Hosokawa Alpine: Systematic refinement of MDO technology

GERMANY Over the last few years economic viability and sustainability have become core themes in the plastics industry. At the same time the demand for functional film with excellent optical and mechanical properties is increasing in the packaging industry. The blown film manufacturing process offers excellent opportunities to meet these growing requirements. In connection with MDO technology, by means of which specific film properties can be influenced and a reduction in the film thickness achieved, a further step can be taken to meet the growing expectations in efficiency and sustainability.

According to own statement Hosokawa Alpine, Augsburg, has pioneered the production of mono-axially oriented film since 1997 and has built up a vast fund of knowledge and know-how with this technology. As a result of “neck-in” which occurs in the orientation process the edges of oriented film had to be trimmed generously to avoid a build-up on edges of the film reel which cause problems during winding, lamination or printing. Hosokawa Alpine developed a control system that combines the film blowing and film orientation processes and eliminates these problems.

The result is TRIO (Trim Reduction for Inline Orientation; Patent DE 10 2009 033 171 and EP 2277681), which enables the production of in-line mono-axially oriented film with of unprecedented quality. The TRIO controls the film profile on the blown film line and compensates for oscillation of the take-off unit in such a way that the inline oriented film displays only a minimum thickness deviation over the entire lay-flat width. To this end, thin spots are generated at the edges of the film prior to orientation and the film thickness profile of the film blowing line in accordance with the thickness profile measured downstream of the orientation unit.