Products packaged for oil may involve edible oil, lubricating oil or other oil products. So what characteristics do these materials need to have?
1. The barrier property should be considered. Oils are easy to oxidize, so the material needs to be able to effectively isolate oxygen to prevent oxidation and deterioration. In addition, it may also be necessary to block moisture. Although oil itself does not contain water, external moisture may affect the integrity of the package. In addition, the oil itself may have volatile components or prevent external odors from entering, so the barrier property should include oxygen, moisture, odor and other aspects.
2.Oil resistance. The material must be able to resist the penetration of oil, otherwise the oil may seep out, causing the package to leak or pollute the external environment. For example, some plastics may be dissolved or swelled by oil, so oil-resistant materials such as PET or nylon need to be selected.
3. Mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, tear resistance, and puncture resistance. Oil packaging may be squeezed or punctured during transportation and stacking, and the material needs to be strong enough to prevent damage. It may also be necessary to consider the flexibility and low-temperature resistance of the material, such as whether it is easy to break in a low-temperature environment.
4. Sealing is also an important factor. Flexible packaging is usually sealed by heat sealing, so the material needs to have good heat sealing performance to ensure that there is no oil leakage at the seal. At the same time, the seal needs to be pressure-resistant to avoid cracking of the seal due to pressure during transportation.
5. Chemical stability is also critical. The material cannot react chemically with the oil, otherwise it may contaminate the oil or cause the material itself to degrade. For example, additives in some plastics may migrate into the oil, affecting the quality and safety of the oil.
6. Environmental protection is becoming more and more important now, whether the material is recyclable or degradable. Traditional multi-layer composite materials may be difficult to recycle, so now there may be more environmentally friendly materials being developed, such as biodegradable plastics or single material structures for easy recycling.
7. Printing performance cannot be ignored either. The label and brand information on the package need to be clearly printed, the surface of the material should be suitable for printing, and the printed pattern is not easy to fall off or wear.
8. Temperature resistance, such as whether the material can remain stable during high-temperature sterilization or whether it will not become brittle when stored at low temperatures. For example, edible oil may be transported in a high-temperature environment or require high-temperature filling, and the material needs to withstand these temperature changes.
Cost is also a factor. Although the properties must be good, the production cost cannot be too high, otherwise it will not be commercially viable. It may be necessary to balance performance and cost to select the most appropriate combination of materials.
Specific common material structures, such as PET/PE, PET provides barrier and strength, PE provides heat sealing; or aluminum foil composite layer, providing better barrier properties. There are also co-extruded films, which may combine the advantages of different materials. There may also be high-barrier aluminized films or EVOH materials to enhance barrier properties. Examples of practical applications, such as edible oil flexible packaging, often use PET/AL/PE structure, in which the aluminum foil layer provides high barrier, PET provides mechanical strength, and PE is used for heat sealing. However, now there may be a trend towards a structure without aluminum foil, using aluminized or other high-barrier coatings instead, for easy recycling
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