How to choose suitable packaging materials

The material of the packaging is one of the important factors that determine the visual effect of the packaging. Only by choosing the right material can the color, text, shape and other elements have a complete and excellent display.

1. Choose materials based on product requirements

The choice of materials is not arbitrary. First of all, it should be combined with the characteristics of the product, such as the form of the product (solid, liquid, etc.), whether it is corrosive and volatile, and whether it needs to be stored in the dark. Second, consider the grade of the product, high-end products. Or the packaging materials of precision instruments should be highly aesthetic and excellent in performance, the packaging materials of mid-range products should be both beautiful and practical, and low-grade packaging materials should be practical.

2. Can effectively protect goods

Packaging materials should effectively protect the goods, so they should have a certain degree of strength, toughness and elasticity to adapt to the influence of external factors such as pressure, impact, and vibration.

3. Economic and environmental protection

Packaging materials should be selected as far as possible from a wide range of sources, convenient materials, low cost, recyclable, degradable, and non-polluting materials to avoid causing public hazards.

Common packaging materials and their performance characteristics

There are many types of packaging materials. The most commonly used materials are paper, plastic, metal, glass, ceramics, natural materials, fiber products, composite materials, and new environmentally friendly materials that are easily degradable.

1) Paper packaging materials

In the entire packaging development process, paper packaging materials, as a universal packaging material, are widely used in production and life practices, ranging from industrial products and electrical packaging, to handbags, gift boxes, etc., from general packaging. From paper to composite packaging paper, all show the charm of paper packaging materials.

The paper is easy to process, low in cost, suitable for mass mechanized production, and has good formability and foldability, suitable for exquisite printing, and has the advantages of recyclability, economy and environmental protection.

①Kraft paper

Kraft paper is tough and inexpensive, with good folding and water resistance. It is usually yellowish-brown, and after bleaching treatment, it becomes light brown, off-white or white. It is mostly used to make shopping bags, envelopes, cement bags, etc., and is also used for food packaging paper.

②Coated paper

Coated paper is mainly refined from high-grade materials such as wood and cotton fibers, and is divided into two types: single copper and double copper. Its paper surface is white, high smoothness, strong adhesion, and strong water resistance. It is suitable for multi-color register printing, with bright colors after printing and rich gradation changes. It is often used in the production of handbags, business cards, books and magazine covers.

③White board paper

Whiteboard paper is a white and smooth cardboard on the front and gray on the back. Its texture is hard and thick. It has good standing strength, surface strength, folding resistance and printing adaptability. It is suitable for packaging boxes, liners, etc.

④White cardboard

White cardboard is a multilayer double-sided thick white cardboard with double-sided coating and matt treatment. Its texture is firm, white and smooth, and it is mostly used to make gift boxes, hang tags, and bottom linings for blister packaging.

⑤Corrugated paper

Corrugated paper gets its name because it is processed into a corrugated shape. Corrugated cardboard is made by bonding face paper, lining paper, core paper and corrugated paper. It has the advantages of lightness and firmness, strong load and pressure resistance, shock and moisture resistance, and low cost.

Corrugated cardboard is divided into single-sided corrugated cardboard, three-layer, five-layer, seven-layer, and eleven-layer corrugated cardboard. Single-sided corrugated cardboard is generally used as a protective layer for product packaging or to make light card grids and pads to protect the product from vibration or collision during storage and transportation; three-layer or five-layer corrugated cardboard is used to make merchandise sales Packaging: Seven-layer or eleven-layer corrugated cardboard is mainly used to make packaging boxes for mechanical and electrical products, furniture, motorcycles, and large household appliances.

2) Plastic packaging materials

Plastic is a kind of synthetic resin as the basic component, adding plasticizers, stabilizers, fillers, lubricants, pigments and other additives, synthetic polymer materials. Plastic has good water resistance, moisture resistance, oil resistance, insulation, light weight, coloring, easy production, can be molded into a variety of shapes and suitable for printing, and its raw material sources are abundant, low cost, and excellent performance. It has become nearly 40 In recent years, the fastest growing packaging material in the world is one of the most important packaging materials in modern sales packaging.

Plastics used for packaging materials can be divided into two categories: general-purpose plastics and foamed plastics.

①General plastic

Common plastic components for packaging mainly include polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polystyrene (PS). Among them, polyethylene is divided into high-density polyethylene (HDPE or PE-HD) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE or PE-LD).

②Foam plastic

Foam plastic refers to plastic products with a large number of microporous structures inside. It is also called porous plastic. It has excellent impact and vibration resistance, low thermal conductivity, low water absorption, low moisture absorption, and stable chemical properties. It is often used The cushioning packaging material of the product.

3. Metal packaging materials

Metal is one of the traditional packaging materials, widely used in industrial product packaging, transportation packaging and sales packaging, and occupies an important position in packaging materials. Metal packaging materials have the following performance characteristics:

1) Excellent mechanical properties, high strength, and can be made into packaging containers with thin walls, high compressive strength and not easy to break.

2) Excellent processing performance, mature processing technology, continuous and automatic production, good ductility and strength, and can be rolled into sheets and foils of various thicknesses.

3) It has excellent comprehensive protection properties, such as strong gas barrier properties, moisture resistance, light-shielding properties and fragrance retention.

4) It has a special metallic luster and is easy to print and decorate. For example, metal foil and metal-plated film are ideal trademark materials.

Metal packaging materials are mainly divided into two categories: tin-plated iron and aluminum, and each category includes several varieties, and each has its own scope of application.

(1) Tin-plated iron

Tin-plated iron refers to cold-rolled low-carbon thin steel plates or steel strips plated with commercial pure tin on both sides. Tin mainly plays a role in preventing corrosion and rust. It combines the strength and formability of steel with the corrosion resistance, solderability and beautiful appearance of tin in a single material. It has the characteristics of corrosion resistance, non-toxicity, high strength and good ductility. Compared with other metal packaging materials, tin-plated iron materials have richer sources, lower energy consumption and cost, and have good plasticity and ductility.

(2) Aluminum

Aluminum is light in weight, has good ductility and corrosion resistance, is not easy to rust, has beautiful and long-lasting brightness, and is easy to print, process and recycle. The main disadvantage of aluminum is that it is easy to corrode in acid, alkali, and salt media, so the surface must have paint or plating before it can be used as a food container. Moreover, its strength is lower than steel, but its cost is higher than steel. Therefore, aluminum is mainly used for sales and packaging, and the most common one is cans.

4. Glass and ceramic packaging materials

(1) Glass

The basic raw materials of glass are quartz sand, caustic soda and limestone. It has the characteristics of high transparency, impermeability and corrosion resistance, non-toxic and tasteless, stable chemical properties, and low production cost. It can be made into transparent and translucent containers of various shapes and colors. In addition, coloring agents are added to ordinary glass to form colored glass. Colored glass can absorb visible sunlight and weaken the intensity of sunlight, providing protection for commodities that need to be kept away from light.

Glass has a wide range of applications and can be used to make packaging for oil, wine, food, beverages, jams, cosmetics, condiments, and pharmaceutical products.

(2) Ceramics

Ceramics have good chemical stability and thermal stability, can withstand the erosion of various chemicals, high temperature resistance, and rapid changes in cold and heat will not affect the ceramics. The air permeability is extremely low, and it will not deform or deteriorate after many years. Ideal packaging container for food and chemicals. Many ceramic packaging itself is an exquisite handicraft, which has unique application value in the field of traditional packaging.

5. Natural packaging materials

Natural packaging materials refer to animal skins, hairs, or plant leaves, stems, rods, fibers, etc., which can be used directly or simply processed into plates or sheets, and used as packaging materials.

(1) Bamboo

Commonly used as packaging materials are Moso bamboo, water bamboo, bitter bamboo, Ci bamboo, hemp bamboo and so on. Bamboo has hard texture, impact resistance, corrosion resistance, friction resistance, low density, good physical and mechanical properties, easy planting, fast production speed, high yield, and environmental protection. It is mainly used for weaving boards and various packaging containers. Such as bamboo baskets, bamboo boxes, bamboo tubes, etc.

(2) Timber

Wood has a long history as a packaging material. Wood is rich in resources, has the advantages of impact resistance, vibration, easy processing, and economical price. However, the wood is susceptible to deformation, cracking, decay, flammability, and insect damage due to the influence of the environment, temperature and humidity. However, these shortcomings can be eliminated or alleviated by proper treatment. Wood is often used in the transportation and packaging of commodities that are fragile and easily damaged by collisions.

(3) Rattan

Rattan packaging materials mainly include wild plants such as wicker, mulberry twig, sophora japonica, vitex twig and so on. Rattan materials have greater elasticity, good toughness, strong tensile force, impact resistance, friction resistance, and weather resistance. They can be used to weave various baskets, baskets and other packaging, giving people a natural and fresh feeling.

(4) Grass

Grass packaging materials mainly include aquatic plants, rushes, straws, etc., which are often used for weaving mats, bags, straw bags, etc. Grass is light and soft. It is often used as a cushioning packaging material and has a low price. It is a common one-time packaging material.

6、 fiber packaging materials

Fiber fabrics are soft, easy to print and dye, and can be reused and regenerated. But its high cost and low firmness are generally suitable for inner packaging of products, serving as filling, decoration, shockproof and other functions. The fiber fabric packaging materials on the market can be divided into natural fibers, man-made fibers and synthetic fibers.

7, composite packaging materials

Composite materials are made by processing and compounding two or more materials through a certain method through a certain method and technical means, so that it has the characteristics of multiple materials to make up for the shortcomings of a single material and form a composite with comprehensive properties. More perfect packaging materials. Compared with traditional materials, composite materials have the advantages of saving resources, being easy to recycle, reducing production costs, and reducing packaging weight. Therefore, they have attracted more and more attention and promotion.

Common composite packaging materials include anti-corrosion composite materials, oil-resistant composite materials, filling composite materials and mothproof composite materials.

Anti-corrosion composite materials can solve the anti-corrosion problems of certain non-ferrous products. They are usually made of multi-layer kraft paper and wax or asphalt coatings with preservatives added.

The oil-resistant composite material is composed of a double-layer composite film, the outer layer is a high-density polyethylene film, and the inner layer is a translucent plastic, which is thin and strong. Because it is not easy to penetrate blood and grease, it is often used as food packaging.

As a substitute for paper and cardboard, the filled composite material can be pressed into containers of various shapes through a thermoforming process, can be folded and printed, has good moisture resistance, can be heat-sealed, has stable dimensions and is easy to print, and has a decorative effect.

Adding an adhesive with moth-proof ingredients to the composite material can prevent the product from growing insects for a long time, but it should be noted that the adhesive is toxic and cannot be used directly on food packaging.

8. Easily degradable new environmentally friendly packaging materials

  New environmentally friendly materials are composite materials developed to alleviate white pollution, and are generally mixed with trees or other plants. It is biodegradable and not easy to cause pollution. It is the main development direction of packaging materials in the future.

Therefore, when packaging materials, we must not only consider the basic role of protecting the goods, but also choose from the packaging structure design, production technology, processing technology, style, design and decoration, etc. The appropriate packaging material can improve the overall decorative effect of the packaging.