HAPTIC COATINGS

Over two thirds of all consumers make their purchasing decisions in front of a supermarket shelf. Haptic coatings enhance packaging, supporting an intuitive perception of product benefits.

Purchasing decisions depend on many factors. Over two thirds of all consumers make these decisions in front of a supermarket shelf. This clearly shows just how vitally important packaging is in determining how well a product sells – it needs to stand out among many different products and convey its benefits. 

Consumers intuitively assess a product’s benefits and value on the basis of its packaging. Experience shows that elaborate packaging is associated with higher product quality, while the packaging of an organic product, for example, needs to convincingly convey its natural characteristics. Sometimes, hygiene and freshness requirements mean it isn’t possible to use paper packaging alone. In such cases, packaging that has the look and feel of paper can be a good alternative. This ‘natural touch’ reinforces a customer’s purchasing decision.

It is hardly surprising that, day after day, packaging designers focus their attention on creating appropriate packaging for a product and exploring ways to make products visibly stand out from their rivals.
 

Enhancing the appearance of packaging with tactile effects opens up countless additional design options for packaging designers and brand owners. Haptic effects such as leather, velvet, paper, silk, and sand reinforce the message packaging has been designed to convey by appealing to a number of senses.

The most important pairs of opposites for describing haptic impressions are:

• Hot – cold
• Hard – soft
• Smooth – rough/sticky

A particularly intense, sensory impression is achieved by combining these haptic contrasts. The packaging market currently offers high-quality packaging with surfaces that stand out thanks to a combination of glossy and rough features. 

Besides the marketing aspects, haptic coatings also have to meet many other requirements.

Coatings need to be stable during storage and transportation and need to work reliably on a variety of different substrates.

In many cases, food regulations also need to be satisfied. As with all packaging coatings in the food industry, haptic coatings must not in any way harm the consumer or the environment.

Once these requirements have been met, the coatings must provide good processing properties. Only a formulation tailored precisely to the end product can ensure optimum printing performance.

Frequently asked questions:

What printing processes are ACTEGA haptic coatings suitable for?
ACTEGA haptic coatings can be applied using flexographic and rotogravure printing.

What added value do ACTEGA adhesive coatings offer customers?

• Less coating waste thanks to one-component system
• Minimal coating thicknesses
• Customized modification of effects using mixed coating system

Are ACTEGA haptic coatings transparent?
To achieve haptic effects, fillers are added to the coating. The size of these particles needs to be adapted precisely to the film thickness and coating layer to produce the required effect.
 

The fillers of all haptic coatings currently on the market still affect a coating’s transparency. This can be detrimental to packaging that is intended to provide a view of the product. The color of a film could also be changed (black appears gray). The key challenge for coating manufacturers lies in achieving a specific roughness with the maximum possible transparency.

For which substrates are ACTEGA haptic coatings?
ACTEGA haptic coatings can be applied on

• Corona-pretrated PET and 
• oPP

We’d love to talk to you about haptic coatings. Do you have any questions? Or would you like a sample so you can get a first-hand experience of the effects that ACTEGA haptic coatings can achieve? Then e-mail our technical consultant Gabriele Wehrmeister or phone +49 2181 – 294 138.

Company

ACTEGA Rhenania develops and manufactures coatings and adhesives for food, pet food, and pharmaceuticals packaging. ACTEGA Rhenania specializes in products intended for direct contact with food and in pigmented product solutions in an almost unlimited range of colors.
 
 

Brand

ACTEcoat®

ACTEcoat® comprises baking enamals (Protection lacquers, Topcoats) and primers with high quality raw materials, colorless and in a great variety of colortones for aluminum, steel, tin-free steel, tinplate, foil and paper – for sheet fed, coil coating and printing machines.

The taylor-made coatings are solvent- or water-based and are used in flexible packagins, rigid metal packagings and closures.

Properties like protection, deep-drawability, retortability, scratch- and filling-resistance, haptic, organoleptic and gliding behavior are adjusted individually. Product solutions for direct food contact as well as BPA-NI- and PVC-free systems complete the product range of ACTEcoat®.
 
 

Water-based Haptic Coating

ACTEGA Terra develops and manufactures water-based haptic coatings. The water-based coatings are available with the following effects:

• Soft
• Sand
• Paper      

Contact:
Janine Czurgelies
Tel.: +49 5132 5009 0
E-mail: Janine.czurgelies@altana.com