After the explosion of developments in polymer formulations over the last year, it is worth taking a closer look during Fakuma at details such as functional additives or application-specific modifications. Overall, lightweight design continues to spur development but defined surface characteristics are also in demand. The reported innovations do not just follow current consumer trends but also provide ideas for advanced product and process developments. 

Functional Modifications Characterize Developments in Additives and Compounds 

Hochleistungskunststoffe

Polyamide

Polypropylen

Compound

Verbundwerkstoffe / Werkstoffverbunde

Additive

Farbstoffe

Pigmente

Füllstoffe für Kunststoffe

Additive Fertigung

Oberflächentechnik

Medizintechnik

Compoundeure

Distribuenten

Polymers Can Be Expected Everywhere 

Colored plastics are not just a marketing gimmick, but fulfill important functions with technical components. In particular, they warn of hazards and permit the fast and direct identification of components. However, when coloring such plastic components, the processors are faced with several difficulties. For example, the colorants used must exhibit long-term resistance to high temperatures and must not impair the polymer’s mechanical properties. Therefore, when selecting the colorant, compounders and processors must observe several important points.

How Plastics Processors Find the Most Suitable Colorants for High-Performance Polymers

Masterbatches

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Farbstoffe und Pigmente

Farbkonzentrate (Batches)

Kunststoff

Bauwesen

Baustoffe

Thermoplaste

Farben, flüssig

Colors for the High-Performance Sector

Bioplastics, biodegradable plastics and recyclates pose individual demands on colorization. BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany, presented Sicoversal B, a biodegradable masterbatch for coloring compostable plastics. With this product, bioplastics can be colored in an environmentally friendly manner. 

Masterbatches for Polyethylene 

Biokunststoffe

Ecological Coloring of Bioplastics  

geba Kunststoffcompounds GmbH  

https://www.geba.eu

Handel

Dienstleistungen

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Polyacetale

Polyacrylate

Polycarbonat

Polyester

Styrol-Copolymerisate

Sustainable development is the focus of the Israeli company Tosaf’s trade show presence. The company presents functional, color and combined masterbatches for processing by extrusion and injection molding. These will include color masterbatches for recyclates with a special focus on post-consumer plastics as well as biodegradable masterbatches.

Special masterbatches can be used for permanent orange coloring of high-voltage components in electric vehicles

Elektromobilität

Mobilität

Messe Fakuma

kunststoffe-international.com

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Masterbatches for Current Trends

KLK OLEO offers bio-based ingredients that are used in plastic products to impart wide-ranging benefits, from process optimisation to improved part performance.

KLK OLEO Corporate Office 

https://www.klkoleo.com

Spritzgießen

Thermoplastische Elastomere

Standardkunststoffe

Technische Kunststoffe

Warmformen

Warmformen / Thermoformen

Blasformen

Pressen und Warmformmaschinen

Kunststoffverarbeitungsmaschinen

Kunststoff-Recycling

Extrudieren (KU)

Kunststoffverarbeitung

Compoundieren

The masterbatch producer Grafe has developed an antistatic treatment that achieves a significantly lower surface resistivity and can be used together with color masterbatches and various fillers.

Antistatic systems for dust-free plastic parts are developed in the pilot plant at Grafe

16:9

Better Protection against ESD for Plastic Parts

Antistatika

No Chance for Dust

The plastics industry has a variety of materials and technologies available for significantly reducing the ecological footprint of products. There are very few applications for which it is not possible to replace at least a portion of the fossil material with recyclates or bioplastics. Various methods, standards and software tools are available to determine what savings this can achieve.

Determining CO2 Savings from Recycled Materials and Bioplastics

Simulation

Software

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Normen / Standards

Recht allgemein / sonst.

Reducing the CO2 Footprint

Additives manufacturer Milliken has developed viscosity modifiers specifically for recycled polypropylene (rPP). The products, called DeltaFlow, improve the flow behavior of rPP for extrusion and injection molding processes, according to the company.

The modifiers allow recycled PP to be processed at lower temperatures. Among other things, this reduces cycle times during injection molding.

Improved Processing of Recycled PP

The conditions in electric vehicles place high demands on the materials used. Therefore, automakers and suppliers must resort to expensive, high-performance plastics. For many applications, cost-effective alternatives are plastics whose properties have been greatly improved by means of treatment with high-energy electron beams.

Fig. 1. Crosslinked engineering plastics can be used for many different applications in electric vehicles.

Irradiation Crosslinking Replaces High-Performance Plastics with Cheaper Polymers

Kfz-Elektronik

Elektronik

Strahlenvernetzung

Electron Booster for Electric Vehicles

Colors can turn plastics products into real eye-catchers. Kunststoffe asked colorant manufacturers to predict which colors will be trending in the coming year.

Trend Report on the Coloring of Plastics

Garish or Necessarily Plain?

With the change from internal combustion engines to hybrid and electric vehicles, peak operating temperatures have dropped from 135 °C to 110 °C. At the same time, the number of operating hours compared to combustion engines has increased nine-fold. This has an influence on material selection.

A Comparison of PA66 and PPA for Electric Vehicles

Elektromotoren

Antriebe

Higher Performance in Water

The HolyGrail 2.0 Initiative aims to improve the sorting of plastic waste. But the method also has certain drawbacks. Here, luminescent pigments provide an alternative.

Marker masterbatches enable different information to be embedded in plastics. This can be used to improve the recycling circle.

Improved Sorting of Plastic Waste with Luminescent Pigments

Messtechnik

Additiv-Batches

Luminous Markers instead of Holy Grail

Ter Plastics Polymer Group recently held its 5th Polymer Forum, which is increasingly evolving into an industry gathering. For the first time, the forum featured parallel sessions on high-performance polymers in the context of current and challenging applications. The focus was on new developments and trends in polyphthalamide (PPA), polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) and polyamide (PA) 66. 

Advanced Structural and Thermal Applications at the Heart of the Polymer Forum 

Polymer Molecules Get Smart 

At the start of the year, Toray opened a European R&D center near Munich, Germany, dedicated to automotive applications. From specially manufactured carbon fibers and engineering plastic compounds to battery elements such as separator foils, a wide portfolio is on offer from a single source. Kunststoffe spoke to Toray Group managers about their evaluation and strategy. 

With a New R&D Center, Toray Is Setting its Sights on the European Automotive Industry 

Kohlenstofffasern / -matten

Faserverarbeitung

Japanese Multi-Material Specialists 

The circular economy and more sustainable additives are the focus of AF Color’s Fakuma presence this year.

The masterbatch manufacturer is presenting, for example, its carbon black-free masterbatches of the IR product line. The plastics pigmented with them can be detected via near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR).

In addition, the company is presenting bio-based and biodegradable additives developed together with its subsidiary Bio-Fed. They include an odor absorber. These additive batches are marketed under the name AF-Eco.

The company is also showing additional color shades for high-temperature polymers. They include an intensive orange for the field of electromobility, which is intended for pigmenting polyamide (PA).

AF-Color Zweigniederlassung der AKRO-Plastic 

https://www.af-color.com

The circular economy and more sustainable additives are the focus of AF Color’s trade show presence this year

2021-09-22 werkstoffe_AF-Color

issue 07/2022

issue 06/2022

issue 05/2022

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