What is BOPP? 7 Reasons to Invest in BOPP Labels Today

Jun. 17, 2024

What is BOPP? 7 Reasons to Invest in BOPP Labels Today

Posted by Mike McDermott on

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As a small to medium-size business, your livelihood hinges in great part upon your ability to gain market traction through your product labeling. An eye-catching, professionally-made BOPP label can often be the key to captivating prospective buyers. Below is a look at BOPP and some of the many benefits it offers as a trusted label solution.

What is BOPP?

&#;Bi-Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) refers to the manufacture of polypropylene films using an orienting system. BOPP films are manufactured using a tenter frame sequential process or the double bubble process, in which a polypropylene (PP) film is oriented in two directions (machine and transverse directions).&#;

&#; Dow Chemical Company

BOPP is an acronym for biaxially-oriented polypropylene, or the use of a special process to manufacture polypropylene films. In a nutshell, BOPP is polypropylene that has been stretched in two different directions; hence the &#;biaxially-oriented&#; component of its name. BOPP films were introduced in the s and have risen in popularity as a means of packaging and labeling food and many other products. BOPP is often used for packaging and labeling of bottles, food products, cleansers, and other household products.

Which industries use BOPP labels?

Aside from paper, BOPP is the most popular material of choice for labels. BOPP&#;s proven performance and affordability have combined to make it the preferred label material for manufacturers in a host of different specialties. Here are just a few of the industries that are choosing BOPP for their labeling applications:

Bottling companies: To advertise the beverage brand and list ingredients
Food container manufacturers: For companies that sell labels for food storage products
Vaping and e-liquid companies: Vape stores are increasingly using BOPP labels to denote flavors
The hygiene industry: To prepare front product labels as well as back labels with ingredients
Medical equipment companies: To denote the manufacturer&#;s name and number

What are the top benefits of BOPP labels?

BOPP&#;s popularity has increased immensely over the past two decades. Its durability, adhesive properties, and resistance to the elements have propelled BOPP to its position as a leading material for digital labels and tags. BOPP is also cost-effective and versatile, making it a top option in the label printing industry. Here are some of the top benefits of BOPP:

1) Moisture-resistance

Unlike labels made with most other materials, labels created with BOPP film can be exposed to cold water or high levels of humidity without eroding. They are therefore a top choice for manufacturers whose products are frequently exposed to moisture or humidity.

2) Low toxicity

BOPP&#;s low toxicity is a primary reason why BOPP is used with labels for food and hygiene products. BOPP emits no harmful gases and polypropylene flakes or dust is not harmful. Finally, there are no special requirements for safe handling, other than avoiding spilling BOPP, which can cause a person to trip or fall.

3) Variable translucency

One of BOPP film&#;s greatest assets is its variable translucency. Labels fabricated with BOPP film can be clear, white, or metal-colored. The clear option is especially popular among food packagers and manufacturers who want consumers to be able to view their products through a clear label, while white-colored BOPP is a common choice for lip balm and other hygiene products.

4) Strong adhesive properties

&#;A number of standard test methods are used in the United States to measure the peel adhesion or bond strength of pressure-sensitive labels. These include ASTM D 903, ASTM D , ASTM D and the TLMI 180° Peel Adhesion-Face Stock test method.&#;

&#; Don Eppink, Adhesives and Sealants Magazine

Adhesive strength is one of BOPP&#;s greatest assets. When customers invest in BOPP labels, they can enjoy peace of mind knowing that they have selected a label that demonstrates stellar peel adhesion properties, even with labels designed for round or curved glass bottles.

5) Resistant to solvents and acids

BOPP&#;s resistance to solvents and acids make it a great choice for labels &#; especially those applied to household products and certain foods and beverages. For example tomatoes, beans, coffee, and some citrus fruits can be highly acidic. Even though they might not ever touch the label on the outside of a can, they may emit some gases that can cause most non-BOPP labels to deteriorate.

6) Impressive durability

&#;The main features of BOPP films are improved stiffness, high tensile strength, excellent optics and good water vapor barrier properties. BOPP films range from 15 to 50 microns and are most commonly 15 to 30 microns&#;Additionally, BOPP films can be treated with acrylic and PVDC coatings for better sealability and barrier properties.&#;

&#; Dow Chemical Company

Durability is the cornerstone of longevity for a printed label. BOPP is known for its strength and ability to endure significant wear and tear. Its plastic-based construction make BOPP far more durable than paper labels. Additionally, top label printing companies cure their printed designs to further increase their durability and resistance to the elements.

7) A captivating appearance

Even with all of the practical benefits BOPP offers, you cannot ignore BOPP&#;s gorgeous appearance. In addition to offering a higher clarity and gloss, BOPP&#;s higher tensile strength sets the perfect foundation for digital printing. And with its stellar durability, BOPP labels stand the test of time while paper labels deteriorate.

What does the future hold for BOPP?

&#;According to the report projections, the global BOPP films for packaging market is expected to witness a CAGR of 6.0% from to . In , the market was worth US$ 13,669.4 Mn and is expected to touch a valuation of US$ 21,736.5 Mn by the end of .&#;

&#; Persistence Market Research

Given the many benefits BOPP brings to the label design table, it is no surprise that BOPP&#;s popularity continues to grow. Market researchers across the globe point to the rapidly increasing demand for sophisticated, cost-effective packaging as a key factor that will drive the continued growth of BOPP. In fact, Persistence Market Research forecasts that the market will rise to over $21,736 million USD before .

How do you choose the best label for your products?

As outlined above, there are many benefits to selecting a label made with BOPP material. However, there is more to creating a label than choosing the material. The best way to ensure that you select the perfect label for your products is to seek the guidance of an industry expert. The experts with Presto Labels have perfected the art of label printing and are eager to help you select the best label for your products. Here are just a few of the many reasons why you should choose Presto Labels for your label printing needs:

Over four decades of success in the label printing industry
Rapid job completion times
A wider selection of BOPP than most competitors
All labels are printed and converted in the USA
The ability to grow alongside your business

We invite you to contact us to learn more about the many ways that BOPP can enhance your branding. Our skilled label design experts have the tools and resources to create professional labels that will make your products stand out. We are happy to provide you with an instant quote and look forward to becoming your trusted resource for all of your labeling needs!

Breaking Down the Differences Between PP, OPP, and BOPP ...

Breaking Down the Differences Between PP, OPP, and BOPP Bags

In virtually every industry, strategic packaging materials influence everything from product safety to supply chain mobility to how a product sells.

This makes selecting the right bag for your industry or application essential for success.

After all, today&#;s bags aren&#;t just bags. Far from it. Modern bulk bags, such as flexible intermediate bulk containers (FIBCs), have been exhaustively engineered and tested by experts to work well under specific conditions.

For your bag to work well under your specific conditions (e.g., where your warehouse is located, what type of filling apparatus you use, the nature of your product), you need to know which type of bag you need.

Knowing how to tell if your specific type of bag is well made? Also key.

Here&#;s a quick primer on three types of bags that are overwhelmingly popular across several industries and how to determine which type is perfect for your needs.

What are PP, OPP, and BOPP bags?

Let&#;s start with some definitions.

The letters &#;PP&#; in PP, OPP, and BOPP stand for polypropylene. Polypropylene is a polymer that is strong, resistant to many chemicals, and has favorable heat and barrier properties.

In other words: It makes for a durable and versatile bag. Polypropylene is often used to make coatings, films, tapes, and printed FIBCs on a mass scale.

Polypropylene can be manipulated to produce OPP and BOPP materials, or oriented and biaxially oriented polypropylene.

Oriented polypropylene

, or OPP, is a type of polypropylene film that is stretched in one direction. This offers better strength, clarity, and printability when compared to PP film. OPP tends to be used for labels and small film bags.

Biaxially oriented polypropylene

, or BOPP, is a type of polypropylene film that&#;s been stretched in two perpendicular directions. This offers even more strength, printability, and clarity when compared to PP and OPP materials. BOPP film is used to laminate over woven tapes often used in packaging. And because BOPP has innate printability, it&#;s commonly used for intricate branding and printing details on midsize or large bulk packages.

Which Industries are PP, OPP, and BOPP Bags Good For?

As we mentioned above, each type of bag is great for specific applications, as each offers unique strengths.

It&#;s worth discussing with your FIBC supplier which type of bag will work best for you, but here&#;s a quick overview:

Polypropylene (PP) bags are great for FIBCs, sandbags, and geotextiles. They&#;re fantastic multipurpose bags because they&#;re versatile, durable, and cost-effective.

Oriented polypropylene (OPP) bags excel when used to create small packaging materials, often in the medical, pharmaceutical, and food industries&#;particularly when they don&#;t need to carry much weight.

Biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) bags are best suited for packaging that needs many of the same qualities as OPP bags but also must support more weight. BOPP film is often used with woven tapes to create durable packaging materials. BOPP film is especially common in the pet food and food ingredient industries because they require bags that can carry 25-50 lbs.

The Pros and Cons of PP, OPP, and BOPP Bags

When you choose a specific type of bag, you need all of the information in front of you.

We&#;ve discussed general definitions of each type of bag and the industries they support best. To round out this guide, here&#;s a quick rundown of the pros and cons of each type of bag (save this post for later reference):

PP Woven Bags with PP Lamination

Pros and Cons:

PP bags are sustainable, moisture-resistant, durable, and chemical-resistant.

They&#;re also highly flammable, offer limited printability, and do not necessarily protect existing printing detail.

OPP Film Bags

Pros and Cons:

OPP film bags are strong, hard to puncture or tear, and have a transparent, glossy finish. These bags are also moisture- and dust-proof.

OPP film bags are difficult to stretch, and there&#;s a limit to how much weight they can carry.

BOPP Bags

Pros and Cons:

BOPP bags provide high tensile strength, excellent clarity, and a high degree of dimensional stability and flatness.

These bags have a low electrostatic charge, present a barrier to water vapor, and are resistant to oils and greases.

Aesthetically, BOPP bags provide several perks: They have a high-gloss finish, offer reverse printing ability, and perform well in high-speed printing applications.

Finally, BOPP bags are not affected by moisture. They don&#;t wrinkle or shrink with environmental changes. Plus, they&#;re recyclable!

The disadvantages are limited, but BOPP bags are not biodegradable. However, they are considered recyclable and classified in the No. 5 plastic recycling stream accepted by some recycling facilities.

One long-standing disadvantage of BOPP bags was sealing. However, Sonoco has recently announced the first heat-sealable BOPP barrier bag available for industrial bulk packaging applications, such as animal and pet food manufacturing.

Choose the Right Bag for Your Needs with Sonoco

Need help figuring out which bag is best for you? Consider these questions:

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit what is bopp labels.

What grade of safety does your product require (e.g., food-grade, medical-grade)?

How important is crystal-clear branding for your product&#;s success?

Think about the equipment and processes you already have in place. Do you heat-seal your bags, for example?

Do you require a specifically sized bag?

If you&#;re interested in speaking with a packaging expert to determine the best bag for your needs, reach out to Sonoco. Our friendly representatives and materials science engineers will be more than happy to discuss your packaging needs!

The print effect with an outer Matte BOPP film

Matte-BOPP-film

Matte BOPP film is widely applied in flexible packaging to create matte finish surface for final packages.

Matte BOPP film is realized in matte finish for the outside, however high glossy for the inner side, so the inks can be well coated on the inner side by rotogravure printing.

Matte-BOPP-Film-inner-glossy

When the artwork is print on high glossy film, the effect is glossy vivid, and then we cover a layer of Matte BOPP film on the left part, you can obser the &#;XON&#; wording, the glossy red becomes a little dark, this is the matte finish effect.

Artwork-print-with-Matte-BOPP-covered

So, when you choose matte finish effect for your package, the final colors will be surely weakened by the matte finish than original colors. You can not achieve the matte finish without weakening the original colors.

Previously, we a customer from Aulstralia, who want to customize his coffee package, and he choose the matte finish effect. Below is the artwork design for his box bottom coffee bag.

artwork-Coffee-package-MAD-ABOUT-BREW

Before he placing the order, we reminded him that the final effect will be surely weakened as of the extra Matte BOPP film, and seems he did not get a good understanding on this. So when the final package is realized in matte finish, as below video. He believed we altered the colors of his artwork, and blamed us for bad work.

Final Print effect for Mad-About-Brew Coffee package

Surely, there is some color tolerence for the jpg file and the camera, but, we really did not alter any colors of his artwork, and we printed his artwork according to the printed effect on photo paper, which should be the most ideal effect. The only problem is, the orginal colors are weakened by the matte finish.

Finally, we came to a dispute that can not make the order move on. At his request, we refund the left money to his account (deducting the money that is spent on the sample produce.), and then this order came to a hault.

So, by this post, we sincerely hope the customers would be able to get a good understanding on the effect of Matte BOPP film, that is essential to finalize a good package.

BOPP is often the go-to material for film labels

As you dig into labeling options for your product container, you&#;ll see one term pop up again and again: BOPP. It stands for biaxially oriented polypropylene, and it&#;s an incredibly popular label material.

There are countless benefits to choosing BOPP for your product label &#; printability, durability and customizability, just to name a few. Like anything, BOPP has its limitations, but across container types, product categories and label designs, you&#;ll find BOPP specified as the facestock more times than not.

BOPP is polypropylene film which is stretched in both machine and cross directions during production. And a lot of the differences between BOPP and other films can be traced back to this manufacturing method.

BOPP Vs. Alternative Films

The biaxial orientation of BOPP material aligns the polymer chains, increasing the film&#;s modulus and tensile strength. Machine-direction oriented (MDO) films, which are stretched in only one direction, are less rigid and more conformable than BOPP. Unoriented films offer great conformability for squeezable containers but are less easily printed and dispensed.

The manufacturing method of the film, and the inherent properties of polypropylene films, lend BOPP labels a range of properties like:

Clarity, allowing brands to achieve the &#;no-label&#; look.

Water, UV and chemical resistance, making BOPP suitable for even the most acidic products and moist environments.

Excellent printability, especially as BOPP is often equipped with a topcoat which anchors the ink to the surface of the film.

Rigidity, making BOPP labels easy to die-cut, dispense and apply the label to your container.

Is BOPP Right For Your Label?

Label material selection is about finding a construction that works with your container shape, meets your aesthetic preferences, will perform in your product&#;s environment (e.g., shower, outdoors, kitchen cupboard, etc.) and fits within your packaging budget.

You&#;ll start with your label vision &#; how you want your label to look &#; and then find those materials that will bring it to life without wrinkling, degrading or popping off your container throughout the entire product lifecycle:, which includes manufacturing, storage, shipping, retail display and customer use.

Material selection conversations never start with, &#;Do I use BOPP or another material?&#; BOPP is chosen so often simply because it checks all of the boxes in many situations, is widely available and competitively priced.

Film labels (including BOPP, PE, PO and vinyl) tend to be more expensive than paper labels. And within BOPP materials, costs will vary slightly depending on color (metallized, clear or white) and gauge (thickness). Ultimately, though, the most important factor affecting label costs is order size. The larger the order, the smaller the per-label cost difference between label materials will be.

When You Shouldn&#;t Use BOPP

During the selection process your label converter will typically ask questions like:

Do you have a non-standard container (e.g., tubes and highly contoured containers)?

Is your container squeezable?

In what environment will your product be used?

Can you describe your vision for the look of your label?

If you answered &#;yes&#; to the first two questions, you shouldn&#;t choose BOPP. For highly contoured or squeezable containers, non-rigid, conformable films like PE and polyolefin (PO) are your best bet.

In regard to environment, BOPP will degrade in the extreme conditions. If your product will be used or stored outdoors, you&#;d do well by choosing a vinyl or polyester label film instead. But in practically every other situation, BOPP will work just fine &#; and the decision about whether or not to use it boils down to budget and aesthetic preferences.

Want a rich, textured feel? Then estate paper is a good choice. Need a bar code label? A cheaper paper label will probably suffice. Want your consumers to see directly into the container? Then clear BOPP is perfect.

Nearly any label vision can be brought to life with BOPP. About the only thing you can&#;t do is emboss them. They&#;re easily die-cut, meaning you can get BOPP labels in any custom shape. You can choose between removable or permanent adhesives, depending on what your application requires. And you can choose between three colors: Clear BOPP to achieve the &#;no-label&#; look, silver BOPP for a premium, metallic sheen or white BOPP to make your label graphics pop on the shelf.

Achieving &#;No-Label&#; Look

Clear BOPP labels can be designed, printed and applied to give the illusion that the graphics are directly printed on the product container. To achieve this look, you&#;ll need to carefully consider your graphics, container and the color of your product.

Your label design should have thick lines, larger text and high-contrast colors outlining any art (e.g., a dark green leaf outlined with a lighter green color). All art should be in contrast to the color of the container or the product, if visible. And this look is best achieved on smooth, shiny surfaces like glass, rigid plastic and coated paperboard.

Starting with silver BOPP, you can achieve a wide range of packaging looks. You&#;ll block out the silver using opaque white ink under where you&#;ll print your artwork, so it pops. Then you can either leave the unprinted areas silver, or you can print over them with translucent CMYK inks to achieve any gold or copper tone, or to add a metallic sheen to any other color.

Make Your Labels Pop

Varnishes and protective laminate layers are essential on BOPP labels to prevent ink from scratching and running. But it doesn&#;t have to be a purely functional feature. You can use contrasting spot and gloss varnishes, and combinations of both to highlight features in your artwork.

Gloss finishes create reflective, eye-catching labels. Matte finishes over metallic BOPP diffuse the light and give the labels a soft glow. On clear BOPP labels, you can use a slightly textured, matte varnish over your label for a tactile papery feel.

So why is BOPP the go-to material for film labels? Well, to put it simply, it&#;s easily customized, it looks good on the shelf and it performs in almost every product use environment.

Sustainability Drive Is Good News for BOPP Film

The global Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) film market has seen demand grow by just under 5 percent per annum over the last five years. The main driver of growth has been the demand for flexible packaging, particularly in China and South East Asia, according to Wood Mackenzie&#;s latest &#;BOPP Film Global Supply Demand Report&#;.

The BOPP film industry, worth in the region of $15 billion, delivered over 8.4 million tonnes in . The global market is currently well-supplied, dominated by China and the growing influence of Indian-owned producers who continue to expand their operations globally. Global demand for BOPP film is expected to grow at a healthy rate of 4.7 percent annually over the next five years to .

The issue of recycling and sustainability has, in certain applications, favored BOPP film over other polymer films. Multinational brands are looking to film producers and converters to provide monomaterial plastic packaging solutions to meet sustainability commitments.

Overcoming Plastics Backlash

Global BOPP film demand continues to see healthy growth despite the backlash against plastic packaging. In fact, the issue of recycling and sustainability has created a favorable set of circumstances for the BOPP film sector. As part of a circular economy, brands are being pressured to find more environmentally-friendly ways of packaging their products. This has caused a shift in focus from multi-material and multi-layer laminates, which are currently non-recyclable, to monomaterial laminates.

&#;The fact that BOPP film is part of the wider polyolefin chemical family means it can be laminated, with polyethylene film for example, and still be widely accepted in today&#;s recycling waste stream. Our research indicates that, in certain applications, the consumption of BOPP film has benefitted from this sustainability drive at the expense of other polymers,&#; said Robert Gilfillan, Wood Mackenzie head of Films & Flexibles.

Flexible packaging will continue to be the key end-use sector for BOPP film. The need for transparent commodity film, which is often used in food packaging, is expected to drive future demand. With a positive short-term outlook, investment opportunities within the sector are becoming more attractive.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website bopp-bi-oriented polypropylene tubing.

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