Technology/Machinery at K2016 • US-based Dow Chemical will demonstrate new flexible packaging being developed with Italy’s Nordmeccanica, a specialist in coating, laminating, and metallising machinery. Dow will also feature its new family of Innate Precision Packaging Resins, said to offer stiffness/toughness balance with improved processing. Produced with a patented molecular catalyst, coupled with advanced process technology, the resins have been shown to have up to twice the abuse resistance of standard PE resins in coextruded films.
• Huntsman will feature pigments for applications ranging from packaging and construction profiles to automotive and electronic components. It will also feature its new Tioxide TR48 TiO2, said to process well, even at high temperatures. Designed for use in polyolefin masterbatches, BOPP films, and engineering compounds, TR48 boasts easy dispersion and tint-reduction capabilities for lowVOC formulations. It is geared to premium and general packaging, consumer electronics, and automotive components.
• Austria’s Borealis will showcase three new Queo polyolefin elastomer (POE) grades with lower densities (0.868-0.870 g/cc) and MFR from 0.5-6.6 for interior and exterior car parts, adhesives and cable compounds. It launched Queo in 2013 after it was acquired from Dutch firm Dex Plastomers, a joint venture of DSM and ExxonMobil Chemical. After three years of R&D and investing in Compact solution polymerisation technology (now rebranded Borceed), Borealis is ready with its compounds. Meanwhile, its sister company Nova Chemicals will showcase an all-PE stand-up pouch for dry foods like pet foods. A multilayer film structure, it offers recyclability, unlike the standard PET/PE laminate, and the ability to run on the same lines at the same speeds.
• Lanxess’s subsidiary Rhein Chemie Additives will feature the latest in its line of organic Macrolex Gran colourants, said to provide brilliant colouring of plastics such as PS, ABS, PET, and PMMA. Consisting of hollow spheres, the high-purity Macrolex microgranules can be easily crushed, allowing for quick and even dispersion. The free-flowing properties of the 0.3-mm spheres make precise metering easier and prevent clumping during mixing.
• Italy’s Finproject Industries will introduce Levirex antistatic and oil resistant compound developed in Finproject’s laboratories, according to European safety regulations. Based on expansible and crosslinking polyolefins, the compounds can be injection moulded. Pigments • Swiss firm Clariant’s new PV Fast Yellow H4G is to replace lead chromates in PVC and polyolefins. This FDA-compliant organic benzimidazolone is said to have three times the colour strength of lead-based pigments, so lower levels are needed, as well as opacity and weather fastness. Also new is quinacridone PV Fast Pink E/EO1, made with bio-succinic acid, for colouring toys and food packaging. Its recently launched Polysynthren Black H is an IR-transparent dye that enables easy sorting of black articles made from nylons, ABS, and PC during recycling. Clariant is replacing its lead chromates with PV Fast Yellow H4G
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Masterbatches/Additives • US firm Modern Dispersions will show a new line of EcoBlack masterbatches that contain 100% recycled carbon black from post-consumer tyres. EcoBlack 40, a PE-based masterbatch, complements the company’s line of black masterbatches. It also delivers cost savings from 5-10% over standard grades and can be used in traditional applications such as film, sheet, and moulded items, at typical letdown ratios of between 2-5%. The firm has trialled it in several automotive and office furniture applications.
Modern Dispersions’s EcoBlack product is made of 100% recycled carbon black from postconsumer tyres
• South Korean Songwon’s Songxtend 2124 stabiliser for the automotive industry improves the long-term thermal stability (LTTS) of the short and long-glass fibre reinforced PP used in interior applications for moulded parts, and can match the LTTS performance of 1,000 hours and beyond at 150°C. It also allows parts to be thinner and lighter while still having similar mechanical properties as unfilled parts.