Metallized & Vacuum Coated Products Are Credited for Excellence in the AIMCAL Competition

Published: March 25, 2009

FORT MILL, SC | The Assn. of Industrial Metallizers, Coaters & Laminators  bestowed this year’s top Metallized Product of the Year Award, named in honor of Paper, Film & Foil Converter’s (PFFC) former publisher Peter Rigney, to Graphic Packaging Intl., Marietta, GA, at the association’s annual banquet, held this year on March 22 at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines in La Jolla, CA.

Let’s Cook In
McCain Popcorn Potatoes flexible cook-in bag from Graphic Packaging  incorporates Quilt Wave lamination and a metallized susceptor grid. The heat-sealable 48-ga polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/ink/pattern adhesive/25# paper/adhesive/pattern susceptor/heat-sealable 48-ga PET lamination is claimed the first of its kind with eight-color printing and a lap seal. The package tunes into the potato product to ensure perfect heating and browning without scorching the packaging material. Graphic Packaging plants in Portland, Or, and Wausau, WI, performed converting; PET was supplied by DuPont Teijin Films, Hopewell, VA, and the Lawrenceville, GA, plant of Toray Plastics (America); metallizing was by Rol-Vac, Dayville, CT; Dunn Paper, Vicksburg, MI, supplied the paper; and John Waski Design, Westport, CT was the package designer.

Chips Go Chic
Uflex Ltd., Moida, India, won a marketing award in the Food & Beverage Packaging-Flexible category for Masafi Gourmet Potato Chips. The film pouch is rotogravure printed in eight colors, including a matte finish combined with more environmentally friendly toluene/MEK-free alcohol-based inks. A specially engraved cylinder applies an overcoat to protect the matte finish. Single-source supplier Uflex designed the package, produced and metallized the substrates, and converted the final structure: matte finish biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP)/coextruded polyethylene (PE)/high-barrier plasma-metallized PET/PE.

Uflex won a second award for technical achievement in the Food & Beverage Packaging-Flexible category for Lay’s Chilli Chinese Potato Chips from Pepsico India Holding (Frito-Lay Div.) in India. Uflex provided design, substrate production, metallizing, and converting capabilities. Uflex laminates BOPP/coextruded PE/high-barrier plasma-metallized PET/PE to provide high water vapor transmission barrier. A horizontal laser score allows easy opening, and a wide top and gusseted bottom permits the pouch to double as a serving bowl with a complementary sauce from a second onboard pouch.

A Toast to the Winner
Unifoil Corp., Fairfield, NJ, won a marketing award in the Food Beverage Packaging-Rigid category for a metallized carton holding Norwalk, CT-based Diageo’s Sambuca Romano Gift Set. The carton’s recyclable film-free construction combines premium decorated board that’s acrylic-coated, transfer-metallized 12-pt Silver UniLustre from Unifoil with an inexpensive, 20-pt E-Flute corrugated to achieve economy, light weight, and eye appeal. Design is by Brown Forman; transfer-metallizing film is from Toray; Hub Folding Box (Mansfield, MA) is contract packager; Unifoil provides printing with transparent ultraviolet offset inks.

Triscuit Goes Clubbing
Graphic Packaging won a second ward, this time for technical excellence, in the Food & Beverage Packaging-Rigid category for its Composipac carton that houses Triscuit Club Pack crackers from Kraft Foods’ New Jersey plant. GP eliminates grease staining and increases top-load strength with rotogravure reverse-printed 48-ga PET (from DuPont Teijin), which it metallizes and laminates to 30-pt clay-coated solid unbleached sulfate using low-density polyethylene (LDPE). It then die-cuts blanks and glues side seams.

Red Door Shut Out
Hazen Paper, Holyoke, MA, wins a marketing award in the Healthcare, Cosmetics & Toiletries Packaging category for a family of holographic setup boxes for Elizabeth Arden, New York, with a “lenticular” effect. The Mediterranean and Red Door brands employ bright Ultracure acrylic-lacquered Holographic Circles laminated to the coated side of 18-pt SBS with water-based adhesive. The box base uses metallized PET in red or blue to coordinate with the lid. Hub Folding Box performs design and contract packaging.

Pouch Is a Light Weight
Super Film Ambalaj, Gaziantep, Turkey wins a technical award in the Healthcare, Cosmetics & Toiletries Packaging category for its metallized Suptherm 7131MDP film used for pouched hotel amenities. Coskun Plastik, Kartal/Istanbul, Turkey, converts the 80-micron metallized pearlized white, cavitated Suptherm film into a surface-printed lamination. The metallized side of the Suptherm film is primed for printing; the reverse is specially polymerized for adhesion to LDPE that Coskun Plastik extrusion coats to a thickness of about 15 microns. The result is lighter weight; 60%—75% better yield than a previous multilayer lamination; same run speeds on packaging lines; and the elimination of delamination problems caused by aggressive product ingredients.

Lights On
A marketing award in the Nonfood Packaging category goes to Shanghai Zijiang Metallization Packaging Material Co., Shanghai, China, for a holographic blister card holding a single compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb from Philips Electronics Co. in China. Shanghai Zijiang metallizes and converts the packaging using base paper form Fuyang Weishida Paper Industry, Fuyang, China; contract packager is Shanghai Zidan Printing. The peggable holographic pack discourages counterfeiting and encourages sales.

Card Surpasses Muster
Unifoil takes a second award—this time for technical merit—in the Other category for a Platinum Digital Musicpass card from Sony & BMG Music entertainment, New York. The card is one of the first applications for nonlaminated, metallized 30-mil polystyrene (PS) cardstock, employing Unifoil’s UltraLustre technology. The mono-layerd card has metallization applied by electron-beam transfer that reduces the weight and thickness of the card, improves recyclability, and eliminates problems with warpage, delamination, and adhesive oozing from the edges.