In virtually every industry, strategic packaging materials influence everything from product safety to supply chain mobility to how a product sells.
This makes selecting the right bag for your industry or application essential for success.
You can find more information on our web, so please take a look.
After all, today’s bags aren’t just bags. Far from it. Modern bulk bags, such as flexible intermediate bulk containers (FIBCs), have been exhaustively engineered and tested by experts to work well under specific conditions.
For your bag to work well under your specific conditions (e.g., where your warehouse is located, what type of filling apparatus you use, the nature of your product), you need to know which type of bag you need.
Knowing how to tell if your specific type of bag is well made? Also key.
Here’s a quick primer on three types of bags that are overwhelmingly popular across several industries and how to determine which type is perfect for your needs.
Let’s start with some definitions.
The letters “PP” in PP, OPP, and BOPP stand for polypropylene. Polypropylene is a polymer that is strong, resistant to many chemicals, and has favorable heat and barrier properties.
In other words: It makes for a durable and versatile bag. Polypropylene is often used to make coatings, films, tapes, and printed FIBCs on a mass scale.
Polypropylene can be manipulated to produce OPP and BOPP materials, or oriented and biaxially oriented polypropylene.
Oriented polypropylene
, or OPP, is a type of polypropylene film that is stretched in one direction. This offers better strength, clarity, and printability when compared to PP film. OPP tends to be used for labels and small film bags.
Biaxially oriented polypropylene
, or BOPP, is a type of polypropylene film that’s been stretched in two perpendicular directions. This offers even more strength, printability, and clarity when compared to PP and OPP materials. BOPP film is used to laminate over woven tapes often used in packaging. And because BOPP has innate printability, it’s commonly used for intricate branding and printing details on midsize or large bulk packages.
As we mentioned above, each type of bag is great for specific applications, as each offers unique strengths.
It’s worth discussing with your FIBC supplier which type of bag will work best for you, but here’s a quick overview:
Polypropylene (PP) bags are great for FIBCs, sandbags, and geotextiles. They’re fantastic multipurpose bags because they’re versatile, durable, and cost-effective.
Oriented polypropylene (OPP) bags excel when used to create small packaging materials, often in the medical, pharmaceutical, and food industries—particularly when they don’t need to carry much weight.
Biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) bags are best suited for packaging that needs many of the same qualities as OPP bags but also must support more weight. BOPP film is often used with woven tapes to create durable packaging materials. BOPP film is especially common in the pet food and food ingredient industries because they require bags that can carry 25-50 lbs.
When you choose a specific type of bag, you need all of the information in front of you.
We’ve discussed general definitions of each type of bag and the industries they support best. To round out this guide, here’s a quick rundown of the pros and cons of each type of bag (save this post for later reference):
Pros and Cons:
PP bags are sustainable, moisture-resistant, durable, and chemical-resistant.
They’re also highly flammable, offer limited printability, and do not necessarily protect existing printing detail.
Pros and Cons:
OPP film bags are strong, hard to puncture or tear, and have a transparent, glossy finish. These bags are also moisture- and dust-proof.
OPP film bags are difficult to stretch, and there’s a limit to how much weight they can carry.
Pros and Cons:
BOPP bags provide high tensile strength, excellent clarity, and a high degree of dimensional stability and flatness.
These bags have a low electrostatic charge, present a barrier to water vapor, and are resistant to oils and greases.
Aesthetically, BOPP bags provide several perks: They have a high-gloss finish, offer reverse printing ability, and perform well in high-speed printing applications.
Finally, BOPP bags are not affected by moisture. They don’t wrinkle or shrink with environmental changes. Plus, they’re recyclable!
The disadvantages are limited, but BOPP bags are not biodegradable. However, they are considered recyclable and classified in the No. 5 plastic recycling stream accepted by some recycling facilities.
One long-standing disadvantage of BOPP bags was sealing. However, Sonoco has recently announced the first heat-sealable BOPP barrier bag available for industrial bulk packaging applications, such as animal and pet food manufacturing.
Need help figuring out which bag is best for you? Consider these questions:
What grade of safety does your product require (e.g., food-grade, medical-grade)?
How important is crystal-clear branding for your product’s success?
Think about the equipment and processes you already have in place. Do you heat-seal your bags, for example?
Do you require a specifically sized bag?
If you’re interested in speaking with a packaging expert to determine the best bag for your needs, reach out to Sonoco. Our friendly representatives and materials science engineers will be more than happy to discuss your packaging needs!
Matte-BOPP-film
Matte BOPP film is widely applied in flexible packaging to create matte finish surface for final packages.
Matte BOPP film is realized in matte finish for the outside, however high glossy for the inner side, so the inks can be well coated on the inner side by rotogravure printing.
Matte-BOPP-Film-inner-glossy
When the artwork is print on high glossy film, the effect is glossy vivid, and then we cover a layer of Matte BOPP film on the left part, you can obser the “XON” wording, the glossy red becomes a little dark, this is the matte finish effect.
Artwork-print-with-Matte-BOPP-covered
So, when you choose matte finish effect for your package, the final colors will be surely weakened by the matte finish than original colors. You can not achieve the matte finish without weakening the original colors.
Previously, we a customer from Aulstralia, who want to customize his coffee package, and he choose the matte finish effect. Below is the artwork design for his box bottom coffee bag.
artwork-Coffee-package-MAD-ABOUT-BREW
Before he placing the order, we reminded him that the final effect will be surely weakened as of the extra Matte BOPP film, and seems he did not get a good understanding on this. So when the final package is realized in matte finish, as below video. He believed we altered the colors of his artwork, and blamed us for bad work.
Final Print effect for Mad-About-Brew Coffee package
Surely, there is some color tolerence for the jpg file and the camera, but, we really did not alter any colors of his artwork, and we printed his artwork according to the printed effect on photo paper, which should be the most ideal effect. The only problem is, the orginal colors are weakened by the matte finish.
Finally, we came to a dispute that can not make the order move on. At his request, we refund the left money to his account (deducting the money that is spent on the sample produce.), and then this order came to a hault.
So, by this post, we sincerely hope the customers would be able to get a good understanding on the effect of Matte BOPP film, that is essential to finalize a good package.
Hualei are exported all over the world and different industries with quality first. Our belief is to provide our customers with more and better high value-added products. Let's create a better future together.
As you dig into labeling options for your product container, you’ll see one term pop up again and again: BOPP. It stands for biaxially oriented polypropylene, and it’s an incredibly popular label material.
There are countless benefits to choosing BOPP for your product label — printability, durability and customizability, just to name a few. Like anything, BOPP has its limitations, but across container types, product categories and label designs, you’ll find BOPP specified as the facestock more times than not.
BOPP is polypropylene film which is stretched in both machine and cross directions during production. And a lot of the differences between BOPP and other films can be traced back to this manufacturing method.
BOPP Vs. Alternative Films
The biaxial orientation of BOPP material aligns the polymer chains, increasing the film’s modulus and tensile strength. Machine-direction oriented (MDO) films, which are stretched in only one direction, are less rigid and more conformable than BOPP. Unoriented films offer great conformability for squeezable containers but are less easily printed and dispensed.
The manufacturing method of the film, and the inherent properties of polypropylene films, lend BOPP labels a range of properties like:
Clarity, allowing brands to achieve the “no-label” look.
Water, UV and chemical resistance, making BOPP suitable for even the most acidic products and moist environments.
Excellent printability, especially as BOPP is often equipped with a topcoat which anchors the ink to the surface of the film.
Rigidity, making BOPP labels easy to die-cut, dispense and apply the label to your container.
Is BOPP Right For Your Label?
Label material selection is about finding a construction that works with your container shape, meets your aesthetic preferences, will perform in your product’s environment (e.g., shower, outdoors, kitchen cupboard, etc.) and fits within your packaging budget.
You’ll start with your label vision — how you want your label to look — and then find those materials that will bring it to life without wrinkling, degrading or popping off your container throughout the entire product lifecycle:, which includes manufacturing, storage, shipping, retail display and customer use.
Material selection conversations never start with, “Do I use BOPP or another material?” BOPP is chosen so often simply because it checks all of the boxes in many situations, is widely available and competitively priced.
Film labels (including BOPP, PE, PO and vinyl) tend to be more expensive than paper labels. And within BOPP materials, costs will vary slightly depending on color (metallized, clear or white) and gauge (thickness). Ultimately, though, the most important factor affecting label costs is order size. The larger the order, the smaller the per-label cost difference between label materials will be.
When You Shouldn’t Use BOPP
During the selection process your label converter will typically ask questions like:
Do you have a non-standard container (e.g., tubes and highly contoured containers)?
Is your container squeezable?
In what environment will your product be used?
Can you describe your vision for the look of your label?
If you answered “yes” to the first two questions, you shouldn’t choose BOPP. For highly contoured or squeezable containers, non-rigid, conformable films like PE and polyolefin (PO) are your best bet.
In regard to environment, BOPP will degrade in the extreme conditions. If your product will be used or stored outdoors, you’d do well by choosing a vinyl or polyester label film instead. But in practically every other situation, BOPP will work just fine — and the decision about whether or not to use it boils down to budget and aesthetic preferences.
Want a rich, textured feel? Then estate paper is a good choice. Need a bar code label? A cheaper paper label will probably suffice. Want your consumers to see directly into the container? Then clear BOPP is perfect.
Nearly any label vision can be brought to life with BOPP. About the only thing you can’t do is emboss them. They’re easily die-cut, meaning you can get BOPP labels in any custom shape. You can choose between removable or permanent adhesives, depending on what your application requires. And you can choose between three colors: Clear BOPP to achieve the “no-label” look, silver BOPP for a premium, metallic sheen or white BOPP to make your label graphics pop on the shelf.
Achieving “No-Label” Look
Clear BOPP labels can be designed, printed and applied to give the illusion that the graphics are directly printed on the product container. To achieve this look, you’ll need to carefully consider your graphics, container and the color of your product.
Your label design should have thick lines, larger text and high-contrast colors outlining any art (e.g., a dark green leaf outlined with a lighter green color). All art should be in contrast to the color of the container or the product, if visible. And this look is best achieved on smooth, shiny surfaces like glass, rigid plastic and coated paperboard.
Starting with silver BOPP, you can achieve a wide range of packaging looks. You’ll block out the silver using opaque white ink under where you’ll print your artwork, so it pops. Then you can either leave the unprinted areas silver, or you can print over them with translucent CMYK inks to achieve any gold or copper tone, or to add a metallic sheen to any other color.
Make Your Labels Pop
Varnishes and protective laminate layers are essential on BOPP labels to prevent ink from scratching and running. But it doesn’t have to be a purely functional feature. You can use contrasting spot and gloss varnishes, and combinations of both to highlight features in your artwork.
Gloss finishes create reflective, eye-catching labels. Matte finishes over metallic BOPP diffuse the light and give the labels a soft glow. On clear BOPP labels, you can use a slightly textured, matte varnish over your label for a tactile papery feel.
So why is BOPP the go-to material for film labels? Well, to put it simply, it’s easily customized, it looks good on the shelf and it performs in almost every product use environment.
Sustainability Drive Is Good News for BOPP Film
The global Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) film market has seen demand grow by just under 5 percent per annum over the last five years. The main driver of growth has been the demand for flexible packaging, particularly in China and South East Asia, according to Wood Mackenzie’s latest ‘BOPP Film Global Supply Demand Report’.
The BOPP film industry, worth in the region of $15 billion, delivered over 8.4 million tonnes in 2018. The global market is currently well-supplied, dominated by China and the growing influence of Indian-owned producers who continue to expand their operations globally. Global demand for BOPP film is expected to grow at a healthy rate of 4.7 percent annually over the next five years to 2023.
The issue of recycling and sustainability has, in certain applications, favored BOPP film over other polymer films. Multinational brands are looking to film producers and converters to provide monomaterial plastic packaging solutions to meet sustainability commitments.
Overcoming Plastics Backlash
Global BOPP film demand continues to see healthy growth despite the backlash against plastic packaging. In fact, the issue of recycling and sustainability has created a favorable set of circumstances for the BOPP film sector. As part of a circular economy, brands are being pressured to find more environmentally-friendly ways of packaging their products. This has caused a shift in focus from multi-material and multi-layer laminates, which are currently non-recyclable, to monomaterial laminates.
“The fact that BOPP film is part of the wider polyolefin chemical family means it can be laminated, with polyethylene film for example, and still be widely accepted in today’s recycling waste stream. Our research indicates that, in certain applications, the consumption of BOPP film has benefitted from this sustainability drive at the expense of other polymers,” said Robert Gilfillan, Wood Mackenzie head of Films & Flexibles.
Flexible packaging will continue to be the key end-use sector for BOPP film. The need for transparent commodity film, which is often used in food packaging, is expected to drive future demand. With a positive short-term outlook, investment opportunities within the sector are becoming more attractive.
When it comes to plastic packaging, the food industry predominantly uses the BOPP bags or films. BOPP bags are easy to coat, print and laminate, hence making them most suitable for packaging products like snacks, fresh produces and confectioneries. Parallel to BOPP, PP and OPP bags are also available in the market which are used in packaging. In all the three, Polypropylene is common which is the basic polymer for the manufacturing of these bags. PP stands for Polypropylene, OPP stands for Oriented Polypropylene, and BOPP stands for Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene. They differ in the style of their fabrication.
Polypropylene, also called are polypropene is a semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer. It has high impact resistance and is strong and tough. Popular packaging packets like ziplock pouches, standup pouches, and spout pouches are made from Polypropylene. At first sight, it is difficult to distinguish between the PP, OPP, and BOPP plastics. However, one can feel the difference by touching as OPP feels brittle whereas PP is softer.
The best way to distinguish between PP, OPP and BOPP bags is by understanding their use in the real world objects. The Polypropylene bags or PP bags are used as non-woven bags. These are treated to make them water or moisture absorbent. Sanitary napkins, diapers, air filters, etc are some of the common PP products. The same material is also used in the manufacture of thermal clothing as they provide a temperature barrier.
The OPP bags have high tensile strength, and are transparent in colour. These can withstand high temperatures but get wrinkled if used roughly. Transparent adhesive tapes are also made using the same formulation. These are hard to tear and OPP bags are used in the packaging of leather products, clothing, etc.
The BOPP bags are crystal clear polyethylene bags. Their art of manufacture i.e. bi-axially orientation gives them a transparent appearance and this makes them suitable for branding via printing on their surfaces. BOPP bags are largely used for retail packaging. The biaxial orientation increases their strength and hence they are preferable to carry greater loads. The BOPP bags are waterproof. The products inside them can be safeguarded against moisture for a much longer span of time. And that is why these are the most desirable choice in the cloth packaging industry.
The Polypropylene derivatives i.e. the PP, OPP, and BOPP are resistant to organic solvents, acids, and alkalies. That is why these are widely used in the packaging industry where transportation and storage under changing atmospheric is unavoidable. Like cling films, they protect the product from moisture and dust. These are recyclable and their manufacture involves lesser carbon footprint. So from the environment perspective as well, the PP, OPP, and BOPP bags are sustainable choice.
You can also buy non woven bags and vegetable and fruit crates on Bizongo.
Read more about how packaging can drive sales and about innovative tissue papers on our main blog here.
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