Lamination or coating? Two processes, one English word
English uses "laminated" for both of them, and quotes routinely mean different things by it. They are separate machines, separate costs and separate failure modes — and in Chinese they have never shared a name. Getting this wrong is one of the more expensive specification errors in woven packaging.
The two processes
| BOPP lamination 覆膜 | Extrusion coating 淋膜 | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | A separately printed BOPP film is bonded to the woven fabric. | Molten polymer is poured onto the fabric and pressed in — no separate film. |
| What you get | Photographic-quality print under a glossy or matt film. The print is protected because it sits inside the laminate. | A sealed, moisture-resistant surface. Print, if any, is applied separately and is not protected by the coating. |
| Bought for | Shelf appeal and brand work — retail rice, pet food, seed, promotional bags. | Moisture barrier and containment — cement, chemicals, fertiliser, sugar. |
| Tell-tale on a finished bag | A distinct film layer you can pick at a cut edge; print looks like a printed magazine. | No separate layer to lift; the surface feels like sealed plastic and the weave is flattened. |
Which one your job needs
Ask what the surface is for. If the answer is "so it looks right on a shelf", you want lamination. If it is "so the contents stay dry" or "so the powder does not sift out", you want coating. Wanting both is normal and it is two operations, priced as two operations.
A quote that says only "laminated" has not answered the question. Ask which process, and ask for the film or coating weight in g/m² — it is part of the fabric weight you are paying for, and the same arithmetic applies to it.
The Chinese terms, because they are not interchangeable
覆膜 is lamination: a film is applied. 淋膜 is extrusion coating: the polymer is poured. A supplier who uses them interchangeably in Chinese is either being loose or does not run one of the two lines. If you are specifying in both languages, fix the term in the Chinese first — it is the unambiguous one.
What we can evidence
Lamination we evidence. It runs at named plants in our network and the process-to-plant map is published on capabilities, with BOPP printing and lamination listed separately because they are separate operations.
Extrusion coating we do not evidence. No plant in our network has put evidence behind a coating line, so we do not claim it — and the products in our catalogue that need it are marked accordingly rather than quoted. That is not a claim we cannot ever do it; it is a statement about what we have proved. The full list of what this blocks is published by product and by process.