2–5 nm and a reproducibility of 0.3 nm.
The measurable coating layer thickness is dependent on the dif-
ference in the refractive index (Δn ≥ 0.1) of the coating and the
base material and extends from 1 nm up to 100 μm. Using the
drive system it is possible to measure a maximum of 15 differ-
ent points per minute

EXAMPLE. Using the coating thickness analyzer, a thickness dis-

tribution profile of an inline coated PET film was plotted on the
Brückner pilot line.
The BOPET film thickness measured 100 μm; the sheet size was
100 x 750 mm. The result showed an average dried coating
thickness of approx. 65 nm with a homogeneous distribution
over the working width and length.
Fig. 12: Functional principle of coating thickness analyzer

As the values of refractive indices depend on the wavelength,

phase-shifts at the same film-thickness differ for every single
wavelength. For this reason the intensity of the reflected light
over different wavelengths shows a characteristic curve.
If the dispersion curves for the refractive indices of the used
materials are known, it is possible to fit the measured
reflectance intensity by determining the best-fitting thickness.
The instrumentation was integrated into a positioning-system,
and programmed to perform automatic measurements of the
coating-topography.

WORKFLOW OF COATING THICKNESS ANALYZER. For the purposes

of automation the thickness measurement system was installed
into an X-Y-Z drive system. Before each measurement, the back
of the coated BOPET film must be painted with matt black Fig. 14: Coating surface of an inline coated BOPET film
colour to remove the disruptive boundary layer between the
film and the surrounding air. Furthermore, the refractive index It is also possible to measure an 8.7 m wide BOPET film: In this
of each material must be determined accurately. After this, soft- case single sheets which are 800 mm wide are measured, and
ware developed by Brückner is used for the input of the basic the data obtained is subsequently combined to create an over-
parameters and builds the interface between the drive system all value.

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