Plastics Additives

Additives are materials that are added to the primary resin during either compounding or processing to improve the polymer’s processability, performance or appearance. Additives include colorants; heat stabilizers; process aids; fillers; compatibilizers; blowing agents; lubricants; slip agents.

Tosaf Introduces Halogen-Free Flame Retardant for Polypropylene
Additives

Tosaf Introduces Halogen-Free Flame Retardant for Polypropylene

Tosaf portfolio includes alternative to bromine and chlorine for PP injection molding and extrusion.

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ESSENTIAL READING

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Additives

Understanding the ‘Science’ of Color

And as with all sciences, there are fundamentals that must be considered to do color right. Here’s a helpful start.

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Additives

What’s With All the Static?

Static buildup on polymers can cause a variety of problems, some rather unpleasant. Yet there’s an inexpensive way to eliminate it, and we have data as proof.

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best practices

Part 11: A Processor's Most Important Job

It’s the processors job to ensure molded parts contain enough stabilizer to perform to the expectations of the end use.

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Additives

How to Prevent Stress Whitening in PP Copolymers

A look at causes, detection, and prevention.

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Additives

Extruding with Fillers

You can use the reference point from processing unfilled polymer to determine whether you can run filled resin on your current system.

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Additives

Materials: Analyzing Filler Content

The process is considered simple. But things aren’t always as they seem.

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Latest Additives News And Updates

PET

Light-Blocking Additive for PET Dairy Packaging

Avient’s Lactra LX additive enables blocking of 100% visible light in monolayer PET.

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Medical

OCSiAl Opens First Large-Scale Graphene Nanotube Plant

The new facility in Serbia will serve Europe, North America and Asia to drive advances in plastics and rubbers.

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Additives

SGS Expands Testing Capability of PFAS in North America

The testing is expected to enhance throughput and ensure better targeted remediation analysis.

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Additives

Insight Polymers & Compounding Unveils New Conductive Products Line

The new conductive products line will also be produced for injection molding and extrusion.

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Additives

Techmer PM Acquires OptiColor

The acquisition will bolster Techmer PM’s capabilities in the concentrates and compounds market.

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Automotive

‘Eco-Friendly’ Foaming Agent Masterbatch

CAI Performance Additives’ ST-BA13MB boasts reliable foaming results across various volume thermoplastics

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Featured Posts

NPE

Additives Boast Sustainability Without Sacrificing Performance

Sustainability continues to dominate new additives technology, but upping performance is also evident. Most of the new additives have been targeted to commodity resins and particularly polyolefins.

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Additives

Struktol Showcasing a Range of Specialty Additives

NPE2024: Focus is on additives for plastics including PVC and WPC industries.

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NPE

BASF Highlighting How They 'Make, Use and Recycle Future Solutions'

NPE2024: BASF is using its proprietary computer-aided engineering tool Ultrasim when designing for sustainability in a broad range of industries.

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NPE

Riverdale Global Showing Latest Innovations and New Satellite Location in Wisconsin

NPE2024: Live demos of updated RGS controller are among the highlights at its Wisconsin facility that will house the ‘new’ color R&D lab.

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At NPE2024, Follow These Megatrends in Materials and Additives

Offerings range from recycled, biobased, biodegradable  and monomaterial structures that enhance recyclability to additives that are more efficient, sustainable and safer to use.  

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Commodity Resins

Gerdau Graphene Launches “First” Graphene-Enhanced PE Additive Masterbatch for Extruded Packaging and More

The company has also partnered with conglomerate Sumitomo Corp. for distribution of its graphene-enhanced masterbatches in Japan.

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Plastics Size Reduction
Blending & Dosing

FAQ: Additives

What to consider when adding color?

There are several key items that are essential in developing a colorant package for any polymer. The first of these is the avoidance of any chemical incompatibility between the chemistry of the polymer and the chemistry of the colorant system. Chemical reactions proceed more rapidly at higher temperatures, and melt processing involves significantly elevated temperatures and large inputs of mechanical energy. Therefore, any chemical interactions that may occur between a polymer and a colorant system will happen very rapidly during the injection molding process.

The material supplier will incorporate a certain amount of the stabilization package in the material, making this the starting point for that material. It is now the processor’s job to handle the material during processing so that the molded part contains enough stabilizer to perform to the expectations of the end user. The molding process will always consume some amount of the antioxidant in the material. This is expected. But the amount of stabilizer that is consumed will depend upon the process conditions, most notably the melt temperature and the time the material spends in the molten state. Lower melt temperatures and shorter residence times will produce parts that retain a higher level of stabilization, and these parts will be more capable of handling the application environment. If melt temperatures become elevated or residence times become extended, the molded part will be less capable of managing the application demands.

Process Cooling

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