BOPP is the most widely used film facestock in pressure-sensitive labelling and the most often mis-specified. Buyers ask for a BOPP label and then discover that the ink will not anchor, that the label lifts off a squeezable bottle, or that the clear edge is visible against the container. All three problems are settled before the roll is slit — by the surface treatment and the film thickness, not by the price per square metre.
Model guide · last verified 2026-10-21 · published in English · technical questions: contact the lab
BOPP stands for biaxially oriented polypropylene. Polypropylene resin is extruded into a thick sheet and then stretched in two directions: along the machine direction as it runs through the rolls, and across the web in a tenter frame. Stretching aligns the polymer chains, and aligned chains behave very differently from the tangled ones in a blown film.
That alignment is why a 25 micron BOPP facestock can run through a labeller at all. The same thickness in an unoriented polyethylene film stretches under web tension, wanders on the register and creeps at the die. Oriented BOPP holds its dimensions, tears in a straight line rather than a ragged one, and takes a high gloss because the surface is flat at a scale that scatters very little light.
It also explains the main limitation. A stretched film remembers the stretch. Heat above a certain point lets the chains relax and the film shrinks — which is exactly what you want from a shrink sleeve and exactly what you do not want from a label on a hot-filled bottle. For ambient and cold-fill containers BOPP is the default. For hot fill and for retort the conversation moves to other films, and we will say so rather than sell a BOPP construction into an application it will fail.
Untreated polypropylene sits at roughly 29–31 dyn/cm of surface energy. Water-based adhesives, solvent adhesives and UV-curable inks all need a substrate in the region of 36–38 dyn/cm to wet out and anchor. The gap of a few dyn/cm is the single most common reason a film label fails on press or on the shelf, and it has nothing to do with how much adhesive was applied.
There are two ways to close the gap, and they are not equivalent.
A high-frequency discharge oxidises the film surface and raises its energy enough for ink and adhesive to key. It is done inline during film production, it costs very little, and it decays. The effect fades over weeks, faster in warm or humid storage, and it can be wiped off by handling. A corona-treated roll that printed perfectly six months ago can fail a tape test today without anything having changed at the press.
A thin topcoat — a receptive layer formulated for the print process — is applied and cured during manufacture. It does not decay on the shelf, it gives a wider process window on press, and it is what makes a difference between an aqueous inkjet BOPP and a UV inkjet BOPP at the same thickness. This is why the same 36 micron white film appears in our range with different codes for different press families: the film is similar, the treatment is not.
When a quotation for BOPP labelstock comes in well below the others, the first question is which of the two treatments it carries, and the second is how long the roll has been in storage. Both answers change what the material will do six months from now. It is also the reason we ask which press you run before quoting a film: a code that is right on a flexo line is the wrong recommendation for a Memjet head even though the facestock reads the same on paper.
Every row below is a construction in our published range, with the facestock, liner and press family exactly as they appear on the technical data sheet. The thickness spread is deliberate: it is the same polymer family across a four-fold range of gauge, which is what makes BOPP usable for both a 25 micron squeezable bottle label and a 100 micron high-speed wrap-around application.
| Code | Facestock | Liner | Press family |
|---|---|---|---|
| MJ0803W21 | 25 mic pearl white BOPP film (matte) | 80 gsm white glassine | Memjet |
| MJ0902W21 | 25 mic matte white BOPP film | 80 gsm glassine | Memjet |
| FL0207W21 | 25 mic glossy white BOPP film | 60 gsm white glassine | Flexo |
| UV0201W21 | 36 mic glossy white BOPP film | 60 gsm white glassine | UV inkjet |
| UV0301W21 | 36 mic matte white BOPP film | 60 gsm white glassine | UV inkjet |
| MJ0801W21 | 36 mic pearl white BOPP film | 80 gsm glassine | Memjet |
| FL0210W21 | 36 mic glossy white BOPP film | 60 gsm white glassine | Flexo |
| TPP5007W31 | 50 mic transparent PP film | 135 gsm white liner | HP Indigo |
| UV0407W21 | 50 mic transparent PP film | 60 gsm glassine | UV inkjet |
| PC2007W31 | 60 mic glossy white PP film | 135 gsm white liner | HP Indigo |
| MJ0802W21 | 60 mic pearl white BOPP film | 80 gsm glassine | Memjet |
| FL0211W21 | 60 mic glossy white BOPP film | 60 gsm white glassine | Flexo |
| LJ0301W21 | 75 mic pearl white BOPP film | 135 gsm white liner | Laserjet |
| MJ0901W21 | 75 mic matte white BOPP film | 80 gsm glassine | Memjet |
| PC7407W31 | 75 mic matte white PP film | 135 gsm white liner | HP Indigo |
| FL0203W21 | 75 mic glossy white BOPP film | 80 gsm white glassine | Flexo |
| UV0401W21 | 80 mic transparent BOPP film | 60 gsm white glassine | UV inkjet |
| FL0215W21 | 80 mic glossy white BOPP film | 30 mic transparent PET film | Flexo |
| FL0201W21 | 100 mic glossy white BOPP film | 80 gsm white glassine | Flexo |
| FL0206W21 | 100 mic glossy white BOPP film | 60 gsm white glassine | Flexo |
Twenty of the BOPP and PP constructions in the range, chosen to show the full gauge and treatment spread. The complete list — including the holographic, bright silver and offset sheet versions — is on the construction index, and the measured adhesive values are in the TDS for each code.
Surface finish is not decoration. It decides opacity, how the label takes handling, and whether the print sits on top of the film or appears to be part of it.
The default for shelf-facing product labels. High hold-out means less ink is needed to reach a given density, and the specular surface gives barcode bars and small type a hard edge. It is also the least forgiving surface: fingerprints, scuffs and the marks left by a conveyor guide all read clearly under store lighting.
A matte or low-gloss surface scatters light instead of reflecting it, so scratches and handling marks disappear visually. It takes pen and stamp, which matters for warehouse overprinting and handwritten batch data, and it photographs without hot spots. The trade is a slightly lower colour density and a softer look on shelf.
Transparent BOPP lets the container read through the label, which is why it is the standard choice for beverages, cosmetics and household chemicals in clear or coloured bottles. Two conditions have to be met for it to work: the liner must also be clear or the label edge shows a white halo from the paper fibres, and the adhesive has to stay clear. An adhesive that yellows over time turns a no-label finish into a visible rectangle within a season.
Pearlised BOPP carries a cavitated or pigment-loaded layer that scatters light internally, giving a dense white base with a soft sheen and no need to print a solid white underneath. It hides what is behind the label, which a thin gloss white does not do on a dark container, and it gives a premium look on personal care and dairy. The sheen does change apparent brightness with viewing angle, so barcode contrast has to be verified under the lighting the pack will actually be scanned in rather than on a desk.
A embossed holographic layer gives an effect that is difficult to reproduce on a desktop printer, which is the point for authentication labels. It is also a display finish. The practical constraint is printability: overprinting a holographic surface needs the right receptive layer, and fine type over a patterned background loses legibility fast. Plain holographic constructions are in the range for converters who want to lay their own design on top.
A metallised or silver film gives a metallic appearance in a single pressure-sensitive pass, without a separate foil stamping operation. It is used for premium beverage, electronics and promotional work. On sheet-fed offset the silver is supplied as sheets, which changes the press setup rather than the material.
The useful question is never which BOPP is best in the abstract. It is which gauge and surface survive your container and your applicator.
| Your situation | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Squeezable bottle, small diameter, curved shoulder | 25–36 mic (FL0207W21, UV0201W21) | Thin film conforms to compound curvature; a thick film cannot bend that far without stress at the edge |
| Large bottle that is squeezed in use | 75–100 mic (FL0203W21, FL0201W21) | A thicker film distributes the squeeze load and resists edge lift better than a thin one |
| High-speed wrap-around line | 50–100 mic (UV0407W21, FL0206W21) | Web stiffness at speed keeps registration; too thin a film stretches under tension |
| Clear bottle, no-label look required | 50–80 mic clear (UV0407W21, UV0401W21) | Clear film plus clear adhesive plus a clear or matched liner — a paper liner shows at the edge |
| Dark container, label must block what is behind it | Pearl white 36–75 mic (MJ0801W21, LJ0301W21) | Cavitated white layer gives opacity that a thin gloss white film does not |
| Warehouse overprinting, handwritten data, harsh handling | Matte white 36–75 mic (MJ0901W21, UV0301W21) | Matte hides scuffs and takes pen and thermal transfer ribbon |
| Hot fill or retort | Not BOPP — ask us for an alternative | Oriented film relaxes and shrinks above its softening range; the label wrinkles and the edge lifts |
| Offset sheet work with a metallic finish | Bright silver PP sheets (OF0301W21) | Supplied as sheets so the existing offset workflow and guillotine setup are unchanged |
These are recurring field reports rather than hypotheticals. In each case the material was blamed first and turned out to be the second or third suspect.
Almost always a treatment problem, not an ink problem. Either the roll was corona treated and the treatment has decayed in storage, or the code was specified for a different press family than the one that printed it. The test is a tape pull on a printed area straight from the roll, then the same test on a print that has been through the full cure: if the fresh print passes and the stored roll fails, ask for the production date and the treatment type before changing ink.
A clear facestock on a paper liner. When the label is die-cut and stripped, the cut edge of the glassine is exposed next to the clear film, and on a clear container the fibres read as a white halo. The fix is a clear PET film liner — the 30 micron liner on FL0215W21 exists for this — not a thinner adhesive or a different surface finish.
Thickness against radius. A 100 micron film has a bending stiffness that a 25 mm radius will not accept, so the memory of the flat roll wins and the edge springs back. Either drop to 25–36 micron or accept that the label needs a smaller format. Raising adhesive coat weight does not solve it, because the failure is elastic recovery in the film, not adhesion to the container.
Pearlised film changes apparent brightness with viewing angle, so a print that verifies on a desk can fail under the directed lighting of a scan tunnel. The bars are printing correctly; the substrate is moving the contrast around. Verify with the scanner the pack will meet, and if the contrast margin is thin, move the barcode to a gloss or matte white area of the same label rather than reprinting the whole job.
BOPP constructions are built around a press family rather than around a single universal film. The facestock may read the same at 36 micron, but the receptive layer, the adhesive chemistry and the liner weight are chosen so the material behaves on that machine. Our range covers six.
| Press family | What the construction is tuned for | Typical BOPP codes |
|---|---|---|
| UV inkjet | Instant cure, no absorption — the receptive layer has to hold a UV-curable ink without swelling | UV0201W21, UV0301W21, UV0401W21, UV0407W21, UV0707W21 |
| Memjet | Very high head-to-media speed and a water-based ink load that has to dry fast | MJ0801W21, MJ0802W21, MJ0803W21, MJ0901W21, MJ0902W21 |
| Flexo | Web tension, solvent and water-based inks, high volume and long runs | FL0201W21 – FL0215W21 (15 codes) |
| HP Indigo | Liquid toner transfer, which needs a specific surface resistivity and a heavier liner | PC7407W31, PC2007W31, TPP5007W31 |
| Laserjet (dry toner) | Heat and pressure in the fuser — the film has to stay flat through it | LJ0301W21 |
| Offset (sheet) | Sheet handling and offset ink chemistry rather than web tension | OF0301W21, OF0302W21 |
Telling us the press family is the fastest way to get to the right code. It narrows the range more than the container type does, because a construction built for one ink system is rarely the best choice for another.
Answered by the coating and conversion team, not by marketing.
The layer that decides whether a BOPP print anchors — and why the same film has different codes per press.
The liner behind the film: 60, 80 and 135 gsm compared, and when a clear PET liner is the only option.
If the BOPP labels are laser finished, the liner rather than the film is the variable that breaks the job.
Where clear BOPP, pearl white and wrap-around formats meet the container and the fill process.
The full construction index, filterable by press family, facestock and liner.
Tell us the press, the container and the surface; we answer with a code and a TDS, not a brochure.
The polymer decision underneath this family: density, heat ceiling, conformability and die cutting side by side.
The adhesive half of the decision: why all 16 solvent constructions are coated on film, and when solvent is the wrong system.
A sealed liner for humid destinations — what changes when the paper behind the film stops taking up water.