When styrenics giant Ineos Styrolution needed a packaging solution at its Luran S1 facility, a production line in Ludwigshafen, Germany producing about 35,000 metric tons of packaged goods per year, it called in the services of Bischof + Klein, a leading European full-service supplier of flexible plastic and laminate packaging and technical films. The solution turned out to be close to home: the stretch hood film developed by Bischof + Klein is based on Styroflex, an SBC copolymer produced by Ineos Styrolution.
For Ineos, the experience was a new one but it was “very motivating for us to see our own packaging material Styroflex through the eyes of a customer,” said Peter Lakeman, engineering manager at the Ludwigshafen plant.
Styroflex is a styrene-butadiene block copolymer (SBC) with the properties of a thermoplastic elastomer. In film applications, Styroflex provides excellent stretch recovery, transparency and puncture resistance. The grade chosen, PG77, was particularly tailored for packaging applications like stretch hood solutions. It combines maximum transparency with outstanding elongation and extreme toughness. Styroflex PG77 can be stretched up to 200 percent with enormous recovery capacity: It snaps back to its original shape, clings tightly to the load and holds it securely.
Frank Heermann, manager product development industrial packaging at Bischof + Klein, said the company enjoyed the collaboration with Ineos Styrolution in Ludwigshafen, adding that “it is interesting to see that the company is using its own products.”