Current situation and development trend of BOPP film for cigarette packaging

The current situation and development trend of BOPP film for cigarette packaging BOPP, as a new packaging material, has attracted much attention since its inception. Due to the inherent characteristics of biaxial stretching process, the BOPP film prepared under this process has been rapidly expanded and applied to many fields of the packaging industry, mainly including color printing, mucosal tape, capacitive film, synthetic paper, cigarette film and so on. In the cigarette industry, BOPP is mainly used for the outer packaging of small boxes of cigarette packs and strip boxes of cigarette packs. In addition, a small amount of BOPP is also used for pulling wires and coating of trademark paper. The following content of this paper mainly discusses the BOPP cigarette film used in the outer packaging of small box cigarette packs and strip box cigarette packs.

The cigarette industry has used a variety of materials on the outer packaging film of cigarette packets, including cellophane, PVC coating film, PVDC coating film, BOPP cigarette film, etc; BOPP cigarette film has incomparable characteristics with other materials because of its comprehensive good optical properties, wide heat sealing range and high heat sealing strength, excellent water vapor barrier ability, uniform thickness, wide shrinkage control range, good stiffness, etc., making it the preferred material for cigarette packaging.

一、Development trend of domestic cigarette industry

As cigarette packaging accessories, the application and development of cigarette film are closely related to the cigarette industry. China has a large share in the global cigarette industry and is the largest cigarette consumption market in the world. According to the statistics of relevant departments, at present, the perennial smoking population in China is about 350million, and the annual output of cigarettes is about 1.9 trillion. China's cigarette production and consumption account for about 1/3 of the world. In terms of cigarette production, the consumption of cigarette film in China is undoubtedly the largest in the world.

From the analysis of domestic tobacco development, the current cigarette industry has the following characteristics:

1. The total production increased steadily.

In recent years, the total domestic cigarette output has maintained a small-scale increase, basically growing steadily at a rate of 2-5% per year. From 2001 to 2005, the total cigarette output increased from 33.71 million cases to 38.52 million cases, and the total cigarette output increased by 14%.

2. The cigarette product structure is constantly adjusted.

The weight proportion of each product changes with the change of product structure. The percentage of category I, II and III cigarettes increases to a certain extent, while category V cigarettes gradually compress. For example, the proportion of category V cigarettes was 23.6% in 2001 and decreased to 4.3% in 2005, indicating that the structure of cigarette products is constantly adjusted upward.

3. The proportion of soft and hard boxes is constantly changing.

The proportion of soft and hard boxes has also changed in recent years, although the overall change is not very large. The proportion of soft and hard boxes was about 5.5/4.5 in 2002, and the proportion of soft and hard boxes was about 4.5/5.5 in 2005. However, in terms of quantity, the growth rate of Hard boxes exceeded 20%.

4. Streamline brand integration and reorganize manufacturers.

According to the development idea of becoming bigger and stronger, the brand integration and simplification and the reorganization of manufacturers continue to deepen. In December, 2005, there were 203 cigarette brands in production, 87 less than the same period in 2004. In 2005, there were 325 cigarette brands produced by the industry, 169 less than that in 2004; The merger and reorganization of cigarette factories is one of the major measures of the cigarette industry in recent years, which has a far-reaching impact on the pattern of the domestic cigarette industry.

二、Current market and product overview of smoke film

A) Market Overview

Compared with the whole BOPP film market, the share of BOPP film market is relatively small, and the share of BOPP film for the whole cigarette packaging accessories is also relatively small. However, due to China's special position in the cigarette industry, cigarette production accounts for a large proportion in the world, and it also creates a certain space for the domestic film market. In 2005, the domestic cigarette production was 38.52 million boxes. From 2001 to 2005, the absolute value of the growth of domestic cigarette production was 4.81 million cases, accounting for about 14%. After excluding factors such as thickness and specification changes, the consumption of domestic cigarette film was about 70000 tons according to the growth rate of cigarette production.

B) Overview of product process development

Due to the differences in materials, production processes and subsequent processing procedures, cigarette packaging films in the current market appear in different product forms, mainly including:

1. PVC coating film.

2. PVDC coating film.

3. Holographic and color printing films.

4. BOPP stretch film by bubble tube method.

5. Biaxially oriented polypropylene film.

In terms of current market share, the market share of the first three varieties is relatively low, and the market is still dominated by BOPP with bubble tube method and BOPP plane biaxial stretching. The advantages and disadvantages of bubble tube method and plane progressive biaxial stretching method are compared as follows:

Domestic smoke films are mainly plane gradually biaxially stretched films. After many years of research and development and process optimization, obvious results have been achieved in both product operation and film optical properties. In terms of machine operation, fully absorb the advantages of the imported film of the original bubble tube method, and effectively make use of the advantages of the biaxial stretching process to effectively improve the smoke film products:

1. Give full play to the characteristics of the biaxial stretching process with better thickness uniformity. Through the optimization of winding, aging, slitting and other processes, the defects affecting the cigarette package, such as ruffles, stripes, and different tightness, can be effectively controlled.

2. The proportion of raw materials, combined with the characteristics of biaxial stretching process, can effectively control the key physical performance indicators that affect the running of the film, such as friction coefficient, film stiffness and shrinkage in the vertical and horizontal directions, so that the film can still ensure good running of the cigarette packaging machine at high speed.

3. The optimized combination of process control and raw material ratio can obtain excellent appearance properties, such as low turbidity and high gloss.

4. Meet the personalized needs of special users, and take customized measures for individual packaging models to ensure the packaging effect. 5. According to the specific conditions of some cigarette packs, give the film functionality in the design of materials and processes, such as red and wrinkle resistance. C) Basic product type

At present, BOPP smoke films used in China are generally divided into five categories:

1. Ordinary bags.

It has good smoothness and stiffness, low shrinkage and excellent heat sealing performance. It is generally used for soft box bags.

2. Ordinary bag.

It has good smoothness and stiffness, low shrinkage and excellent heat sealing performance. Generally used for strip box packaging.

3. Moderately shrink the small package.

It has good smoothness, good optical properties, low shrinkage and excellent heat sealing performance, and has a certain post shrinkage effect. It is generally used for soft box bags.

4. Middle shrink strip package.

It is often used in high-end strip box packaging, with good packaging tightness, good optical properties and excellent heat sealing performance.

5. High shrinkage packet.

Commonly used in high-end small box packaging, it has good high-speed operation, good optical performance and excellent heat sealing performance, and has a high shrinkage rate to ensure that the packaging has a good clinging effect.

三、Development trend of smoke film

In cigarette packaging, the cigarette film is required to have high water vapor barrier, high gloss and low zero, good stiffness, packaging flatness, good antistatic performance and excellent heat sealing performance. However, with the development of cigarette packaging equipment, the further improvement of external packaging effect and functionality, and meeting the international requirements for green environmental protection, higher requirements are put forward for BOPP cigarette film:

1. Higher optical performance.

Higher transparency (low turbidity) and higher gloss are the eternal requirements of the market for BOPP smoke film, so as to show a good appearance design with the cigarette label, especially the dark cigarette label, which has higher optical performance for the smoke film.

2. Wear resistance.

The requirement of high wear resistance of smoke film is mainly due to two considerations: first, in the process of high-speed packaging, the rapid contact and friction between the film surface and the machine will form scratches on the product surface; Second, during the transportation of products, the film surface / film surface and film surface / packaging box will form scratches on the film. In particular, the more serious abrasion formed by the latter will have a greater impact on the appearance of cigarette sticks.

3. High speed operation.

The speed of cigarette packaging machine is constantly improving. In order to cooperate with high-speed packaging, higher requirements are put forward for various physical performance indicators related to products.

4. Environmentally friendly film.

Considering the factors of green and environmental protection, the thickness of smoke film is required to be thinner in the market. At present, the commonly used products are usually 20 to 22 microns. The thinning of smoke film will be the future development direction.

5. Functionality.

In addition to the original characteristics of blocking water vapor, transparency and high-speed packaging, the smoke film will be given higher requirements in functions, such as anti-counterfeiting function, waterproof fog and so on. From the current situation, on the one hand, as a cigarette auxiliary material, BOPP cigarette film is facing higher requirements in product variety and quality with the steady development of the tobacco industry; On the other hand, it still needs to face the fierce competition in the domestic BOPP industry.