‘AlOx’ stands for aluminium oxide. The aluminium is vaporised in a normal metallisation process, and the AlOx layer is created by introducing reactive oxygen gas into the aluminium cloud before it condenses on the substrate. In the packaging sector, AlOx plastic is used as a thin and super-transparent coating made of aluminium oxide on packaging films.
For our packaging material Transparent Toni, we use an AlOx OPP film. This is a biaxially stretched polypropylene (PP) film with excellent oxygen and moisture resistance.
An AlOx coating offers advantages such as:
extended shelf life of food
better recyclability compared to composite materials with aluminium foil
very good barrier properties (especially against gases and moisture)
complete transparency compared to metallised film