PREDICTING THE PERFORMANCE OF IONOMER FILMS IN HEAT-SEAL PROCESSES

摘要

The heat-seal performance of a flexible plastic package depends on the sealing bar temperature, packaging line speed, film thickness and properties of the sealant resin. For a given sealant, thinner films reach their ultimate seal strength at lower bar temperatures and faster line speeds than thicker films. A model is developed that relates these factors to the amount of molecular penetration that develops at the heat-seal interface of ionomer films. A critical value of the penetration is found that corresponds to the ultimate heat-seal strength in laboratory heat-seal data. The results point to how laboratory data may be used to predict the sealing performance of ionomers on high-speed packaging lines.