DSM receives the 2016 European Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Leadership for its proprietary, high-efficiency barrier film product Akulon XS.
The product is used extensively for film extrusion in food, medical, and industrial product packaging (for ready-to-eat products and fresh foods).
“Among resins, Akulon XS is proving a revolutionary product due to its special chemical and morphological structure, which combines the film property advantage of PA6 [polyamide 6] and the film processing advantage of PA6/66 types of copolymers,” said Frost & Sullivan industry analyst, Arun Ramesh.
Fundamentally, the slower crystallization rate enabled by Akulon XS offers a broader production window for both mono and multi-layered co-extruded barrier film structures, which were previously impossible to achieve without mixing PA6 with expensive polyamides and copolymers.
Akulon XS has same end level of crystallinity to PA6, which is significantly higher than conventional polyamides copolymers.
Film developers can therefore fully translate the film processing advantages into better film properties.
To ensure the films’ robustness, DSM employs two internal tools—the value calculation model and the lifecycle analysis tool.
While the value calculation model analyses the product’s performance value, the lifecycle analysis tool evaluates the barrier film’s sustainability in terms of its effectiveness in reducing food wastage.
