Sabic (Riyadh / Saudi-Arabia; www.sabic.com) has launched a specialty medium density (MD) LDPE film grade for use in packaging applications requiring high clarity and stiffness, such as collation shrink films. The new LDPE "2801TH00W" resin is Sabic’s first MD LDPE grade and is the first of a planned series of MD LDPE grades in the 0.928 to 0.935 g/cm³ density range. It is produced at the company’s 400,000 t/y LDPE plant in Wilton, Teesside / UK.

“We are on track in our planned expansion of Teesside’s capabilities to offer European customers a portfolio of specialty materials for food, beverage and hygienic packaging,” said Ben Raven, technical marketing engineer at Sabic. The new MD LDPE films have superior optical properties and excellent processing characteristics, and their high stiffness allows down-gauging by customers, he added.

Customer feedback from tests of trial grades has been positive, Raven noted, and the LDPE 2801TH00W resin has been approved by a Spanish converter for use as a medium duty collation shrink film.

Sabic said other types of MD LDPE film planned for Teesside will be targeted at the packaging of items such as hand tissues, feminine hygiene products and high clarity tissue overwraps, as well as automatic packaging films for lamination, pouches and mailing.