Improve Label Adhesion on Bottles – Flame & Plasma Treaters

When packagers are faced with label adhesion challenges, flame and plasma surface treaters are often used to increase bond strength. Label adhesion problems on bottles occur because many of the container, lid and cap materials used in packaging are chemically inert and non receptive to bonding with glue.

Options for improving labeling success include changing the adhesive, changing the label application technique, changing the container material or reducing line speeds. Some of these options can be very difficult to change, so packagers frequently turn to in-line surface treatment solutions.

Surface treating caps, bottles and lids ensure that labels will not peel off before complete destruction of the label occurs. Air plasma treaters and flame treaters activate surfaces to create bonding sites to enable successful adhesion.

Both air plasma and flame surface treaters can be integrated into a packaging line with minimal line modification. Flame treaters are ideal when the area to be treated is large and lines speeds are high. For spot area treatment, Enercon’s air plasma systems can be mounted over a conveyor or in conjunction with a bottle table depending on the line layout.

Plasma Treatment for Label Adhesion on new HDPE CFB Bottle

Amcor & Sacmi recently partnered on a new compression blow forming process for HDPE bottles. Developing this new technology was not a quick venture. SACMI originally developed the CBF process and, during a 14-month development project with Amcor, refined the technology specifically for pharmaceutical packaging. Amcor, under an exclusive agreement with SACMI, is using the CBF technology in select markets. The new bottle forming technology is destined to bring high quality containers to the pharmaceutical industry. As reported by Packaging Digest Magazine, benefits of the process include bottles with consistent thickness, reduced weight and decreased resin burn.

Enercon supplies a Blown Arc Series air plasma system to clean the bottles surfaces to promote labeling and induction sealing by packagers who use the bottle. The air plasma system positively charge the bottle surface to make it more receptive to any applied substance such as inks, adhesives and coatings.