USE OF LUCOFIN® 1400MN AND LUCOFIN® 1494M IN EXTRUSION COATING APPLICATIONS

Commercial applications and are found in many industries. They are basically used for decorating, protecting, and providing different functional treatments that enhance the substrates. LDPE is the most commonly used plastic in extrusion coating. However, the use of polar copolymers is increasing. Among the polar copolymers ethylen butyl acrylat (EBA) and ethylen vinyl acetate (EVA) are widely used in extrusion coating applications.
Compared to LDPE and etylen vinyl acetate (EVA), ethylen butyl acrylat (EBA) enjoys a lower heat sealing temperature, improved hot tack and better seal through contamination.

In addition, etylen butyl acrylat (EBA) shows stronger adhesion to a wider selection of substrates, especially more polar substrates, such as polyester or polyamide. The figure shows the adhesion of LDPE, Lucofin® 1400MN (EBA) and EVA on various substrates. LDPE shows good adhesion only towards kraft paper, whereas other substrates, such as PA film, PET film, OPP film, PP fabric are only weakly bonded. Opposite to that finding, Lucofin® 1400MN (EBA) shows good adhesion to all substrates outperforming therefore EVA.

Another key factor in extrusion coating is the maximum processing temperature of a polymer confining the output. Whereas EVA cannot be processed above 220 °C due to its thermal decomposition into corrosive by-products, the maximum processing temperature of Lucofin® 1400MN (EBA) is 300 °C yielding no corrosive by-products. Consequently, Lucofin® 1400MN (EBA) guarantees significantly increased output compared to EVA. If even better adhesion towards polar substrates such as PA, PET, EVOH, PC or aluminium is required, Lucofin® 1400MN can be blended with Lucofin® 1494M.

Lucofin® 1494M is a Maleic anhydride (MAh) grafted variation of Lucofin® 1400MN. Due to the innovative reactive extrusion technology the extremely polar MAh in Lucofin® 1494M is more active than in comparable competition grades. Consequently, the use of Lucofin® 1494M in only relatively moderate concentrations (10 % - 50 %) in blend with Lucofin® 1400MN allows a drastic improvement of adhesion towards polar substrates.