Siegwerk, one of the leading global providers of printing inks and coatings for packaging applications and labels, has partnered with DG press, a specialist in manufacturing hybrid web offset sleeve machines in flexible packaging and label printing with over 100 sleeve offset machines installed worldwide, in the production of functional mono-material packaging structures for food applications.

Together, the two partners aim to demonstrate the efficient production of mono-material food packaging using an oxygen barrier. To achieve the required barrier properties, Siegwerk’s coating innovations Cirkit OxyBar BC 1582 and Cirkit Heatguard 2K Overprint Varnish are used. The coatings are applied in one pass, in line with printing and varnishing using DG press’ hybrid web offset printing press.

Siegwerk’s Cirkit OxyBar is an innovative oxygen barrier coating that ensures a prolonged shelf-life, especially for dry food packaging applications. The coating can be applied on both flexo and gravure presses at industrial machine speeds on various substrates, giving excellent transparency. With Cirkit Heatguard, in turn, Siegwerk offers a range of heat-resistant lacquers that ensure a good performance on high-speed FFS (Form, Fill and Seal) lines with mono-PE structures. They have excellent rub and scratch resistance and thus enable the transition to surface-print structures, the company says.

With the collaboration project, the two partners are not only showcasing that Siegwerk’s printable coatings can create the functional properties required for mono-material food packaging but also that the modularly designed hybrid web offset printing presses of DG press can produce such packaging structures in one pass with at least one functional barrier coating in line. “This project once again shows the importance of collaboration along the packaging value chain to enable change and drive the development of new circular packaging solutions,” says Lothar Schaeffeler, technology and innovation expert at Siegwerk. “Together with our partners, we can make mono-material packaging a reality and thus, set new standards for the future of packaging.”