Twist-Wrap Films, set to wrap up candy market?

Twist-Lyte and Hicor, part of the Exxon Mobil Group, has launched a specially redesigned film, which is claimed to make production faster and more efficient.

The special orientation process devised by the companies already give the film's unique properties for twist-wrap applications that are difficult to reproduce in other films. "But now, we have put an enormous effort into a number of improvements to the films' convertibility and consistency which will lead to important increases in efficiency and production speed,"​ said Peter Haltenberger, product manager Hicor and Twist-Lyte​. "On top of this, we have also reduced lead times to three weeks for transparent films and five weeks for metallised versions."​

Twist-Lyte is already the 'lightest' twist-wrap film on the market. At a thickness of only 23µ, it has sufficient strength to run at speeds of up to 1400 ppm on modern packaging machines and its puncture resistance makes it suitable even for demanding applications such as sharp-edged hard candy. The film's stiffness is said to make it an excellent solution for many older packaging machines, which are not designed to work with synthetic materials, and despite some tear strength limitations, Hicor can still run at speeds of up to 1100 ppm.

"Our first priority has been to vastly improve the convertibility of Twist-Lyte,"​ added Haltenberger. "For our metallised films, this means improving the adhesion of the metal and the appearance of the metallised surface. Next up, improvements in the printability of the metallised surface as well as its stability over time have been given emphasis. And finally, for transparent Twist-Lyte, improving the stability and consistency of XH105's surface properties has been our top priority."​

"Other enhancement projects are also under way for these range of films - including the possibility of adding a coloured range - which we feel would 'wrap-up' the candy market."​