Trinseo | Revival of the Coated Paper and Board Industry Through Packaging Innovation

APRIL 18, 2023

Revival of the Coated Paper and Board Industry Through Packaging Innovation

Earlier this year, Trinseo’s North America Latex Binders team successfully commissioned a multi-layer curtain coater (MLCC) at the Company’s Midland (Michigan, USA) Pilot Coater facility. The slide die was designed by TSE Troller AG and other machine enhancements were developed within Trinseo.

Multi-layer curtain coating is an emerging and important application technology used in the coated paperboard and specialty paper markets due to several key factors:

Provides excellent coverage and a uniform coating thickness, also known as contour coating
Design freedom to improve performance by optimizing coating layers, all with one coater station
Lower total investment cost by enabling simultaneous coating of multiple layers covering low to high machine speeds
Reduces coating waste thanks to direct coating flow through the coating machine to the substrate with no recirculation loops

This technology is particularly attractive for applications like water-based barrier coating, which is used on paper and board packaging for the food and beverage industry to reduce or eliminate the penetration of oil, grease, water, moisture (water vapor), oxygen, and other fluids through coated cellulosic-based paper and paperboard substrates.

Images: (L) Two layer water-based barrier coating at 11 gsm total coat weight. (R) Harald Doell of TSE Troller AG and Greg Welsch of Trinseo after commissioning.

The interest in paper-based materials as replacements for less sustainable barrier products such as plastic films, laminated plastic-based films applied to paper, or fluorocarbon-based paper treatments is increasing with forecasted growth rates of 9% through 2025. Successful application of barrier coatings can be enabled using curtain coating technology. Over the last few years, major paper and board producers have commissioned or announced significant investments centered around this technology, totaling over two billion dollars.

The MLCC capability has been fully tested with internal and external development trials. And Trinseo is well equipped to support the industry with its ongoing developments in sustainable packaging through our collaborative use of our extensive pilot coating equipment capabilities.