Laminate

A laminate is a material that can be constructed by uniting two or more layers of material
together. The process of creating a laminate is lamination, which in common parlance
refers to the placing of something between layers of plastic and gluing them with heat
and/or pressure, usually with an adhesive.

Materials

There are different lamination processes, depending on the type of materials to be

Vehicle windshields are commonly made by laminating a tough plastic film between two
layers of glass. Plywood is a common example of a laminate using the same material in
each layer. Glued and laminated dimensioned timber is used in the construction industry
to make wooden beams, Glulam, with sizes larger and stronger than can be obtained from
single pieces of wood. Another reason to laminate wooden strips into beams is quality
control, as with this method each and every strip can be inspected before it becomes part
of a highly stressed component such as an aircraft undercarriage.

Examples of laminate materials include Formica and plywood. Formica, which refers to a
specific brand name of materials by its manufacturer with the same name, and similar
plastic laminates are used in the production of decorative laminates, using either a high or
low pressure thermo-processing system. Decorative laminates (such as Maica Laminates,
Wilsonart or Laminart) are produced with kraft papers and decorative papers with a layer
of overlay on top of the decorative paper, set before pressing them with thermoprocessing
into high-pressure decorative laminates.[1] A new type of HPDL is produced using real
wood veneer or multilaminar veneer as top surface. Alpikord produced by Alpi spa and
Veneer-Art, produced by Lamin-Art are examples of these types of laminate. High-
pressure laminates consists of laminates "molded and cured at pressures not lower than
1,000 lb per sq in. (70 kg per sq cm) and more commonly in the range of 1,200 to
2,000 lb per sq in. (84 to 140 kg per sq cm).[2] Meanwhile, low Pressure laminate is
defined as "a plastic laminate molded and cured at pressures in general of 400 pounds per
square inch (approximately 27 atmospheres or 2.8 x 106 pascals).[3]

Laminating paper, such as photographs, can prevent it from becoming creased, sun
damaged, wrinkled, stained, smudged, abraded and/or marked by grease, fingerprints and
environmental concerns. Photo identification cards and credit cards are almost always
laminated with plastic film. Boxes and other containers are also laminated using a UV
coating. Lamination is also used in sculpture using wood or resin. An example of an artist
who used lamination in his work is the American, Floyd Shaman.
Further, laminates can be used to add properties to a surface, usually printed paper, that
would not have them otherwise. Sheets of vinyl impregnated with ferro-magnetic
material can allow portable printed images to bond to magnets, such as for a custom
bulletin board or a visual presentation. Specially surfaced plastic sheets can be laminated
over a printed image to allow them to be safely written upon, such as with dry erase
markers or chalk. Multiple translucent printed images may be laminated in layers to
achieve certain visual effects or to hold holographic images. Many printing businesses
that do commercial lamination keep a variety of laminates on hand, as the process for
bonding many types is generally similar when working with arbitrarily thin material.

A multilayer packaging laminate comprising:

a) a cross-linked by irradiation, heat sealable plastic layer;

b) a plastic oxygen barrier layer adhered to the heat sealable layer; and

c) an outside layer of plastic material bonded to the oxygen barrier layer;

wherein the abrasion resistant outside layer contains at least 25%, by weight of the
outside layer, of a moisture curable polymer; and

wherein the outside layer remains firmly adhered to the oxygen barrier layer when the
heat sealable layer is sealed to form a package.

Advantage of multilayer
2. A laminate according to claim 1 including a plastic core layer between the heat
sealable layer and oxygen barrier layer and adhered thereto.

3. A laminate according to claim 2 wherein the heat sealable layer is heat sealed to form a
package.

4. A laminate according to claim 2 wherein the heat sealable layer is selected from the
group consisting of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, low density polyethylene, and
ethylene alpha olefin copolymer.

5. A laminate according to claim 2 wherein the core layer is selected from the group
consisting of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, ethylene alpha olefin copolymer, nylon
and polyester.

6. A laminate according to claim 5 wherein the oxygen barrier layer is selected from the
group consisting of vinylidene chloride copolymer and ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer.

7. A laminate according to claim 6 wherein the outside layer is selected from the group
consisting of silane grafted ethylene alpha olefin copolymer and silane grafted ethylene
vinyl acetate copolymer.

8. A laminate according to claim 7 having a thickness of 1.5 to 3.5 mils.

9. A laminate according to claim 8 wherein the heat sealable layer is 10 to 30% of the
laminate, the core layer is 30 to 75% of the laminate, the oxygen barrier layer is 0.1 to
15% of the laminate and the outside layer is 0.5 to 30% of the laminate.

10. A laminate according to claim 1 wherein the layers are extruded.

11. A laminate according to claim 1 including an adhesive layer on at least one side of the
oxygen barrier layer.

12. A laminate according to claim 1 wherein at least one of said layers are oriented.

13. A laminate according to claim 1 wherein the outside layer contains at least 40% by
weight of moisture curable polymer.

14. A laminate according to claim 1 wherein the outside layer is blended with at least one
of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, low density polyethylene and ethylene alpha olefin
copolymer.