Introducing HyperBarrier, a High-Barrier Coating for Paper-based Flexible Packaging
Another Packaging Miracle through Mineralization: Smart Planet Technologies Introduces HyperBarrier, a High-Barrier Coating for Paper-based Flexible Packaging
NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA – February 5, 2024 – Smart Planet Technologies, a leader in sustainable packaging solutions, has developed another breakthrough innovation in performance, sustainability and cost with HyperBarrier™ for paper-based packaging. This revolutionary innovation is a ternary nanocomposite coating, providing a 20x improvement in oxygen barrier performance and 15x improvement in moisture barrier performance over conventional polyethylene coatings in paper-based flexible packaging. This innovation provides new opportunities for brands to embrace paper-based packaging over plastic where conventional barrier coatings have been insufficient in performance.
The challenges before HyperBarrier:
While many brands have looked to move their flexible packaging from plastic to paper-based formats, there have been numerous obstacles:
Insufficient barrier performance: Existing 100% plastic coatings for paper packaging often struggle to match the oxygen and moisture barrier of plastic packaging, compromising product freshness and shelf life.
Recyclability roadblocks: Many barrier coatings render fiber packaging to be non-recyclable, adding to landfill waste and undermining sustainability efforts.
Costly complexities: Multi-layer film laminations and treatments like EVOH and metallization inflate costs and further complicate recycling.
For many flexible packaging applications, the negatives of a switch far outweigh the positives, which has forced many brands to stay with plastic packaging, and fall short of their objectives to use more sustainable materials.
The new opportunities with HyperBarrier:
HyperBarrier represents a monumental leap forward in flexible packaging. This innovative coating revolutionizes the game by tackling these challenges head-on:
Unmatched Oxygen Barrier in a single-layer barrier coating: HyperBarrier delivers a twenty-fold improvement over polyethylene coatings, ensuring product integrity and extending shelf life for a wide range of applications.
Cost-Effective Choice: Its single-layer application eliminates the need for complex and expensive multi-layer structures, offering a more affordable and efficient solution.
Recyclability: As with the suite of EarthCoating products, HyperBarrier creates paper-based flexible packaging materials that are compatible with existing paper recycling streams for uncoated paper, improving bale quality of recovered paper and reducing waste. As with EarthCoating, HyperBarrier is an inert component in paper recycling and is removed in the same process as clay coating.
Plastic reduction: HyperBarrier’s 40% mineral content further reduces plastic content beyond simply switching from plastic to paper packaging.
Fit for Purpose: HyperBarrier has all of the capabilities in conventional coatings, including heat-sealability and food contact
Industry-Friendly Integration: This drop-in solution requires no capital expenditure or changes to existing manufacturing processes, ensuring smooth adoption.
The innovation within HyperBarrier:
HyperBarrier builds on the merits of high mineralization of coatings, pioneered by Smart Planet Technologies and its business partners in its EarthCoating barrier coating solution, commercialized in over 2.5 billion packages to date including in flexible packaging. The optimization of the blending of certain minerals and polymers, provides a better result in attributes for barrier coatings than polymer alone. EarthCoating pioneered the sustainable attributes of mineralization, with improved barrier performance for moisture and oils, improved heat seal performance, less plastic content, and packaging with certifications for recycling in uncoated paper recycling collection categories.
Within HyperBarrier, Smart Planet Technologies has taken the capabilities further, focusing on enhancing oxygen barrier capabilities. HyperBarrier achieves this with combinations of multiple mineral types within the barrier coating matrix, which has resulted in a twenty-fold improvement in oxygen barrier performance, while maintaining the benefits already found in the suite of EarthCoating barrier options.
“Innovation in the industry for sustainable coatings has typically focused on inventing new types of plastics," says Chris Tilton, inventor and co-founder at Smart Planet Technologies. "However, the field of mineralized coatings is delivering far more impressive outcomes for sustainable packaging by improving the performance of the package, replacing plastic content, and improving recyclability."
"HyperBarrier represents a superior barrier technology for paper-based packaging in every facet. This combination of advantages unlocks exciting new opportunities for companies to embrace paper-based flexible packaging, paving the way for a more sustainable future."
About Smart Planet Technologies:
Smart Planet Technologies is a materials engineering company with breakthrough advancements in sustainable barrier coatings and packaging materials for the packaging industry. Our innovations optimize barrier performance while making disposable packaging “recycle ready” for existing paper recycling systems enabling paper packaging to further become a valuable resource in a circular economy.