Developments in performance enhancing Polyolefin Additives

Polyolefins lead the global commodity plastics markets in volume, applications and diversity of functions. Noru Tsalic of AMI Consulting will outline the market trends at the next AMI international conference on Polyolefin Additives and Compounding 2015, in October in Cologne. Polyethylene pipes are gaining sector share in construction, agricultural films are transforming the production potential in arid regions, polypropylene packaging is preserving foodstuffs and minimising waste and in automotive manufacturing the use of polyolefins as metal replacements is reducing weight. The different properties of polyethylene and polypropylene materials are obtained by careful selection of resin, additives, reinforcement and processing methods. A. Schulman is reviewing how to compound polypropylene to tailor properties and Lummus Novolen Technology has studied how to obtain advanced features in PP. There are now many larger scale uses of PP compounds, particularly in automotive and Leistritz Extrusionstechnik has new equipment for upscaling the compounding process, while Automatik Plastics Machinery has top of the range pelletising technology. Polykemi in Sweden has developed a talc-reinforced PP for light-weighting in the automotive industry. For interior applications Sinopec has studied additive formulations to minimise VOC emissions in PP and for exterior uses Croda has focused on additives to provide scratch resistance. Kaerntner Montanindustrie provides functional minerals which can also be used to improve scratch resistance, alongside warpage reduction and reinforcement. There are several new mineral developments this year including a new pyrophillite from Trinity Resources based in Canada. AMI’s Polyolefin Additives 2015 conference brings together industry experts to debate the optimal compounds and resins for a wide range of applications from cables to packaging films. Kabelwerk Eupen will be describing the latest developments in flame retardants and Cytec will be looking at stabilisers, which are critical in construction products. Borealis Polyolefine will be examining how to manage the optical properties of transparent films by careful compounding. Polymeric additives like ionomers can improve compounds, such as the products from Cray Valley and Arkema. There is a particular focus this year on stabilisation, which ensures durability and extended performance: BASF has reviewed stabilisers for specific uses, Dover Chemical Corporation has new advanced alkylphenol-free polymeric phosphite stabilisers and Addivant has new solutions for LLDPE materials. From Asia, Songwon has high performance stabilisers, while Everspring Middle East will give another perspective at this international event. Sustainability is key to the future of the plastics industry and this year there is a paper on the compounding and performance of recyclate from Quality Circular Polymers (QCP), which is a new polyolefin recycling start up company in the Netherlands. European legislation requires that increasing amounts of materials are recovered from end of life products including packaging, electrical goods and vehicles, so this is a hot topic.