The packaging market is changing with each passing day, and all types of packaging require flexible packaging companies to constantly upgrade, innovate, and change, especially for individual fast-moving consumer packaging. In the past year or two, the facial mask packaging market has formed a very large demand for packaging, especially the online shopping frenzy, which has made facial mask packaging incandescent.
The facial mask category has become a "fast consumer product". More and more consumers are willing to pay for their convenience, speed and beauty. Channel vendors such as terminal stores have also focused on the facial mask category under the joint promotion of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. . According to some statistics, Jiebao, Beihao and other mask processors all claim that the production capacity needs to be increased by 50% to meet the endless orders of all parties. And since 2012, new mask brands have emerged in an endless stream. According to relevant information, China's facial mask market is developing very rapidly. In 2014, the market sales reached more than 11.5 billion, becoming the fourth largest category in the cosmetics industry after skin care, makeup, and care, and the market growth rate is much higher than other categories .
The facial mask market is a very big cake, and it is getting bigger and bigger. Of course, it is a good thing for soft pack companies. The following is a detailed introduction to the main points of the production process of the film packaging.
1. Features and structure of mask bag
Nowadays, high-end facial masks have become a trend. In addition to showing excellent 12-month performance and texture on aluminum foil packaging bags, there is also a shelf life. The shelf life of most masks will exceed, and some even 36 months. With such a long shelf life, the most basic requirements for packaging are: tightness and high barrier properties.
In view of the consumption characteristics of the mask itself and its shelf life requirements, the material structure and requirements of the mask packaging bag are basically determined.
At present, the main structure of most masks is: PET / AL / PE, PET / AL / PET / PE, PET / VMPET / PE, BOPP / VMPET / PE, BOPP / AL / PE, MAT-OPP / VMPET / PE, MAT-OPP / AL / PE etc.
From the perspective of the main material structure, aluminum coating and pure aluminum film are basically used in the packaging structure.
Compared with aluminum plating, pure aluminum has a good metal texture, silvery white, and has anti-gloss properties; aluminum metal has soft characteristics, and can be customized with different composite materials and thickness products, in line with the pursuit of high-end products for heavy texture, so that high-end masks Get a more intuitive expression from the packaging.
Because of this, from the initial basic functional requirements of facial mask packaging bags to the high-end requirements of today's performance and texture rising simultaneously, it has caused the transformation of facial mask bags from aluminum coated bags to pure aluminum bags.
It is self-evident how important the mask packaging bag is for the mask. Compared with the fancy decoration on the surface, the storage and protection functions of the packaging bag are actually more important. But in fact, many people ignore it.
From the analysis of the raw materials themselves, general facial mask packaging bags are mainly divided into two types: aluminum coated bags and pure aluminum bags. The aluminum-plated bag is used to uniformly coat high-purity metal aluminum on the plastic film under high-temperature vacuum conditions. The pure aluminum bag is formed by the extension of the pure metal aluminum tablet, and is compounded with the plastic film, which can improve the barrier, sealing, fragrance retention, shielding and other functions of the plastic. In other words, the pure aluminum facial mask bag is more suitable for the market requirements of the current film packaging bag.
2. Key points for production control of facial mask packaging bags
1. Printing
From the perspective of current market requirements and consumers, facial masks are basically regarded as high-end products, so the most basic decoration requirements are different from those of ordinary food and daily chemical packaging. At least it is a "high" one. Consumer psychology. So for printing, taking PET printing as an example, the overprint accuracy and hue requirements of its printing will be at least one grade higher than other packaging requirements. If the national standard is that the main overprint accuracy is 0.2mm, then the secondary position of the mask packaging bag printing basically needs to meet this printing standard in order to better meet the requirements of customers and consumers. In terms of chromatic aberration, the customers of facial mask packaging are also much stricter and more refined than ordinary food companies. Therefore, in the printing process, for overprinting and hue, companies producing mask packaging should pay attention to control. Of course, for printed substrates, there will also be higher requirements to meet the high standards of printing.
2. Compound
Compounding mainly controls three major aspects: compound wrinkling, compound solvent residue, compound pockmarks and bubbles. In this process, these three major aspects are the key factors affecting the yield of facial mask packaging bags.
(1) Compound wrinkle
As can be seen from the above structure, the mask packaging bag mainly involves the compounding of pure aluminum. Pure aluminum is rolled from pure metal into a very thin film-like sheet, commonly known as "aluminum film" in the industry. The basic thickness used is between 6.5 ~ 7μm, and of course there is a thicker aluminum film.
Pure aluminum film is very easy to produce wrinkles or broken materials, or abnormalities such as tunnels during the compounding process. Especially for the automatic laminating machine, due to the irregularities in the automatic bonding of the paper core during the laminating, it is easy to be uneven, and it is very easy to make the aluminum film directly wrinkle, or even die wrinkle.
For wrinkle material, on the one hand, we can remedy from the post-process to reduce the loss caused by wrinkle material. When the compound glue is stable to a certain state, re-rolling is a way, but this is only a way to reduce; Up to reduce, such as using a larger paper core, so that the winding effect is more ideal.
(2) Residual compound solvent
Since the mask package basically contains aluminized or pure aluminum, for the compound, the presence of aluminized or pure aluminum is unfavorable for the volatilization of the solvent, because the barrier properties of the two are stronger than other general materials, so Not conducive to the evaporation of solvents. Although it is clearly stated in the standard of GB / T10004-2008 "Plastic Composite Films for Packaging and Dry-type Compound Extrusion of Bags": This standard does not apply to plastic films and bags made of plastic materials and paper base or aluminum foil.
However, at present, mask packaging companies and most companies are also subject to the national standard. For aluminum foil bags, the standard is also required, so it is somewhat misleading.
Of course, the national standard does not have clear requirements, but we still have to control the solvent residue in actual production. After all, this is a very critical control point.
In terms of personal experience, it is feasible to make effective improvements in terms of the selection of glue and production speed, the temperature of the oven, and the amount of equipment exhaust. Of course, this aspect requires specific equipment and specific environment to analyze and improve.
(3) Compound pits and bubbles
This problem is also mainly related to pure aluminum, especially when the structure of composite PET / AL is easier to show. The compound surface will accumulate many "crystal dots" -like phenomena, or similar "bubble" dot-like phenomena, mainly due to several reasons:
Substrate: The surface treatment of the substrate is not good, and it is easy to produce pits and bubbles; too many crystal points of the substrate PE, too large, is also a major cause of problems. On the other hand, the ink particles are also one of the factors. There is also the leveling of the glue, and the coarse particles of the ink will also cause similar problems when combined.
Furthermore, when the solvent is not volatilized enough and the compound pressure is not large enough during machine operation, similar phenomena may occur, either because the glue roller is clogged, or foreign matter.
Look for better solutions from the above aspects and judge or eliminate them in a targeted manner.
3. Bag making
At the control point of the finished product process, it mainly depends on the flatness of the bag and the strength and appearance of the edge banding.
In the finished bag making process, flatness and appearance are relatively difficult to grasp. Because its final technical level is determined by machine operation, equipment and employees' operating habits, etc., the bag is very easy to scratch in the finished product process, and there are abnormalities such as large and small edges.
For the demanding facial mask bags, these are definitely not allowed. For this problem, we may wish to manage the machine from the most basic 5S to control the phenomenon of scratches.
As the most basic workshop environmental management, the cleaning of the machine involved is one of the guarantees that the machine is clean and tidy, and no foreign objects appear on the machine to ensure normal and smooth work. This is a basic production guarantee. Of course, it is necessary to be specific to the most basic and specific operation requirements of the machine and change it.
In terms of appearance, the requirements for edge banding and the strength of the edge banding are generally required to apply a finer texture, or even a flat sealing knife to press the edge banding. This is a very special requirement. For the operator of the machine, it is also a big test.
4. Selection of base materials and auxiliary materials
For the PE used in the mask, it is necessary to select functional PE materials that are anti-fouling, liquid-resistant, and acid-resistant. In terms of consumer habits, PE materials also need to be easy to tear, and for the appearance of PE itself, the crystal Point is its key production control point, otherwise in our compounding process, a lot of abnormalities will occur.
The liquid of the mask will basically contain a certain proportion of alcohols or alcohols, so the glue we choose needs to use medium-resistant glue.