Extrusion International 3-2025

42 Extrusion International 3/2025 FILM EXTRUSION Recyclable Mono-Material Structures – Flexible Packaging with MDO-PE on the Rise With increasing requirements on recyclability, interest in mono-materials is rapidly growing. Machine Direction Oriented Polyethylene film – or MDO-PE film – is playing a key role at the production of easy-to-recycle mono-material structures for flexible packaging. “D ue to its properties, MDO-PE film is an ideal solution when it comes to replace PET in PET- PE laminates, which were used for a variety of flex - ible packaging products as a standard so far”, Elias Mayrhofer, Product Manager at extrusion line manu- facturer SML explains. Application areas of MDO-PE film range from mono-material tubular bags for food packaging to side gusset bags, and from sealed bags to different types of pouches. Straight-forward further processing MDO-PE film manufactured on SML’s latest cast film lines with integrated MDO unit provide excellent opti- cal, mechanical and barrier properties. The film can be easily laminated to mono-material structures, for exam- ple with CPE sealent film on a FlexPack line from SML. “Cast MDO-PE films exhibit excellent printability and have been successfully tested on both Flexographic and Cast MDO Barriere