Henkel’s flexible packaging coatings address key consumer and industry needs: functional design, longer shelf life, reliable food safety and lower environmental impact. Explore our flexible packaging coating solutions and how they support circular packaging.
Henkel’s flexible packaging coatings help protect products, consumers and the environment. We develop coatings for paper and plastic designs that enable recycling, support regulatory compliance and enhance food safety. In our in-house Recyclab, we co-design and test solutions with converters and brand owners.
Henkel’s LOCTITE LIOFOL functional coatings deliver high clarity and reliable sealing on OPP, PE and BOPET films across a wide temperature and humidity range. Converters and brand owners use them for lidding and flow packs on PE, PP and PET, achieving strong performance at low coat weights.
Henkel’s LOCTITE LIOFOL heat seal coatings combine strong heat sealability with easy peel for lightweight lidding. They are used on polyester lidding films for CPET, APET and RPET trays for converters and brand owners and can enable BOPET lids, while supporting recyclability and EU/US food-contact compliance.
LOCTITE LIOFOL cold seal flexible packaging coatings support cost-efficient, high-speed processing while delivering secure yet easily peelable seals. They are widely used for snack bars, dishwasher tabs and cereal cups, are available in water-based and synthetic chemistries, and comply with EU and US food-contact regulations.
Henkel offers single-component, ready-to-use LOCTITE LIOFOL barrier coatings for films in flexible packaging. They help keep food fresh by blocking oxygen and moisture and provide robust barrier performance that remains stable even under stretching or abrasion during converting and use.
LOCTITE LIOFOL overprint varnishes protect and functionalize outer layers in flexible packaging, delivering a premium look on shelf. They are suitable for film and paper substrates in flexo and gravure printing and can also be used as release lacquers in cold seal applications.
LOCTITE LIOFOL primers for flexible packaging prepare film and paper surfaces for coating and adhesive applications. The portfolio includes diverse chemistries and formulations tailored to different substrates, printing and lamination processes, and end-use performance requirements.
Within the EU, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is reshaping how packaging is designed, used and recycled. From 2030, non-compliant formats can no longer be placed on the EU market – including imported packs – making PPWR relevant for global brands. Henkel helps translate these requirements into practical, future-ready solutions.
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- LOCTITE LIOFOL HS 1138
- LOCTITE LIOFOL CS 22-422 RE
LOCTITE LIOFOL HS 1138 is a high-performance heat seal coating for food packaging that replaces the PE layer to cut material use up to ~50%, improve recyclability and reduce weight. It offers easy-peel, anti-fog, high-clarity seals and complies with EU/US food contact standards.
LOCTITE LIOFOL CS 22-422 RE is a certified, recyclable cold-seal coating for paper packaging that enables sustainable designs for food and non-food uses. It offers strong seals at high speeds, works on diverse paper substrates, is repulpable with paper, and complies with food contact safety regulations.
In flexible packaging, functional coatings go beyond appearance and are used to add specific pack performance. Depending on the application, this can include heat seal coatings, cold seal coatings, barrier coatings, overprint varnishes, release coatings, primers, anti-fog functions, scratch and scuff resistance and other surface-performance features. These coating technologies help flexible packaging meet product-protection, filling-line and end-use requirements across food, consumer goods, healthcare and other demanding applications.
Heat seal coatings create seals when heat and pressure are applied, but consistent seal strength depends on matching the coating to the substrate, seal surface, sealing temperature range, dwell time, pressure and line speed. In practice, converters look for a coating that provides a stable sealing window and the right opening behavior, whether permanent or peelable, across the intended film combination. When correctly specified, heat seal coatings help maintain pack integrity, reduce seal-related defects and support efficient processing on high-speed flexible packaging lines.
Cold seal coatings seal under pressure instead of heat, which is why they are widely used for temperature-sensitive products such as chocolate and confectionery. Because the product is not exposed to thermal sealing, cold seal packaging helps protect product quality, appearance and aroma during packing. Cold seal systems can also support high line speeds, making them well suited to high-volume snack and confectionery operations where speed and product protection matter at the same time.
Flexible food packaging uses barrier coatings to manage oxygen, moisture, grease and aroma transfer while supporting the shelf-life and product-protection targets of the package. Depending on the design, converters may use film-compatible barrier coating systems, sometimes alongside primers, seal coatings, or other functional layers, to deliver protection with fewer or simpler material layers. That can help support more recyclable or mono-material-oriented structures, but the final recyclability outcome still depends on the complete laminate design and its compatibility with the relevant recycling stream.
Overprint varnishes and primers affect both converting performance and recyclability because they become part of the total packaging structure. Overprint varnishes help protect printed surfaces and improve handling, while primers support adhesion between inks, coatings, adhesives and substrates. If these layers are used at appropriate loading levels and with recycling-compatible chemistries, they can support performance without unnecessarily reducing recyclability; if they add incompatible materials or excessive coating mass, they can make design-for-recycling more difficult. That is why printed flexible packaging should be assessed as a complete system, not layer by layer in isolation.
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