Clariant Partners With Merck & Sabic To Perfect Laser Marking Of Flexible Packaging

Clariant Partners With Merck & Sabic To Perfect Laser Marking Of Flexible Packaging

September 25, 2019 Off By Sebastian Reisig

 Clariant has teamed up with pigment supplier Merck KGaA and resin producer SABIC to develop laser-marking technology and materials to ease the recycling process for flexible polyethylene (LDPE, LLDPE) packaging film. The results of the collaboration will be presented at K 2019, the international plastics trade fair being held on October 16 to 23 at Messe Dusseldorf in Germany.

“There is growing demand for clean, high-quality recycled PE,” explains Chun-Yip Pang, Clariant’s Global Product Manager Additive Masterbatches — Laser, “and, while recycling rates for PE films continues to increase, there are still a number of challenges that need to be overcome. This collaboration is focused on eliminating the printing ink used for tracking, shelf-life, bar codes and other variable information that must be placed on almost any package on the market. Less ink means less contamination when it comes to recycling.”

The collaboration demonstrates a complete supply-chain solution for laser-marking of films. As the resin supplier, SABIC contributes the polymer technology that delivers the properties required in the film packaging. Besides that SABIC can supply a wide variety of polymers in its portfolio as certified circular polymer, contributing even more to sustainable packaging. Laser-sensitive Iriotec® pigments and marking expertise are provided by Merck, while Clariant developed the additive masterbatch formulations for use in the film extrusion process.