December 2013 Additives for Polymers5

tions that brings toughness, elongation and plastification without migration or compromising clarity, according to the company [ADPO, December 2012]. I6003rp represents an extension of the product line, it says. With this process aid, the company continues to ‘drive advancements in the use of performance biopolymers’ for PVC manufacturing by ‘har-nessing the power of its innovative PHA-technology plat-form’, Metabolix says. The company presented I6003rp at the K 2013 event in Düsseldorf, where it also exhibited its I6001 PVC modifier and a number of additional bio-based masterbatch and bio-composite resin products.

Contact: Metabolix Inc, Cambridge, MA, USA. Tel: +1 617 583 1700,

Web: www.metabolix.com

AkzoNobel extends antifog and antistat ranges

Netherlands-based AkzoNobel has intro-duced the first in a planned new range of

antifog additives for applications in food pack-aging and agricultural films. The company has also expanded its range of antistatic offerings with a high concentrate form of its existing vegetable-based Armostat® 1800 additive.

New antifog agent Armofog® 151 is reported to improve the hot and cold fog performance of polyethyl-

ene and EVA food packaging films, enhancing the appeal and shelf life of the packaged product. AkzoNobel has also developed a high-performance concentrate of the new additive called Armofog 151-XE35 – a free-flowing granular product containing 35% of the active antifog agent. The concentrate can be dosed directly to the extruder, the company says. ‘Customers demand easy-to-use antifog additives that save operational time and costs’, explains Haimo Tonnaer, business development manager for AkzoNobel’s Polymer Additives business. Armofog 151-XE35 ‘goes beyond’ standard antifog addi-tives, he claims. ‘This high-performance concentrate allows for easy handling and dosing while offering all the advantages of pure Armofog 151’, he adds.

According to AkzoNobel, the introduction of Armofog 151, including the high-performance concentrate, strength-ens its position as ‘one of the world’s leading suppliers’ of speciality polymer additive solutions. And the company will continue its ‘journey in antifogging’, Tonnaer says: ‘We are

committed to bridging the gap between traditional antifog additives and our customers’ needs for easy-to-use products that improve the antifog performance of their films’. In particular, the company highlights the need for new antifog additives to combat the ‘fundamental problem’ that exists with traditional agricultural films. Current antifog perfor-mance ‘is not durable enough’, it says.

In response to market needs for cost-effective, vegetable-based antistatic additives for polypropylene (PP) film and rigid packaging applications, AkzoNobel has also unveiled Armostat 1800-XP75, an easy-to-use high-dose concentrate of its Armostat 1800 antistatic agent. Armostat 1800 pro-vides an alternative to the animal-based additives that are typically used to counter problems related to the build-up of electric charges on plastic materials, the company says. Armostat 1800-XP75 contains 75% Armostat 1800 on PP. The free-flowing granules can be dosed easily to the extruder without requiring any investments, according to AkzoNobel.

Contact: AkzoNobel NV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 33 467

6767, Web: www.akzonobel.com/polymeradditives

Tosaf presents a new range of flame retardant masterbatches for corrugated pipes

Israel’s additives, masterbatches and compound-ing firm Tosaf Compounds has launched a new

line of ‘green’ masterbatch products optimized for the production of corrugated pipes to be used as conductors for electrical cables in construc-tion. Such conductors have to meet the European Flame Retardant (FR) Standard IEC 61386-1.

In the past, efficient and low-cost chlorinated paraffins had been the additives of choice to achieve this purpose but these chemicals have come under attack from two recent important regulations, Tosaf explains. Firstly, the REACH regulation has banned the use of short-chain chloroparaffins as they have been classified as Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC). At the same time, increasing numbers of pipe producers are trying to make their prod-ucts comply with the Low Smoke Zero Halogen regulation (LS0H; IEC 607541), the company says.

After intensive research, Tosaf has recently introduced a new range of flame retardant masterbatch products, all of

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