Technological features of production high-quality packaging material with metallized paper for the food industry
Authors: Ploskonos Viktor , Halysh Vita 
Published: March 2023

Introduction The barrier properties of paper-based packaging may not be sufficient for long-term storage to ensure the quality and taste of packaged food products. All this requires researching the technological features and developing a combined packaging material in which the base paper is combined with polymer materials or a metallized coating is applied to its surface.

Results and discussion Food products are very sensitive to the influence of external factors, so the barrier properties of paper-based packaging become insufficient for long-term storage to ensure the quality of food products and their taste properties. All this requires the development and mastery of the production of modern barrier combined packaging materials and conducting research on the development of requirements for base paper in order to obtain combined, namely: metallized packaging materials. As research results have shown, base paper should be characterized by high resistance to mechanical influences in the process of processing, as well as exploitation of the finished material. It should have a surface that provides optimal interaction with the foil, have high barrier and protective properties.

In the process of carrying out research on the creation of a new combined package, the requirements for the metallized material and the quality of the base paper were determined. The index of smoothness of the surface of the base paper should not be lower than 150 s, and its moisture content should not exceed 4%, because its higher values, as experiments have shown, do not allow creating the necessary rarefaction in the chamber for metallization and ensuring the uniformity of metal application. In the case of spraying aluminum with increased residual humidity of the paper, intensive oxidation processes take place, which negatively affect the quality of the coating, its protective properties and the strength of adhesion (adhesion) to the surface of the substrate.

As a result of the research, graphical dependences of the electrical resistance and opacity of the metallized material on the thickness of the coating were also obtained, which plays an important role in improving the protective, barrier and other properties of the packaging. Experimental data were also obtained that illustrate the influence of the speed of rewinding and the smoothness of the surface of the base paper in the process of metallization in a vacuum on the indicator of electrical resistance, which is an indirect characteristic of the thickness of the metallized coating of the material.

The conducted studies of the new combined metallized packaging material also showed that the coating contributes to the improvement of the protective properties of the material and the tightness of the packaging, namely: reducing gas permeability, weakening the effect of optical radiation on products, increasing the opacity and smoothness of the surface.

Conclusions New packaging materials created in the course of research - paper with a metallized coating can be used in packaging processes.