In-line coating method for preparing soft-feel polymeric films and films prepared thereby

Abstract

An in-line method to make a polymeric film with soft-feel haptic property includes the continuous, sequential steps of: (a) forming a polymer core layer of one or more polyesters; (b) optionally adding an adhesive layer and/or a skin layer over the polymer core layer to make a base layer; (c) stretching the base layer uniaxially in the machine direction; (d) coating the base layer with a liquid solution of a carbodiimide or polycarbodiimide crosslinker and a coating that includes aliphatic water-borne polyurethanes and one or more additives to enhance haptic properties, including urea-formaldehyde beads, aqueous wax dispersions and hollow sphere polymeric pigment dispersion; (e) heating the coated base layer to dry and crosslink the coating solution to form a coating layer on the base layer to create a coated film; (f) stretching the composite coated film in the transverse direction during or immediately following the drying and crosslinking step, and (g) optionally heat-treating the composite coated film to anneal the composite coated film.