Masterbatches…The Current Buzzword in Plastic Industry

I find this masterbatches thing quite fascinating. Have you ever thought how the plastic which we use in our day to day life gets its color from? It is masterbatches which imparts color to the plastics. As a result of exploding demand for plastic, the demand for color masterbatches is sky rocketing.

My research and the people at RPIndustries (the leading additive masterbatches exporter and manufacturing company where I dug info for my school magazine article) are telling me that there is a huge growing potential of masterbatch business in Asia. The demand has grown from just under 90,000 tons in 1990 to nearly half a million tons in 2004.

There are many factors responsible for its growing use. Many plastics processors in Asia are supplying to Western or Japanese OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) or the export markets in West who have a very specific requirement and demand in terms of color match and performance. They manufacture and supply masterbatches keeping in mind the standards and quality that these markets demand.

Nowadays there is a wide variety of colors to choose from. The color masterbatches manufacturers keep a record of every tiny little detail of the compositions of masterbatches and processing conditions. This helps in reproducing the same masterbatches at anytime in future without any deviation in color shades or other properties.

Not just color masterbatches but demand for additive masterbatches is also on the rise. This is mainly due to increasing use of color and special effects to differentiate products. Plus, the requirement for improving performance criteria from polymer materials in terms of features such as UV stabilization, flame retardancy, etc., has also been growing rapidly. Ultra violet masterbatch demand is also very high.

This brings us to the end of the series. I hope it is of any use to you people. At least it gave me a chance to revise and share with you all the amazing stuff I learnt about this technology, about which honestly, I had no clue earlier..

Factors Affecting Devlopment of Masterbatches

Hello friends. I wish you memorize me. Last time I wrote about plastic industry and masterbatches. This time I am going to fling some light on development of masterbatches.

Honestly, unless you see for yourself the manufacturing process of masterbatches, it is tough to imagine just how much of technology and hard work goes into getting the formulations right. We, most frequently don’t give a second thought to the packaging, marveling at the most at the attractive colors and designs that make give the product a hard-to-resist “pick-me-up-please” kind of look.

It took me a visit to RP industries a Delhi based masterbatch exporters, supplier & manufacturers, to open my eyes wide to the various factors affecting different aspects of formulation. A idea of whatever I learnt over there is here for you:

Formulations differ depending on whether a supplier is designing a new masterbatch or copying someone else's. It is measured best to be involved at the color conception stage where it's possible to optimize formulation choice. Their difference also depends upon whether they are manually designed or computer generated.

Depending on the formulations, the cost of masterbatches also differs. Sometimes formulations over specify performance, and thus become more expensive. Contrarily, they can generate borderline performance to minimize cost. Buying power, production costs and general operating costs, formulations, opacity and pigment loadings are other factors affecting the cost of masterbatches.

There are many factors which influence the performance of masterbatches such as processor machine type its size, capacity, screw-type. Some suppliers prefer to use extenders and some don’t. The ability of a color masterbatches to mix into the polymer varies depending upon its viscosity and flow.

Bulk density and specific gravity variations can occur if distinct base ingredients are used. This can cause further difference in the end result if gravimetric or volumetric dozers are used at the processor.

I was also made aware of the importance of asking customers before formulating about the specification, application and commercial parameters in order to craft a tailor-made masterbatch.

This is attractive much all I could appreciate, rest was some very technical blah blah. Hope, you guys can explain the procedures further in simpler language, so that novices like me can understand the whole process better.