The aluminum-plastic printing blister packs for pharmaceuticals are also known as blisters. The material used is the industrial pure aluminum foil as the printing substrate. On the special aluminum foil printing and coating machine, the characters or patterns are printed on the surface of the aluminum foil substrate by using the gravure printing technology and the roller coating method and coated with Protective agent; The other surface of the aluminum foil is coated with adhesive; text or patterns can also be printed before applying the adhesive. Therefore, the front side of the aluminum foil can be printed with good printability.

Since this form of packaging provides patients with a single dose of pharmaceutical packaging, it is both convenient and economical. Aluminum-plastic blister packaging and protective drugs have good performance, high production speed, low cost, small space for storage, light weight, and convenient transportation. In recent years, they have received more attention from producers and welcomed by drug users. The amount of pharmaceutical blister packaging materials is increasing. In the coming period, China will greatly increase the packaging of high-quality pharmaceutical aluminum foil blister packaging. The blister packaging industry has been called by the industry as a new growth point for pharmaceutical packaging. Therefore, the main printing materials in blister packaging, such as pharmaceutical aluminum foil printing materials, pharmaceutical aluminum foil printing inks, and adhesives for auxiliary materials, protective agents and pharmaceutical polyvinyl chloride materials, are currently in good prospects for the development of pharmaceutical flexible packaging printing. One of the packaging materials. This article analyzes the development prospects of pharmaceutical printing blister packaging materials in the next few years based on the current situation of China's pharmaceutical printing materials aluminum foil, printing inks, and the use of protective agent binders and polyvinyl chloride.

Selection and Application of Aluminum Foil Printing Ink Materials

The current market has a wide range of printing inks and brands vary. However, considering the special requirements for the printing process of pharmaceutical aluminum foils and the packaging of pharmaceuticals, the printing inks used for aluminum foils must have good adhesion to aluminum foils, and the printed text patterns should be solid and clear, with fast solvent release, good heat resistance, and good rub resistance. Excellent, good gloss, non-toxic paint, can not cause the chemical composition contained in the ink to cause migration and contaminate the packaged drug. Practical viscosity should meet the requirements of aluminum foil printing process.

Currently used in the application of aluminum foil printing inks are mainly divided into two categories: The first type is alcohol-soluble polyamide inks; due to the polyamide resin for all types of substrates have good adhesion, especially adapted In the printing of polyolefin film materials, coupled with good dispersibility, good gloss, softness, good abrasion resistance, solvent release and good printing performance, so the most is used to deploy special plastic film for processing such as LDPE , CPP, OPP and other film surface printing gravure printing ink. Because the ink is widely used, anti-blocking, and easy to dry, it is also used for the surface printing of medicinal aluminum foil. When this type of ink is printed on the surface of aluminum foil, various excellent properties can be exhibited, and the heat resistance is also good. To meet the requirements of the aluminum foil printing and use process, the current type of pharmaceutical aluminum foil printing uses more types. However, such inks are not special inks for aluminum foil stamping after all. There is a problem that ink peeling occurs when large-area surface printing of aluminum foil is performed. At present, there are domestic ink factories that can produce special polyamide inks for aluminum foil intaglio printing. The use of some users shows that the ink has good heat resistance and strong adhesion. After the high temperature heat sealing test at 200 degrees Celsius, the printed text patterns are still not clear. Discoloration. The second type of aluminum foil ink is a special aluminum foil printing ink mainly composed of vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer resin and acrylic resin. This is a type of gravure printing ink developed with the characteristics of bright color, high concentration, particularly strong adhesion to aluminum foil, good transparency, and excellent reproducibility of aluminum foil. However, due to the ink in the gravure printing, its solvent volatility is large. When it is used for the aluminum foil printing, it can easily cause the gravure roll ink to dry in the ink hole to produce a paste type phenomenon, which affects the printing effect and the surface quality of the medicinal aluminum foil. The above two kinds of inks have drawbacks when applied to the surface printing of medicinal aluminum foils. If it is a component of the mixed solvent for adjusting the second type of aluminum foil special ink, and the process requirements for printing on the surface of medical aluminum foils, it will be more and better. Apply surface printing of aluminum foil.

The Usage and Status Quo of Aluminum Foil as the Main Printing Material in Blister Packing

Pharmaceutical blister packaging printing material aluminum foil is a sealing material sealed on pharmaceutical plastic polyvinyl chloride (pvc), hard film, also known as cover material, its surface can be printed into colorful words or patterns, and is positive and negative Both sides are printable, and aluminum foil is made of electrolytic aluminum with a purity of 99% and is made by calendering. It is non-toxic and odorless, has excellent electrical conductivity and light-shielding properties, and has extremely high moisture resistance, gas barrier properties and taste protection. Because aluminum foil has a highly dense metal crystal structure, it can completely block any gas, water vapor and light. It can protect the packaged objects most effectively. In modern packaging, almost all products that require opaque or high-barrier composite materials use aluminum foil as a barrier layer, so it is widely used.

However, at present, the overall quality of pharmaceutical aluminum foil in China is still quite different from imported aluminum foil. From the current situation of the production of pharmaceutical aluminum foil printing companies, there are mainly the following problems: The number of pinholes of medicinal aluminum foil is far from the requirements for use, and the pinhole degree of aluminum foil is a defect of penetrating, seriously affecting. The barrier properties of aluminum foil, especially for the packaging of pharmaceuticals, make it easy for oxygen, water vapor, and light to penetrate and reduce the efficacy of the drug. The quality of medicines is related to people's lives, and pharmaceutical packaging is a special commodity that protects the performance of medicines. The quality of products must not be ignored. In the national standard of medicinal aluminum foil, pinholes with a diameter of more than 0.3mm are not allowed, and pinholes with a diameter of 0.1-0.3mm cannot be more than 1m2. At present, domestic aluminum foil rarely reaches this standard. Medicinal aluminum foil has uneven thickness and low tensile strength. When the thickness of aluminum foil is not uniform, the adhesive coating amount of the aluminum foil in the printing process is difficult to meet the standard requirements, and the difference in the coating amount becomes larger, and thus the aluminum foil is affected. The heat sealing strength of plastic hard sheets, uneven thickness of aluminum foil, and low tensile strength will cause foil breakage after tension is applied to the take-up reel, which is not conducive to normal printing. These problems need to be paid attention by raw material manufacturers. With the expansion of the application of pharmaceutical aluminum foil packaging and the continuous modification of our country's pharmaceutical aluminum foil printing machinery, the development of pharmaceutical aluminum foil has been very rapid, and the amount of pharmaceutical aluminum foil has increased year by year.

Use of PVC materials for blister packaging

At present, pharmaceutical virgin polyvinyl chloride (PVC) hard sheets are used in large quantities in pharmaceutical blister packaging in China. Because the drugs are sensitive to moisture and light, the plastic hard sheets must have water, gas, light, and odor, etc. Good barrier properties. At present, the polyvinyl chloride we use is not ideal in terms of moisture resistance, so we will promote the use of polyvinylidene dichloride (PVDC) or its composite materials in the future. Due to its high polymer density, structural regularity, and high crystallinity, polyvinylidene chloride has extremely strong gas tightness, excellent moisture resistance, and good resistance to oils, chemicals, and solvents, especially to Oxygen, water vapor, and carbon monoxide gases in the air have excellent barrier properties. Comparing materials with the same thickness: The barrier property of polyvinylidene chloride to oxygen is 1500 times that of polyethylene (PE), 100 times that of polypropylene (PP), and 100 times that of polyester material (PET). Water vapor and oxygen are superior to polyvinyl chloride. Polyvinylidene chloride is not only good for gas odor blocking, but also the impact strength, tensile strength, durability and other indicators of the seal can meet the special requirements of pharmaceutical packaging and printing, and it is the development direction of pharmaceutical packaging materials in the future. It is expected that in the coming period, the demand for polyvinyl chloride rigid tablets for pharmaceutical packaging in China will reach more than 40,000 tons, and gradually adopting new high barrier type materials such as polyvinylidene chloride rigid sheets and other plastic composite materials PVC/PVDC. Composite hard plastic films such as /PE, PVDC/OPP/PE, and PVC/PE, which are protected from light brown color, will be widely used in the printing and packaging of pharmaceutical aluminum foils.

Application and Direction of Aluminum Foil Printing Coating Adhesive

Medicinal aluminum foil is a pure aluminum foil for industrial use as a base material. It is printed with a text pattern on the surface and coated with a protective agent. The adhesive is applied on the other side, and text patterns can be printed before the adhesive is applied. The purpose of the coating protector is to prevent the abrasion of the surface printing ink layer, and at the same time, to prevent the aluminum foil from contacting the inner layer adhesive and the outer layer ink from being contaminated when the film is wrapped. The role of the adhesive is to bond the aluminum foil and the plastic hard sheet so that the medicine is sealed. The currently used adhesives are mainly divided into one-component adhesives and two-component adhesives. The components of one-component adhesives are mainly made of natural rubber or synthetic rubber, and nitrocellulose or acrylic esters. Since the main agent is an elastomer, and the tackifier is used as an auxiliary agent, it is formulated into an emulsion with an organic solvent. Non-dryness, hot-melt and certain adhesive strength, with the improvement of the hygienic requirements for pharmaceutical packaging materials, this one-component adhesive application area is gradually reduced, and more use of two-component polyurethane adhesive, it Mainly composed of main agent and curing agent. The main agent generally contains many active hydrogens such as hydroxyl, amino and other substances, and the curing agent is composed of polyisocyanate compounds. When the isocyanide benzene in the curing agent is in contact with the active hydrogen in the main agent molecule, an addition reaction is automatically performed to generate a carbamate structure, which doubles the molecular weight after the main agent and the curing agent are combined with each other. Even cross-linked products with a three-dimensional conformation with a branched chain structure have good resistance to high and low temperatures, resistance to media erosion, and high cohesion. Due to the large number of polar groups in the polyurethane molecule, the dipole moment is large, and there is a great affinity for the adherent material, so the adhesive effect is applied to various printing materials such as aluminum foil and plastics, and the isocyanate group in the curing agent is added. It is a very reactive group that can react with the active hydrogen in the main agent molecule and react with the active hydrogen in the surface material of the adherent material to form a chemical chain. The adhesive molecules interact with the bonded material as a girder bridge, resulting in stronger adhesion. Due to the good adhesion of such adhesives, it has been widely used in the printing and compounding of aluminum foil printing, coating, and various plastic films. In the future, the application of aluminum foil printing adhesives will be developed towards solvent-free applications. Its composition is also a two-component polyurethane type. The difference is that the main agent and curing agent have higher viscosity at room temperature, but they still have fluidity. Semi-solid substances. When used, the main agent and curing agent are mixed in proportion and placed in a container with heating and heat preservation function. After the temperature is raised, the viscosity is reduced. Then, the gravure roll with heat insulation function is applied to the aluminum foil substrate, and it is not necessary to dry the coating after the coating. Heat dried because it is free of any solvent and can be directly bonded to another substrate. The use of solvent-free adhesives eliminates the need for exhaust emissions and eliminates the need for large drying tunnels for drying, drying, and blowing of air in printing and coating equipment. This type of bonding has been adopted in foreign countries because of its high importance for environmental protection. Agent.