Some of the world’s most recognized brands are turning to metallized paper for its technical performance and aesthetic and protective benefits. What’s more, unlike laminates, metallized paper is fully recyclable. While the former involves glueing a layer of aluminium to a base material, the latter is produced using a specific process known as metallized vacuum vaporisation. Let’s take a look at the main steps involved:

1. Precoating: in this first step, the paper’s pores are sealed with base varnish. This creates a smooth surface, while increasing the gloss level. Paper rolls are then spliced together for maximal production efficiency.
2. Metallization: next, aluminum is heated in a vacuum chamber before being vaporized onto paper rolls using special machinery. This creates a layer of aluminium that’s just 20 to 30 nanometers thick - hundreds of times thinner than aluminum foil or metallized PET film.
3. Postcoating: this step fixes the aluminum layer and makes it printable.
4. Roll-finishing, in which rolls are cut down to fit customer size requirements. 

The result is a sustainable monomaterial that adapts easily to companies’ existing production process and runs smoothly on conventional printing and converting machinery. Interested in finding out more about metallized paper? Get in touch with our team.