TOPAS Advanced Polymers Inc.

A new film extrusion grade of cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) from TOPAS Advanced Polymers Inc. of Florence, Kentucky, USA, extends the commercial glass transition temperature range down to 33 degrees C, the company says. TOPAS 9903D-10 is the company’s latest film extrusion resin; it delivers a unique combination of low-temperature shrinkage, sealing, and high stiffness for a range of shrink films and sealant films for the consumer packaging industry, the company says.

“We’ve developed a new solution for converters and packagers that eliminates typical tradeoffs and provides low-temperature shrinkage with high modulus,” says Timothy Kneale, president of TOPAS Advanced Polymers. The new material is used to enhance polyolefin formulations for a range of monolayer and multilayer packaging film applications including shrink film, shrink sleeves and shrink labels for bottles and other consumer packaging, and in improved sealant films for stand-up pouches. In polyolefin blends containing 5 percent to 50 percent of the new COC, low-temperature shrinkage and stiffness were improved significantly, resulting in better downstream processing, the company says. In multilayer sealant films, the new material provides excellent low-temperature sealing and high stiffness for stand-up pouches, TOPAS asserts. TOPAS 9903D-10 COC resin has a melt flow index of 0.9, similar to that of LLDPE grades used for shrink films. The material’s tensile modulus of 100,000 psi increases when the film is oriented.

www.topas.com