Constantia Ecoflex in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, has installed a new Bobst vacuum metallizer to increase product shelf life and barrier property of packaging. The investment has been made to strengthen Constantia’s Ecolutions product line.

The state-of-the-art Bobst Expert K5 vacuum 1350 mm metallizer has been added to the facility’s equipment which further establishes itself as the 1st plant on the planet designed and dedicated to recyclable flexible packaging, the company says.

The machine metallizes heat-sensitive substrates and processes high-barrier films as the base of the company’s more sustainable laminate EcoLamHighPlus. With the metallizer, Constantia Flexibles can offer high barrier metallization for foil replacements and increased shelf life.

“Bobst AluBond technology is an approach to vacuum metallization that can achieve metal adhesion beyond the levels of conventional inline plasma pre-treatments without the need for an additional inline or offline treatment. The technology vastly improves anchoring properties of the base substrate after tailoring coating stoichiometry (reactant – AluBond and Al product) realized via a uniquely designed coating gradient,” says Dr. AK Nema, head of competence centre, films at Constantia Flexibles India.

Other than AluBond technology, there is Hawkeye which is an inline optical density deposition control and defect monitoring system. At full metallizer speed, it detects, counts, and categorizes pinholes and other defects bigger than 0.1mm.

According to the company, the investment follows Constantia Flexibles’ Vision 2025 strategy and allows the company to provide more sustainable packaging solutions produced in the Constantia Ecoflex plant in Ahmedabad. The increasing customer demand for EcoLamPlus and EcoLamHighPlus with high oxygen and water barriers to extend shelf life boosts the company’s growth. With in-house metalizing facilities, Constantia Ecoflex can provide an even faster time-to-market, says Constantia.