2026-2-26 Which performance index is hardest for customers to understand? (barrier, seal strength, etc.)

Which performance index is hardest for customers to understand? (barrier, seal strength, printing effect, etc.)

I think the key issue is sealing strength. For customers, the printing effect and barrier properties are usually obvious. If the barrier properties aren't suitable, a higher barrier material can be used. However, sealing strength varies depending on the heat-sealing material, which makes explaining this to the customer quite complicated.


By Chatgpt：Sealing strength is actually the most critical and sensitive parameter in flexible packaging.
Unlike printing quality or barrier performance, which can be improved relatively easily by material upgrades, sealing strength depends on multiple interacting factors — especially the heat-sealing layer material, structure compatibility, and machine sealing conditions.
This is why sealing performance must be evaluated as a system-level technical issue, not just a material choice.

From what I’ve seen, barrier performance is by far the hardest thing to explain to customers.
The main problem is that it’s totally invisible. You can test seal strength by pulling on the seal, and you can see print quality right away. But barrier properties? You can’t see them, touch them, or tell them apart just by looking. A high-oxygen-barrier film looks exactly the same as a cheap grocery bag to most people.
We usually use OTR data to simplify things, but the real results only show over time. Since customers can’t rely on instant visuals or quick tests—only long-term data—it makes barrier performance the hardest spec for them to truly grasp.

I think it is the barrier property. The core is the OTR and WVTR, which are professional definitions that cannot be directly seen by the eye like judging the printing effect.
However, we can say some conclusions that are more understandable to customers when explaining, for example, for snacks, we can say that this packaging can make your product taste better for xxx time to let the customer understand easily

叛逆少爷 发表于 2026-2-26 19:14
I think the key issue is sealing strength. For customers, the printing effect and barrier properties ...

Actually, the customer does not care about sealing strength at all, as you will not notice the temperature of water when you do not feel cold or hot. The customer can only pay attention to seal strength when the film materials does not meet the requirements of his products, and when we try to explain this term to him, I do believe most customers will spend some time before they actually understand it.
So, it is quite important to avoid obsurce and professional terms when we talk with our customers, as the customer may tend to believe we are not professional if he needs to spend too much time explaining his needs to us.

Elsa 发表于 2026-2-26 23:59
I think it is the barrier property. The core is the OTR and WVTR, which are professional definitions ...

It is good to think so, as you are going to stand in the customer's shoes. Barrier is just a term to describe the property of a film, however, the customer may only concern about the shelf life of his product, and how it tastes after a certain time when the products is in the packages.
Just as a girl want to buy a computer, and when the sales talk too much about CPU, Disk Volumes, RAM, Screen, etc, the girl may just get so confused, as the girl may just want to get a beautiful computer, to watch movies.

Lexi 发表于 2026-2-26 20:39
From what I’ve seen, barrier performance is by far the hardest thing to explain to customers.
The m ...

Did you ever explain the barrier performance to a customer?

Bruce 发表于 2026-2-27 18:55
Actually, the customer does not care about sealing strength at all, as you will not notice the tem ...

Fully agree with you, before some sealing issues happening, the customer doesn't care about the sealing strength, only the customer who have met some issues cause of sealing strength will care about it, maybe they will pay much more attention on it to avoid any risk again.