To indicate information, perform color decoration, or increase sealability on the outer package of consumer goods, such as foods and beverages, or pharmaceutical products, a series of special processes is required to enable the plastic films to become ready for final converting: printing, lacquering, laminating, and metallizing. The most common way of such surface preparation before converting nowadays includes the following steps: first, Air Corona process to treat plastic film with atmospheric plasma in air; second, liquid primer coating using chemicals and solvents; and third, drying or curing.

Japan Air Gases started full promotion of a new innovative technology called ALDYNE, to customers in Japan who have polymer film treatment processes as mentioned above, for labels of consumer goods, industrial films, optical films to list a few examples. To support this promotion, a dedicated laboratory equipped with an ALDYNE unit was open at Air Liquide Laboratories, an Air Liquide Group’s research center located in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture.

Replacing the combined processes of Air Corona, liquid primer coating and drying or curing, ALDYNE is a gas phase priming system that improves surface functionalities of plastic substrates, e.g., printability, adhesiveness, etc., by chemically-transforming the surface with atmospheric plasma in fully controlled gaseous mixtures.

ALDYNE is a simple single process replacing all the three processes of the conventional methodology. Therefore it minimizes investment and running costs (depending on the type of application, overall costs can be possibly reduced by more than 50%), energy consumption, and running time. Compared to conventional liquid primer coating, overall cost can be drastically cut down. Plasma treatment under nitrogen-based gas mixtures enable higher and long-lasting surface energy of the treated materials, thus improving adhesion, converting yield and storability. ALDYNE can achieve surface energy of up to 60 mN/m on BOPP, with minimal attenuation even after several months, while Air Corona treatment can only achieve around 40 mN/m, which lowers to below 30 mN/m after a few hours to a few days. In addition, ALDYNE is an environmentally friendly process emitting neither VOC, nor Ozone, nor other toxic off-gases as it does not rely on solvent, chemicals, and oxygen.

ALDYNE is a full packaged system by which the customer can enjoy turn-key installation and easy operation including equipment with specially-designed electrode housing called ALDYNE Station, gas supply and mixing equipment, training and continuous consultancy. The whole system is fully automated with PLC technology. It can be integrated into existing or new converting lines, covering a wide range of specifications: width of the film; line speed; or the type of processed materials. At Air Liquide Laboratories, a pilot Aldyne Station has been installed to demonstrate its performance and to demonstrate to potential customers on their demand.

ALDYNE has been developed by Air Liquide, the world leader in industrial and medical gases, and Softal Electronic of Germany, and is already operated by several customers in Europe.

Jean-Francois Lecouffe, General Manager of Industrial Merchant Business Division, Japan Air Gases, commented, “Our customers are facing today difficult challenges on both environmental protection and competitiveness. In the plastic and films fields, they are more and more looking for solvent-free processes while improving cost-effectiveness. ALDYNE is a breakthrough innovation that is perfectly addressing such concerns. We are pleased that we can now offer this latest innovation to our customers in Japan. I believe that this technology will also contribute to enhancing consumer safety, which has earned growing public attention in Japan.”