film rollstock Solutions Guide

What is a film rollstock?

Film rollstock refers to large, continuous rolls of film material used in packaging, printing, photography, or industrial processes rather than individual pre-cut sheets or finished packages. The term is most commonly used in packaging and printing industries.

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Key points:

Film rollstock is film supplied on rolls (webs) rather than pre-made bags or pouches. Films can be single-layer or multi-layer laminates made from plastics (PET, BOPP, OPP, LDPE, CPP, PA, EVOH, etc.), metallized films, or specialty coated films.

It’s used on form-fill-seal (FFS) and other automated packaging machines that form packages from the roll, fill them with product, and seal them. It’s also used for printing processes, lamination, slitting, and converting into pouches, labels, or shrink sleeves.

Economical for high-volume production, flexible in package design (different sizes/closures), allows in-line printing and sealing, and reduces inventory of pre-made packs.

Film rollstock is specified by width, length (or wound roll diameter), film thickness (gauge, microns), layer structure (e.g., PET/AL/PE), sealant type, barrier properties (oxygen/moisture), printable surface, and core diameter.

Common problems many novice customers encounter

1. film rollstock manufacturers quote prices by the kilogram — how can you know how many kilograms of automatic packaging film your production capacity requires?

2. How should you choose packaging machines?

Why do these two problems arise?

1. film rollstock prices are indeed quoted by the kilogram; this makes it convenient for manufacturers to quote, and it also gives them an opportunity to earn a bit more profit (this is an industry secret).

2. When you begin to enter this field, you can only see some finished packaged bags in supermarkets or elsewhere and have no idea what packaging machines your competitors use to form those bags.

How to solve these two problems?

1.film rollstock manufacturers to quote in square centimeters or to calculate how many bags can be formed/filled/sealed per kilogram.

1.1 Based on the unit price provided by the manufacturer (per square centimeter), and using your own design drawings (mainly to obtain the film width and the length per unit)

you can directly calculate how many bags can be formed/filled/sealed per unit of film rollstock.

1.2 If you ask them to provide this data directly

the manufacturers will need to perform in-depth calculations to reach a conclusion, and at the same time they will be less likely to try to squeeze extra profit.

2. Know that the machines compatible with film rollstock must be FFS machines; you need to select the appropriate machine type based on your bag style and specific product.

2.1 For conventional products/standard bag types

you can choose a standard VFFS machine.

2.2 For unconventional products/standard bag types

you can choose a standard HFFS machine.

2.3 For conventional products/special bag types

you can choose a specialized HFFS machine.