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PET and PVC products find several applications in packaging sector on account of the clarity they offer. Clarity provides an advantage in packaging sheet/film etc as it enhances the sales appeal of the packaged product. Clarified PP, developed as an alternate to these products, is currently being widely used in the packaging sector. To provide an alternative at a competitive cost, clarified Polystyrene has been developed recently. Polystyrene is predominantly amorphous and has very little crystallinity, but incorporation of clarifier enhances its clarity. The mechanism of clarifier in amorphous Poplystyrene is not sclear yet, but soon will be available to large players in the industry. Clarifier type used for this development is also not known yet.
Clarified PP has density lower than 1 (0.90), PVC has the highest density (1.35-1.40) among all the packaging materials used for thermoforming. PET is just a shade lower (1.35) than that of PVC. Clarified Polystyrene has densitiy of 1.05. It therefore offers an advantage compared to PVC and PET. Clarified PP however has better advantages among all these polymers. AVC Corporation based in USA has developed clarified Polystyrene and is very hopeful that this product would provide competition to PVC. PVC particularly poses an environmental issue in the area of its disposal. Clarified Polystyrene would be benign like PET and PP. It is to be seen whether it would provide a competition to PET but PVC is certainly expected to lose some of its share of thermoforming to clarified Polystyrene.
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