Fresh food packaging manufacturer, Linpac Group Ltd., is making a “multi-million-pound” investment in new technology at its site in Pontivy, France, to produce a range of multi-layer, next-generation top lidding films.
The Lincolnshire, United Kingdom-based packaging firm said with the investment in the new production line, the business would grow its lightweight lidding film offer, in line with its LIFE (lightweighting for excellence) program.
The move, said Linpac, would allow the company to continue developing “ultra-light, resistant barrier flexibles for modified atmosphere packaging [MAP], in what has traditionally been a category of heavy gauge film usage.”
The films claim to offer high level of functionality to protect and preserve fresh products, while being easy to handle.
“The new Linpac production technology allows us to produce a broad range of high barrier films with enhanced anti-fog and print properties for our customers,” explained Erwan Cadoret, business manager barrier films at Linpac in a news release.
In addition, the films offer “tailor-made shrink performance” which enables tight, wrinkle-free packs.
A notable new formulation, which is created using the new multi-layer extrusion process, is a 25 µm shrink-barrier, anti-fog polyethylene film for retail-ready MAP formats, Linpac's statement added.
The film can be used on manual and automatic lidding machines and is available in longer-than-standard rolls to reduce downtime.
“Our 25 µm film is just the start of a new wide range of exciting film developments that can be produced in Pontivy. Our customers can expect to see 27 µm PP and PE films for all tray sealers and 33 µm films for tray sealers, thermoforming lines, horizontal vacuum lines and vertical MAP flowpack lines,” Cadoret concluded.