NOVA Chemicals Corporation has introduced its next-generation SURPASS HPs267-AB resin — a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) that offers levels of moisture barrier performance for multilayer flexible packaging. HPs267-AB’s stiffness and heat resistance reportedly enable the acceleration of the plastics circular economy by allowing packaging engineers to design more recyclable polyethylene (PE) film structures.

Eric Vignola, food packaging market manager, NOVA Chemicals, says, “HPs267-AB sets a new standard for moisture barrier performance that extends beyond what most industry experts thought was possible. Our barrier product development team has created a HDPE resin with a novel molecular structure."

Designed for blown-film applications using NOVA Chemicals’ Advanced SCLAIRTECH technology, HPs267-AB delivers up to a 20% increase in water-vapor transmission performance in multilayer coextruded film structures compared to the company’s SURPASS HPs167-AB resin. NOVA Chemicals says this yields multiple benefits for film producers, converters and brand owners, including the ability to:

• Increase the shelf life of packaged foods such as meats, cheeses, cereals, crackers, baking staples, high-fat content foods and more
• Develop more recyclable food packaging by enabling converters to replace non-recyclable, metallized or PET laminate layers in film structures with PE materials that provide equivalent stiffness and maximum heat resistance for all PE packaging
• Reduce material cost by downgauging multilayer film structures without sacrificing barrier performance
• Expand the range of design options available to packaging designers while enabling them to meet the specific performance and sustainability requirements of their packaging applications

Anna Rajkovic, circular economy market manager, NOVA Chemicals, says, “HPs267 is a significant breakthrough for sustainability-focused brand owners. This product will not only help protect products better, longer and more effectively, it has the potential for creating more recyclable film structures and can help brands reach their packaging sustainability goals.”

For more information, visit www.novachem.com/barrier.