For decades, coatings occupied a supporting role in packaging production. They added gloss to cartons, protected printed surfaces from scratches and occasionally delivered specialist functions such as moisture or grease resistance. Their success was largely measured by appearance and durability. That definition is rapidly becoming obsolete.
Today, coatings are increasingly expected to determine whether a package can meet recyclability mandates, survive high-speed production, eliminate lamination layers and comply with tightening food-contact regulations. At the same time, converters want lower energy consumption, improved curing efficiency and fewer process disruptions. Brand owners want mono-material structures and fibre-based alternatives without compromising shelf-life or appearance.
The result is a remarkable shift in the role coatings now play within packaging. What once existed as a surface treatment is increasingly becoming a structural technology.
Inputs from coating formulators including Cosmo First, Archroma and Texochem, alongside coating developers such as Flint Group, Siegwerk, and Toyo Ink Arets India, suggest the chemistry itself is being redesigned around the entire lifecycle of packaging. Meanwhile, curing-system suppliers including GEW, IST Metz and APL Machinery are redefining how coatings are polymerised on press. Converters such as HBD Packaging are attempting to balance all these innovations against the realities of productivity, cost and customer expectations.
Together, they reveal an industry undergoing one of its most significant technical transitions in decades.
Performance is no longer enough
Packaging coatings once solved isolated problems. Today they are expected to solve several simultaneously. Converters and brand owners still demand gloss, barrier performance, adhesion and rub resistance, but those properties must increasingly coexist with sustainability requirements such as low VOC (Volatile organic compounds) chemistry, PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) elimination and recyclability.
Pankaj Poddar, group CEO at Cosmo First, says the balance between performance and sustainability is approached as "an integrated formulation challenge rather than a trade-off". He explains that the company increasingly relies on water-based chemistries to reduce VOC emissions while still delivering adhesion, barrier performance and durability.
Naveen Mishra, general manager, technology and corporate strategy at Toyo Ink Arets India, echoes that sentiment. He says coating development has become a "multi-objective design challenge rather than a trade-off", where gloss, adhesion, rub resistance and barrier performance must coexist with sustainability expectations. Mishra explains that the industry is moving towards low-VOC and VOC-free systems, PFAS-free barriers and selective use of bio-derived polymers where they genuinely improve environmental footprint without reducing durability.
At Archroma Packaging Technologies, the approach begins by translating performance into measurable parameters before integrating sustainability into product design itself. Cristina Dominguez, director global innovation and global head of R&D for graphic and speciality paper, says the balance is achieved by introducing sustainability criteria early in the innovation process while maintaining technical performance.
Texochem is taking a different route altogether. Anuj Agrawal says the company is developing a proprietary AI platform trained on internal R&D data to predict how sustainable and bio-based dispersions will perform on specific paper grades before physical trials begin. He says the objective is to accelerate the development of PFAS-free coatings capable of satisfying both regulatory requirements and converter expectations.
The shift may become one of the most important developments in coating innovation. The industry is no longer merely improving formulations. It is increasingly attempting to accelerate formulation intelligence itself.
Recyclability rewrites the rules
The strongest force reshaping coatings today may not be aesthetics or protection. It may be recyclability.
Across packaging markets, regulatory frameworks increasingly reward material simplification and penalise structures that interfere with recovery systems. Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation frameworks; Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules and food-contact legislation are collectively changing how packaging is designed.
Mishra believes the industry is moving from "designed for recycling" towards demonstrated recyclability at scale. That distinction matters because it pushes suppliers beyond theoretical compatibility into measurable recovery performance.
Traditional packaging structures relied heavily on multilayer laminates composed of incompatible materials. These structures delivered excellent barrier properties but created serious recycling complications. Coatings increasingly provide an alternative route. Paulo Vieira, packaging coatings and global key account technical director at Flint Group, says barrier coatings are increasingly replacing conventional laminate layers while maintaining grease, oxygen and moisture protection. He notes that coating chemistry is increasingly designed around recognised design-for-recycling standards and de-inking protocols.
Gilles Le Moigne, head of circular economy coatings business unit at Siegwerk, says recyclability has become "a defining principle" of coating design. Siegwerk's Cirkit coatings are engineered to preserve recyclability, repulpability and de-inking compatibility across paper and film structures.
Cosmo First similarly emphasises repulpability and recyclability in both fibre-based and mono-material packaging systems. Poddar says coating loads are deliberately minimised to avoid interference with recycling streams or recyclate quality.
Texochem approaches the issue through resin design. Agrawal says the company uses medium-molecular-weight acrylic resins that disperse efficiently during hydra-pulping without creating stickies or non-degradable fragments.
The message across suppliers is remarkably consistent. The future of coatings depends not only on how they perform during use, but on how intelligently they disappear during recovery.
Please note that the June 2026 edition is a Coatings Special issue. For any additional inputs, suggestions, or content contributions for this special edition, kindly share them with Noel D'Cunha and Rahul Kumar at the earliest for consideration and inclusion
Paper gets another life
Paper packaging has returned to prominence, but fibre alone cannot satisfy every performance demand. Paper lacks inherent grease resistance, oxygen barriers and moisture protection. Historically, converters solved these weaknesses through extrusion coatings or multilayer laminations. Those approaches increasingly conflict with recyclability goals.
Coating suppliers are now trying to bridge the gap.
Toyo Ink Arets India points towards multifunctional water-based barriers capable of combining oxygen resistance, moisture protection and PFAS-free grease resistance within a single coating architecture. Mishra says these systems increasingly replace additional lamination layers in selected paper-based food applications.
Siegwerk is pushing paper further into applications once dominated by films. Le Moigne says the company has developed heat-sealing coatings that allow paper-based structures to function in food-service applications including cups, trays and pouches while remaining recyclable. The company's Cirkit Oxybar and Cirkit Heatguard systems are designed to help mono-PE and mono-PP structures approach the barrier performance of traditional multilayer laminates.
Cosmo First also sees structural simplification as a major direction. Poddar says the company has developed water-based heat-seal coatings capable of replacing separate sealant layers while integrating grease resistance, moisture barriers and printability within a single coating layer.
Texochem is working on oxygen barriers and alternative heat-seal technologies for foil applications to reduce dependence on expensive imported chemistries such as EAA. Agrawal says the company is developing an alternative sealing chemistry intended to deliver similar performance while improving supply accessibility and cost efficiency.
The rise of fibre-based packaging therefore depends less on paper itself and more on what coatings now allow paper to become.
The curing revolution
Coating chemistry may be changing rapidly, but none of it works without curing technology capable of keeping pace with modern production speeds. As converting lines increasingly run at 400 to 600 metres per minute, curing systems are being forced into their own transformation.
Marcus Greenbrook, director of international sales at GEW, says LED technology is advancing rapidly, with newer systems delivering significantly higher UV dose levels and dramatic energy reductions compared with traditional mercury systems. GEW says its latest LED systems can reduce energy consumption by as much as 65% compared with conventional arc curing systems while eliminating warm-up and cool-down cycles.
At IST Metz, the focus is increasingly on efficiency and scalability. The company says modern LED systems have surpassed conventional mercury lamps in electrical-to-optical efficiency while reducing ozone and mercury concerns. IST Metz also highlights modular scaling as a key advantage for high-speed curing, explaining that multiple curing units can be configured to maintain polymerisation performance even beyond 500 metres per minute.
APL Machinery sees LED UV becoming dominant in high-speed applications. CP Paul says LED systems solve many heat sensitivity and shrinkage issues associated with conventional UV curing because LED systems generate far lower temperatures. He adds that LED systems are increasingly replacing conventional UV due to lower maintenance, reduced power consumption and improved operating conditions.
That reduction in heat is becoming increasingly important as converters experiment with thinner films, recyclable substrates and heat-sensitive structures. The curing conversation is therefore no longer just about drying coatings faster. It increasingly involves energy consumption, migration safety, substrate stability and environmental compliance.
Collaboration becomes essential
One of the clearest shifts emerging across the industry is the growing interdependence between coating formulators, curing-system manufacturers and converters.
GEW says it regularly conducts trials with coating suppliers to optimise curing compatibility and photoinitiator behaviour. IST Metz similarly describes curing development as a collaborative effort between equipment suppliers and formulation experts working together under real production conditions.
APL Machinery says it has installed laboratory systems directly at coating manufacturers' facilities to jointly optimise curing behaviour and coating performance.
Converters increasingly sit at the centre of these collaborations. Rajiv Bhargava from HBD Packaging says the company remains in constant contact with coating suppliers, substrate manufacturers and equipment companies to optimise coating coverage, curing and technical performance.
Bhargava notes that while brand owners increasingly demand functional barriers and recyclable packaging, commercial realities remain difficult. Customers often resist paying for higher-performance coatings despite growing technical requirements.
That tension may ultimately define the next phase of the industry. Suppliers continue pushing towards circularity, lower emissions and advanced barrier performance, while converters remain under constant pressure to control costs and maintain productivity.
Beyond protection
Packaging coatings were once judged by how effectively they protected surfaces. That benchmark now appears incomplete.
Coatings increasingly determine whether a package can eliminate laminates, survive recycling systems, reduce energy consumption, maintain food safety and operate efficiently at industrial speeds. They are becoming enablers of circularity rather than decorative additions.
The future may therefore belong to coatings that are simultaneously functional, recyclable, energy-efficient and economically viable. Mishra perhaps captures the transition best when he says the industry is moving from coatings designed purely for performance towards coatings designed for the entire lifecycle.
The package consumers see on shelves may still look familiar. What is changing rapidly is the invisible chemistry beneath the surface, where coatings are evolving from protective layers into technologies that will increasingly determine how packaging performs, recycles and survives in a circular economy.
Ten key coating trends shaping packaging solutions
The development of plant-based edible films and coatings, based on polysaccharides, proteins and lipids, is creating biodegradable, renewable and compostable alternatives to conventional petroleum-based plastic packaging. These solutions are designed to reduce environmental impact while helping to minimise food waste.
The industry is witnessing increased adoption of next-generation UV and UV-LED energy-curing coatings for applications such as aerosol and food cans. Technologies such as ACTNext eliminate the need for large, energy-intensive drying ovens, reducing carbon emissions while improving line efficiency.
Coating manufacturers are moving away from hazardous chemicals and developing safer alternatives. Examples include PVC- and plasticiser-free compounds for sensitive applications such as baby food packaging, as well as BPA-NI and PFAS-NI coatings for beverage closures designed to meet increasingly stringent global regulations.
Digital technologies are becoming more deeply integrated into coating and packaging operations. Innovations such as Innocan enable offset-quality digital printing on metal substrates for short- and medium-run applications, while systems such as Rotarflow provide real-time monitoring and control of sealant application processes.
Manufacturers are expanding their portfolios with speciality barrier coatings aimed at replacing conventional packaging structures. Water-based oil and grease resistant (OGR) coatings, for example, are emerging as alternatives to polyethylene-based barrier solutions.
Coating technologies are increasingly finding applications beyond packaging. Growth is being seen in automotive care products, including nano-ceramic coatings and paint protection films, alongside industrial applications such as ceramic coatings and electrostatic discharge sheets for the electronics sector.
Innovation in coatings is helping manufacturers reduce material usage. Developments such as ultra-low-gauge coating systems enable thinner substrates to be used without compromising performance, resulting in lower raw material consumption and reduced costs.
Coatings are evolving beyond passive protection. Active coatings incorporating bioactive compounds, essential oils, microbial antagonists and natural antioxidants are being developed to extend shelf life, reduce spoilage and improve the preservation of fresh produce, meat and dairy products.
Although economic pressures continue to influence material choices in some regions, the long-term industry direction remains focused on mono-material packaging structures. Polypropylene and polyethylene-based solutions are increasingly being developed to improve recyclability and support circular economy objectives.
Packaging coatings are increasingly being used to create consumer engagement and strengthen brand identity. Special-effect coatings and inks incorporating thermochromic, tactile and fluorescent properties are helping brands create interactive packaging experiences at the point of sale. |
Please note that the June 2026 edition is a Coatings Special issue. For any additional inputs, suggestions, or content contributions for this special edition, kindly share them with Noel D'Cunha and Rahul Kumar at the earliest for consideration and inclusion.