# BOPP Films BOPP film is a crucial flexible packaging material with extensive applications. It is colorless, odorless, tasteless and non-toxic, featuring high tensile strength, impact strength, rigidity, toughness and excellent transparency. BOPP film has low surface energy, so corona treatment is required before gluing or printing. After corona treatment, it boasts good printability and can realize color register printing for exquisite visual effects, which makes it commonly used as the surface layer of composite films. Nevertheless, BOPP film also has drawbacks such as static accumulation and lack of heat sealability. It tends to generate static electricity on high-speed production lines, so static eliminators need to be installed. To produce heat-sealable BOPP film, heat-sealable resin emulsions like PVDC latex and EVA latex, or solvent adhesives can be coated on the film after corona treatment. Extrusion coating or co-extrusion lamination are also applicable methods. This type of film is widely used for packaging bread, garments, shoes, socks, as well as cigarette packs and book covers. The initial tear strength of BOPP film rises after stretching, while the progressive tear strength remains low. For this reason, no notches should be left on both ends of the film, otherwise it will easily tear during printing and lamination. Coated with pressure-sensitive adhesive, BOPP film can be made into carton sealing tape, representing a major consumption market for BOPP products. BOPP films are manufactured via the tubular film process or flat film process, and the two methods yield films with different properties. The flat film process adopts a high draw ratio (up to 8-10), so the resulting film has higher strength and better thickness uniformity compared with that made by the tubular film process. Multi-layer lamination is commonly adopted to achieve optimal overall performance. BOPP can be combined with various materials such as LDPE (CPP), PE, PT, PO and PVA to acquire superior properties including gas barrier, moisture resistance, transparency, high and low temperature resistance, retort resistance and oil resistance. Such composite films are suitable for packaging oily food, flavored snacks, dry food, soaked food, ready-to-eat cooked meals, monosodium glutamate, pancakes, rice cakes and more. ## What is BOPP? Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene Film (abbreviated as BOPP film) is a high-performance transparent flexible packaging material. As a crystalline polymer product, it undergoes biaxial stretching, which rearranges molecular chains and increases crystallinity. This significantly improves its tensile strength, elastic modulus, impact strength, tear strength and flex resistance. It also features good transparency, gloss and moisture resistance, along with light weight and cost advantages. BOPP film is applicable to packaging, printing, lamination, vacuum metallization and other fields. ## Classification by Application - **General-purpose film**: Also known as plain film. Used for printing, lamination (transparent & matte type) and coating (base film for adhesive tapes and PVDC coated films). It is the most widely used and highest-output type of BOPP film. - **Heat-sealable film**: Applied to general packaging, including cigarette packaging film, three-layer heat-sealable film, five-layer gas barrier film, pearlescent film and coated heat-sealable film. - **Label film**: Used for commodity labels, advertising printing, books, magazines, bottle labels and overall product packaging. - **Metallizable film**: Designed for vacuum aluminum metallization. - **Capacitor film**: Used for common capacitors and metallized capacitors. ## Detailed Film Categories ### General-purpose BOPP Film Also called plain film, it is the most mainstream BOPP product, mainly used for food packaging, paper lamination and general printing & lamination. The 15μm-thick variant is primarily applied to paper lamination for books. Tape film accounts for a large share of general-purpose film consumption, and many film manufacturers take it as their core product. Tape film features large output, simple production processes and low technical requirements. ### BOPP Cigarette Film Though its total consumption volume is not high, cigarette film delivers the highest profit margin among all BOPP products. Its production and sales are characterized by strict technical requirements and high entry costs. ### BOPP Matte Film Matte film is a plastic product with low gloss (glossiness below 15) and high haze, creating a diffuse reflection effect. It has a paper-like appearance, restores printing colors vividly and offers a comfortable hand feel. It is produced by adding matte masterbatch to the surface layer during biaxial stretching. It is widely used for laminating book, journal and annual report covers as well as cardboard. It can also be combined with PE film, cast polypropylene film, common BOPP film, pearlescent film and metallized film for various packaging purposes. The mainstream thickness of matte film is around 20μm. ### BOPP Heat-sealable Film Divided into single-side and double-side heat-sealable types, this film is produced with heat-seal masterbatch in the surface layer via biaxial stretching. It is mainly used for heat-seal packaging of food, pharmaceuticals and electrical components. Single-side heat-sealable film supports general single-side heat sealing and printing, serving the lamination, printing and bag-making industries. ### BOPP Pearlescent Film This opaque white film presents a satin texture and soft pearlescent luster. It has low density, excellent flatness and gas barrier properties. It is widely used for direct packaging of dried fruits, ice cream, candies, high-grade soap and gifts. It also works well as a printing base without full undercoating. Compared with ordinary BOPP film, it has three distinctive features: pearlescent luster, excellent light shielding performance (especially strong UV resistance) and low density. These advantages make it popular in high-end packaging markets and bring considerable economic benefits to manufacturers. ### BOPP Electrical Film Electrical film has extremely strict technical requirements, with conventional thickness ranging from 20μm to 31μm. As electronic components become smaller and more high-performance, the demand for films thinner than 61μm keeps growing. Apart from reduced thickness, the film needs high dielectric strength, good windability and uniform thickness. Its production requires sophisticated production technology, advanced equipment and experienced operators, representing a field with high technical barriers and capital investment. Manufacturing stable and qualified BOPP electrical films involves notable technical and market risks. ### BOPP Anti-counterfeiting Base Film Made from high-purity polypropylene raw materials and specialized surface formulas, this film can be printed with laser holographic patterns. It can be directly used for packaging, laminated with paper to make cartons, vacuum metallized for packaging, or metallized and then combined with paper for carton production. It is anti-counterfeit, glossy, transparent and easy to identify with clear anti-counterfeit patterns, while enhancing the aesthetic of packages. It has been popular in China since 1996, mainly used for anti-counterfeit packaging and labels for cigarettes, food, medicine and alcohol. Its market demand has grown rapidly in recent years due to the rising demand for anti-counterfeit and aesthetic packaging. ### BOPP Transfer Film Gold and silver cardboard are widely used in the packaging industry. Traditionally, they are made by laminating vacuum-metallized PET film with cardboard. For environmental protection, transfer technology was developed: a release layer is coated on PET film before aluminum metallization, then the aluminum layer is transferred onto cardboard to form golden or silver coatings, where PET acts as a transfer medium (transfer film). In recent years, several manufacturers have developed BOPP transfer film as a substitute. BOPP transfer film is more cost-effective and requires no release coating, simplifying production procedures. The finished gold and silver cardboard has the same luster as those made with PET transfer film. Therefore, PET transfer film is gradually being replaced, and BOPP transfer film enjoys a huge market potential. To sum up, BOPP film is lightweight, mechanically strong and dimensionally stable, dominating the packaging industry especially food packaging. All mainstream types including plain film, cigarette film, electrical film and pearlescent film can be domestically produced in China.