Flexography Printing Performance of PLA Film

During the past decade polylactide acid (PLA) polymer has been the subject of numerous researches aimed at comparing it with traditional petroleum based polymers for many packaging appli­ cations. PLA is biodegradable and derived from agricultural by-prod­ ucts such as corn starch or other starch-rich substances like maize, sugar or wheat. While PLA is currently being used in many packaging applications with well documented performance, little work has been done comparing printing processes and performance. This study presents PLA printing performance and sustainability findings using the common flexography printing process. Various analytical meth­ ods were used to evaluate performance and provide recommenda­ tions for optimized printing on PLA as compared to PET, oriented PP and oriented PS. Results of this study found that PLA films were com­ parable in printability and runnability to standard petroleum based flexible packaging films.