Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc. (head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; president: Hiroshi Yoshida) has reached a new level of oxygen barrier performance with the development of "EH Grade," a new grade of its SUPERNYL™ series of biaxial oriented nylon film with a high gas barrier. After PR activity and comprehensive evaluation through test samples sent to customers, it will launch full-scale sales in November 2009.

SUPERNYL™ is a biaxial oriented nylon film with a high gas barrier. It is made by co-extruding a nylon-based plastic, which gives it a high gas barrier, equivalent to polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC) coated nylon film, excellent strength, transparency, and enables it to produce beautiful prints. Its use is growing, especially as a food packaging, including food pouches, wrappers for cakes and pastries, and packets for sauces and soup extracts.

Meanwhile, recently there has been increased demand for high oxygen-barrier properties in food packaging, in order to ensure food safety and storage life, and this has drawn attention to packaging with a higher gas barrier that is easy to use. Although transparent vapor deposition film is superior in terms of high barrier properties, co-extruded barrier packaging is arguably superior in terms of pinhole resistance, and preventing loss of barrier properties of the film at the time of transportation.
MPI succeeded at developing a new technology with better oxygen barrier properties than existing products, together with MPI's proprietary admixture design technologies, extrusion orientation technologies, and multilayer formation technologies. Using this new technology, MPI developed two new products, using an ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) copolymer barrier,.: (1) SUPERNYL™ EH Grade (oxygen barrier 2 ml (m2・24hr・MPa)) that combines better barrier properties than conventional products, with pinhole resistance and suitable properties for processing; and (2) EHP Grade (oxygen barrier 7 ml (m2・24hr・MPa)), which provides superior pinhole resistance, while maintaining the same barrier properties as existing products.

This biaxial oriented nylon film delivers a new level of oxygen barrier performance. There is a huge potential demand for the new products, and it is expected to find growing use in food and non-food applications. MPI therefore plans to expand its business by developing applications for EH Grade and its other products, and improving performance to meet user needs.

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	Public Relations Section, General Administration Dept., Mitsubishi Plastics Inc. TEL: +81-3-3279-3800