How to Produce a 3-Color Plastic Film

2023-06-29 | Technical Blog | By Renee Castro |
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How to Produce a 3-Color Plastic Film

Using tricolor striped film or 3-color film in plastic products is a popular method for producers to make their products look more attractive.

This method of extruding plastic of different colors into a single film is quite popular for applications such as t-shirt bags, sufra film, or ribbons, where the attractive colors can create a significant increase in the product’s demand in comparison with other products using a single color.

In this blog, we will explain how to produce this appealing tricolor striped plastic film.


Machine needed:



To produce this type of film, you will need an ABC blow film machine. This blown film machine has 3 separate screws which feed plastic material of different colors into 1 single die head which produces film with this distinctive tricolor striped pattern.

This film can even be easily recycled after using with easy-to-use recycling machines.


Blown film extrusion process:


3-Color striped plastic blown film line
( 3-Color Plastic Film )
2-Color striped plastic blown film line
( 2-Color Plastic Film )


The manufacturing process for this product is quite similar to the 2 stripes co extrusion process which we have explained previously (you can refer to the video below for more details).



Plastic pellets either from recycled or raw materials are first fed to each of the machine’s screws. There, the plastic pellets for each color get mixed and melted (independently). Afterwards, each of the melts gets directed into a channel of the die head, which is specially designed to achieve the tricolor pattern. The material coming out from the die head’s gap gets pulled upwards, and is then cooled by the take-up units of the machine. Finally, the film gets winded into film rolls which can be then used to manufacture different types of products or sold to manufacturers for them to convert before selling.


The main difference between the machines used in striped films is in the feeding zone.

For a tricolor film, 3 screws are used; while for bicolor film, 2 screws are used (1 for each color).

ABC blown film extrusion for 3-color plastic film


Manufacturers can choose and adjust the colors of the film according to the pattern they want by using different colored masterbatches.


End product:


The key for obtaining a higher quality film for this application is to use a machine with a special design for the product, like POLYSTAR’s ABC machine for Tricolor film. Which allows you to achieve this distinctive design while ensuring the film has high resistance and good sealing properties to ensure it performs as good as possible no matter the final application.


 tricolor blown film extrusion in Taiwan


The products obtained from this process can be used for similar applications as monolayer film products with the advantage of displaying this distinctive color pattern, which is commonly used for products such as ribbons, t-shirt bags, shopping bags, plastic gift bags, sufra film, plastic tape, and many more.

If you would like to learn more about this machine or any of our blown film or recycling lines, do not hesitate to contact us. Our sales team will be happy to provide you more information about our machinery.



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About the Author
Renee Castro

POLYSTAR’s International Sales

Renee is helping plastic producers find simple solutions to their problems. She is interested in topics like circular economy and the latest recycling trends.

You can find Renee on LinkedIn.