HELP! Need Shiny Non Metal Printing Material

Hi All,

I'm looking for some technical material help. Can anyone help me find a shiny, metallic looking material that DOES NOT contain any metals?

I'm desperately trying to find a silver looking shiny material that can be digitally or screen printed that will not be picked up by our metal detectors. Does anyone have any experience or any ideas/suggestions?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

Hi Jesse,

I struggled to source such a thing in the UK - most of these trays are foil and will be picked up on a metal detector. However, if there is the resources within your company you can purchase a ferrous-in-foil metal detector which is specialized for these sort of trays or packaging. I know another site which has installed an X-ray machine on the line packing into foil trays as their metal detectors wont let the foil trays pass. I know from experience that higher end customers are beginning to ask for these trays as they are seen as higher end.

Probably not the most direct or helpful of information but possibly something to look into?

Unfortunately, shiny almost always means a metal, especially if you want it to be shiny at all viewing angles.  This shine is a natural property of metals.

At certain angles, you can see reflections on water or glass (it is "shiny"), but at other viewing angles you can see right through the water or the glass.

Shine is due to the reflection of light.  You may be able to get some "shine" by using a high gloss plastic such as polyester.

This post caught my attention, and I hope I can help. 

When I am not living and breathing food safety and authenticity I do some windsurfing and recently I had to create a perpetual trophy for a windsurfing event.  In doing so I had to source some engraving plates to go on the trophy plinth.  I ended up purchasing a metal-look engraving plate that is black polypropylene with a shiny silver coating on one side.  When it is engraved the writing comes out black.  I am not sure if the shiny coating is thick enough to activate a metal detector, but it is a very thin layer so it might not.  The material about around 2mm thick and is sold in large sheets that can be cut to size.

I bought the material from an Australian engraving materials supplier but it would certainly have been manufactured overseas so I am sure you could buy it in other countries.

I tried to find a link to the exact product I purchased, but because I ordered it over the phone, I couldn't figure out exactly what I bought.   If you search engraving materials you should be able to find something similar.  Good luck.

Newer technology Metal Detection systems, like multi-simultaneous frequency metal detectors, have been successfully implemented into facilities running metalized film applications. Sample materials could be sent and tested to determine what detection levels you could expect with the new packaging You may be surprised at the ability to ignore the metalized packaging and still achieve desired detection capability.