Mass Production of Clear Barriers Requirements on Vacuum Web Coaters for Quality Assurance

Presented by Rainer Ludwig, Applied Films

An increasing number of packages using Transparent Barrier Coatings, can be found in American stores. The success and acceptance of these coatings by the market will be based on the delivery of stable, high quality coatings. Compared to standard Al metallizing, monitoring quality is even more critical. For Al Metallization, the coating is visible and larger defects can even be seen by eye but with Clear Barriers, the coating is not visible. Defects cannot be easily detected and sometimes the question is arises: ” Is there any coating at all?” Based on these concerns, production machines require a very robust and reliable process. More of the quality assurance has to be handled in the coating machine itself.

This presentation will be focused on coating-quality requirements for Clear Barrier Production with the Electron Beam coating process, which is currently being used by the majority of the Clear Barrier producing companies.