A trade show highlight of masterbatch manufacturer Lifocolor will be its biodegradable plant-based color concentrates. These are claimed to enable a closed-loop system for biodegradable plastics.

When it comes to long-term closed-loop recycling, it is not only the plastics that matter, but also the colorants employed. Lifocolor has developed masterbatches specifically for coloring recycled materials.

16:9

Messe K-Kunststoffmesse

kunststoffe-international.com

kunststoffe.de

Masterbatches

Kunststoff Werkstoffe

Additive

Farbstoffe und Pigmente

Farbkonzentrate (Batches)

Biokunststoffe

Farbstoffe

Biodegradable Plant-Based Colors

At Fakuma, Granula presents masterbatches specially tailored to more sustainable plastic products. For this purpose, the company has developed grades with biological pigments and degradable additives for injection molding and extrusion.

The masterbatches are used, e. g., for pigmenting the lids of to-go cups 

Messe Fakuma

Kunststoff-Rezyklat

Bio- and PCR-Based Masterbatches

Plastics processors have a wide range of colors at their disposal to color their products. Choosing the right color can ultimately be the key to success. But colors are just as subject to trends as materials and designs. Kunststoffe asked manufacturers of pigments, masterbatches, and colorants which colors would be particularly popular in the coming year.

Colors inspired by nature will also be very much in demand in2021. They give products a more sustainable appearance

Trend Report on the Coloration of Plastics

Pigmente

Pigmente, bunt

Kunststoffe

Photonik

Optik

Streifinger, Florian

Recycling

Umweltmanagement

Effektpigmente

Kunststoff-Recycling

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Verfahren

Kunststoff-Aufbereitung

Farben, flüssig

What Will Be the Color of 2021?

Besides compounds modified for special applications and lightweight components, sustainable materials are also becoming an increasingly important focus. In the additives sector, too, recyclates, the circular economy, and reprocessing are now playing a key role.

Not only Polymers but also Additives and Masterbatches Must Be Sustainable

Zubehör / Hilfsmittel Wärmebehandlung

Wärmebehandlung

Compound

Thermoplaste

PVC-Additive

Andere Werkstoffe

Werkstoffe für additive Verfahren

Vernetzungsmittel

Compoundeure

Dienstleistungen

Handel

PVC-weich (Compounds)

Verarbeitungshilfsmittel, allgemein

Flammhemmende Mittel, allgemein

Betriebsausrüstung / Betriebsmittel

Verarbeitungshilfmittel

Filamente für additive Verfahren

Flammschutzmittel

Gleitmittel für Kunststoff

Attention to Detail

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

Kunststoff

Bauwesen

Baustoffe

Hochleistungskunststoffe

Colors for the High-Performance Sector

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?

Milliken introduced an orange colorant for electric vehicles. It is said to be very color-stable even at high temperatures.

The colorant offers excellent thermal stability up to 300 °C or more.

Elektromobilität

Mobilität

Orange Colorant for Engineering Plastics

Automated Color Measurement for Bulk Materials

With the measuring system, color analysis measurements are possible inline, online and atline. This allows for quick intervention during production.

With automated color measurement, it is possible to check the color of pellets during production. 

Farbmessgeräte

Messtechnik

Optische Mess- und Prüftechnik

Messgeräte für Farbe

Qualitätssicherung

Qualitätssicherung Kunststoff

Inline, Online, Atline But Not Offline

The K 2022 offered an immense range of innovations and application examples for – and with more – sustainable materials. Interestingly hereby was that bio-based versions were extremely popular.

Shoes made from waste gas: genetically modified bacteria produce ethanol from waste gas, which is then used to create plastic, e.g. for the Cloudprime shoes from On.

Thermoplastische Elastomere

Silikone

Polyethylen

Polylactid

Polyamide

Polypropylen

Faserverbundwerkstoffe

Silikonkautschuk

Kautschuk / Elastomere

Is Bio the New Standard?

To be able to manufacture products from 100 % recycled post-consumer materials (PCR), Avient has developed appropriate colorant and additive masterbatches with PCR matrix.

Especially for packaging, post-consumer recycled percentages of 100 % are increasingly in demand

Verpackungsmaterial

Logistik

Standardkunststoffe

Additiv-Batches

100 Percent Made from Recycling Material

The circular economy, electromobility and the continuing corona pandemic are influencing color selection for plastics. Kunststoffe asked colorant manufacturers about the resulting color trends. We also wanted to know what effects the increased use of recyclates is having and the extent to which manufacturers are affected by the present supply bottlenecks.

Colored Mood Enhancers

A metallic look and decorative design using lasers have been very popular for some time. To meet this demand, Rowa Masterbatch includes optimized raw materials in its portfolio.

Metallic surfaces are very popular right now for personal care products and packaging. The fact that they can also be laser-marked without any loss of quality is ensured by a specially developed masterbatch. 

Laserbeschriftung in Farben

Oberflächentechnik

Laserbearbeitungen

Laserbeschriftung

Laser without Color Loss

Grafe’s color experts not only had a very special presentation but also a good cause in mind for this year’s color preview. A bold and informative campaign has been developed in cooperation with a youth initiative. Colors are becoming more natural in pastel hues with a disco revival of pink, purple, and gold in 2020.

Fig. 1. Managing Director Matthias Grafe (left) and Roman Malessa, Secretary General & spokesperson for Youth Against Aids, wanted to send a message with the color preview

Grafe Trend Colors Are Presented together with the “Youth Against Aids” Association

Einfärben

Educational Design

Enhancing mixed bottle flakes by turning them into extrudable recycled crystalline polyethylene terephthalate (rCPET) was the goal of a joint development project looking to close the gap in the PET recycling system. By successfully producing a sheet made from recycled material suitable for high-quality applications such as thermoformed food trays, Gneuss, Sukano and Illig have demonstrated that this approach is indeed possible.

Thermally stable rCPET food trays made from multicolor APET bottle flakes

Upcycling of Mixed APET Bottle Flakes into Thermally Stable rCPET Food Trays

Extrusion

Polybutylenterephthalat

Schmelzefilter

Kunststoffverarbeitung: Maschinen und Komponenten

Anlagen Lebensmittel

Anlagen für die Additive Fertigung

Anlagen Additive Fertigung / 3D-Druck, andere

Filteranlagen

Flakes

Extrusionsanlagen

PET: From A to C

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 

Ecological Coloring of Bioplastics  

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.

Due to source-related inconsistencies, recyclates from post-consumer scrap can show significant differences in their basic color. Tosaf has developed highly efficient masterbatches, specially tailored to cover such variations in a way that, according to the company, the final products meet the customers’ specifications within tight tolerances.

Biodegradable polymers can provide sustainable alternatives to conventional grades, and this is particularly true for agricultural films. Typically, such films are manufactured with additives to provide specific functionalities ranging from UV stability to antifog and IR filtering effects. Tosaf has developed appropriate additive masterbatches based on biodegradable carriers such as polylactic acid (PLA) and resin (rosin).

Another focus will be on e-mobility and electronics applications. Electromobility places additional requirements on the polymers used. Electromobility makes additional demands on the plastics used. One of these is the need for polymers that maintain their orange warning colour virtually unchanged throughout the life of a vehicle. Tosaf has set a worldwide benchmark with such a colour masterbatch according to RAL 2003 for polyamides (PA6 and PA66), polypropylene (PP) and polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). The PA masterbatches were successfully tested at 130  °C for 1000 hours without darkening. All grades are available with or without a laser marking additive for identification purposes.

A third key issue will be light diffuser solutions for polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polycarbonate (PC), including colored grades. Punctual LED light sources are widely used to illuminate large outdoor advertising boards, car parks and outdoor roads, as well as small control panels in car interiors. This creates a growing need for translucent decorative covers with light scattering properties for a uniformly backlit surface. Tosaf has developed special light-diffusing (LD) masterbatches, especially for polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polycarbonate (PC). In addition to color-neutral grades, combinations with specific colorings and other functional properties such as UV stabilizers are also available.

Tosaf Compounds Ltd.  

https://www.tosaf.com

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

2021-09-12 werstoffe_Tosaf

issue 01/2023

issue 09/2022

issue 08/2022

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