BOPP film is a rugged thermoplastic polymer. When polypropylene is biaxially oriented, BOPP, it becomes crystal clear but remains available in white and matte finishes. The substrates reasonable economics, conformability and fatigue resistance make it ideal for packaging, labeling and graphic applications. BOPP film is commonly used for applications that require moisture resistance, optical clarity and high tensile strength such as:
- Food & Beverage Packaging
- Medical Packaging
- Personal Care Product Packaging
- Tamper Evident Films
Biaxially Oriented PolyPropylene is the film that has been stretched both mechanically and also in manually using cross direction technique. Due to its advantages this film has become one of the most popular and highly demanded films all across the globe.
These are the films that have BOPP as the base material. Its unique attributes are:
- These films have the density nearer to 0.90 g/m and hence it renders high yield at the same cost as compared to other films viz. polyester films
- BOPP films have excellent gloss and high transparency that give it an excellent look and fine finish.
- Other polyester films are not resistant to outside pollution whereas BOPP films act as good moisture resistant barrier and have tendency to resist pollution and harmful chemicals.
- This film have spectrum of wide range and are easily available viz. Matte, Glossy, Silky matter etc.
- Excellent clarity
- Best dimensional stability and flatness
- Low electro static charge
- Acts as good barrier to water vapor
- BOPP films exert good and optimum performance on high speeding printing
- Apart from resistant to harmful chemicals and pollution, these films act as resistant to oils and grease
- Good puncture and flex crack resistance over wide range of temperatures
- Also BOPP films are not affected by the moisture and does not wrinkle or shrink with changes in the environment
- They are recyclable
BOPP films have great benefits like:
- They are environment friendly
- Are light in weight
- Are accepted easily all across the world
- Damage of the product due to transport, weather etc are reduced
- to great extent
- Has the tendency to keep the product dry
- No de- lamination is required
- They have good clarity and are resistant to ultra violet rays
BOPP films have wide range of applications
- Grade F1 films are used for packing of food and their sealin
- Standard BOPP films are used for electrical applications, printing and lamination
- Text book covering
- Other applications includes extrusion coating, flower packing, reverse printing and lamination
- They are also used as adhesive tapes and pressure sensitive tapes
- White and opaque colored film are used for general purposes like printing pouching, cable over wrap, strip packaging for cough drops and heat sealable BOPP films are used for general purpose and over wrapping.
However BOPP lamination films have certain draw backs viz.
- BOPP sealing is poor
- There is high range of crystalline nature in BOPP films as the surface of these films is nonpolar.
- The performance of this film in the printing is poor and has poor relativity as to ink because of low surface energy.
In spite of few drawbacks BOPP films have become the latest buzzword in the packaging arena and they are in the good books of both the manufacturers and the end users.