Jupiter Laminators is India’s one of the leading flexible packaging material manufacturers, and continuously working towards 100% recyclable flexible packaging solutions. The group closely works with many FMCG brands for their specific requirements of sustainable and recyclable packaging.

Jupiter’s CPP line has seven layers and eight extruders and is capable of producing tailor-made products with barrier material EVOH and PA. Extruders are capable of processing both PP and PE to maximise the sealing properties along with transparency and toughness. This line also has a machine direction orientation (MDO) unit, a patented technology by Colines to produce MDO PP & MDO PE films.

MDO film is made where a polymer film is heated to a temperature slightly below its melting point and stretched in a particular orientation. The film can be casted on an MDO machine, or this step is introduced as the last stage in the manufacturing of blown films.

Manufacturing process of MDO film
The first step in the MDO process is preheating, where a film is fed into the stretching unit and evenly warmed to the desired temperature by IR heaters. Followed by orientation, where the film is stretched between a series of rollers that are revolving at a different speed.

During annealing stage, the film’s new properties are locked in and made permanent. Finally, it’s cooled, where film is brought back to room temperature.

MDO film has many advantages such as optical properties - High transparency, lower haze value and enhanced gloss effects; physical properties – Better film planarity, improved dimensional stability (very low shrinking ratio); and Mechanical properties - Better tensile strength, higher load break and linear tear propagation (MOPP).

Lab results have shown a significant improvement in terms of toughness and reduction of elongation from 500 to 120-150 % in machine direction from CPP to MDO-PP. This makes film tough, sturdy and suitable for even a rotogravure printing machine without any compromise on machine speed. 

The film also possesses barrier properties - Significant improvement in WVTR properties observed during lab testing. WVTR is 1.80-gm/(m2 – day) for 25 microns MDO-PP as against WVTR of 2.50gm/(m2 – day) for 25 microns CPP.

The application areas of MDO films cover potato chips. The existing packaging structures contain print BOPP, PE, met-PET and LDPE. Some of the critical packaging requirements for MDO films are WVTR and OTR. Alternative and recyclable structures are; print BOPP, ext-PE, met-BOPP and PE.

MDO-PP and MDO-PE offer features which are crucial for creating a valid alternative to some of the existing products in various markets. MDO-CPP, MDO-PE and barrier CPP films in combination can meet some of the critical requirements of flexible packaging.