New additives offer a productivity boost to pharmaceutical packaging converters

15-Sep-11

Pharmaceutical packaging converters can take advantage of a new range of sector-dedicated MEVOPUR® additives from Clariant to boost their productivity and cost-efficiency, with the assurance of regulatory compliant ingredients. The additives for polyolefins, including nucleating agents and processing aids, address converters' needs to control escalating manufacturing costs in the face of both increasing regulatory controls and demands for increasingly innovative products. As shown in tests using injection and injection/compression molded caps, MEVOPUR nucleants enable converters to achieve an increase in production rates of up to 12% compared to non-nucleated PP-H and improvements compared to conventional nucleants. Their use of the latest generation technology reduces cycle times by improving rate of crystallization and the crystallization temperature versus conventional technology in homopolymer and random copolymer polypropylene (PP) and in high density and low density polyethylene (PE). These nucleants can also make these polymers more rigid as a result of their more consistent and finer morphology, without degrading impact strength. This allows converters to create thinner-walled part sections and generate raw material savings. In PP homopolymer the stiffness as indicated by the flexural modulus is increased by 10% and the thermal performance is boosted by 20%, as measured by heat distortion temperature. Combinations of different MEVOPUR nucleants can be used to optimize their product according to specific requirements. The nucleants have also been shown to reduce molding defects caused by anisotropic shrinkage, such as warping and sink marks. Unlike conventional nucleants, these nucleants are biologically evaluated according to USP parts 87, 88 (Class VI) and ISO10993 parts 4, 5, 10, 11 and 18. As part of these test protocols, extraction is carried out using a range of fluids, followed by further evaluation. Documentary data is therefore available to support risk assessments of packaging materials. All MEVOPUR products are produced under a global ISO13485 quality system covering Clariant's dedicated medical sites in Malmo, Sweden, Lewiston, USA and Singapore.