Additives: High-Performance Organic Cavitating Masterbatch for White-Opaque BOPP Packaging

A new high-performance organic cavitating masterbatch designed for premium quality labels and white-opaque BOPP packaging is newly available from Ampacet Corp., Tarrytown, N.Y. Pearl 368 boasts high efficiency, enabling processors to achieve very low film densities with high yields while providing outstanding film aesthetics and excellent film opacity.

White BOPP film is now widely used in packaging and labeling for the food and non-food industries. Packers and labelers aim to optimize the surface/weight ratio of BOPP film (yield), and are fabricating voided films, benefiting from the bi-orientation process and a controlled delamination of PP due to stretching. This delamination leads to reduction of the film density because of the creation of cavities in the film. Cavitation technology can be based on either mineral cavitating agents, such as calcium carbonate, or on organic cavitating agents

According to Ampacet, as an organic cavitating masterbatch, Pearl 368  has been shown to have consistent cavitating efficiency across the web width, especially on large BOPP tenter frames. It also reportedly enables reduction of the use of organic cavitation agents by up to 25% while maintaining the same film density, compared to conventional organic cavitating masterbatches. Superior whiteness and gloss for better shelf appeal are also claimed.