Kuhne Anlagenbau GmbH’s focus at NPE 2024, in Orlando, Florida, USA will be on large turnkey lines for extruding flexible simultaneously biaxially oriented barrier shrink films that do not require polyamide (PA) or polyester (PET) as a layer to impart strength to the structure. Consequently, they can be easily recycled together with (at most 5%) EVOH in the PE recycling stream. The required robustness and puncture resistance are achieved inline during processing in the Triple-Bubble® process using gentle radiation crosslinking employed by Kuhne. This acts from the outside to a shallow depth of only 5 to 10 µm, without damaging the EVOH layer and reducing recyclability. As a result, there is no need for an additional post-processing step, which would increase costs. The resultant films are sufficiently flexible and elastic to achieve good levels of shrinkage. At the same time, however, they also provide the mechanical strength required to be able to reliably fill the bags, even with contents weighing several kilograms.
