Milliken sends 'clear' PP message at ArabPlast 2017

Specialty chemicals supplier Milliken is inviting polypropylene producers, compounders and converters to visit its booth at ArabPlast 2017 where it will present its portfolio under the slogan 'Making polypropylene clearer, better, faster. Together'.

Milliken will shine the spotlight on its technology-leading clarifiers and nucleators to improve PP resins, while demonstrating how its UV absorber can improve key properties in PET packaging.

Milliken’s additives embrace the key sustainability and performance-related challenges affecting today’s plastics processing industry. During the expo, the company will highlight how its Millad NX 8000 clarifier yields ultimate clarity and transparency in injection moulded, blow moulded and thermoformed PP products. At the same time, Millad NX 8000 also enables low-temperature processing in injection moulding when compared to PP clarified with traditional clarifiers, which in turn yields both faster cycle times and energy savings.

The company also will showcase how its Hyperform HPN nucleators provide an excellent balance of physical properties, and help to achieve improved end-product performance, and faster, trouble-free production. These additives also override the nucleating effect of pigments, meaning that high part quality is possible regardless of the colour used.

Hyperform HPN allows for stronger, lighter parts by achieving an improvement in stiffness of about 10 per cent when compared to conventionally nucleated PP, while still retaining the same impact behaviour as a non-nucleated resin. Additionally, Hyperform HPN improves the stiffness of non-nucleated PP by 25-30 per cent.

At ArabPlast, Milliken also will discuss how its ClearShield UV absorber can improve key properties in PET packaging. At the same time as makers of home and personal care products increasingly are using more natural ingredients, they’re embracing memorable colors, active ingredients and special additives. But UV light can negatively impact some of these new ingredients, and current UV filters come with their own challenges.

So Milliken has developed a better alternative: ClearShield UV absorber. This crystal-clear additive offers a wider range of UV protection than other products (up to 390 nm), has proven efficacy in protecting sensitive ingredients such as vitamins and dyes, and retains the high transparency of PET without unwanted shading.

Use of Milliken’s ClearShield UV absorber in the packaging offers an alternative, simpler way to provide UV protection to formulations without reworking the composition, thereby avoiding regulatory uncertainty and the complexity of an extra formulation step. It also provides more freedom in formulation design and confidence in the end-product quality, as it is possible to extend the formulation shelflife and avoid colour fading while keeping the visual appeal of a product in transparent packaging.

Milliken ClearShield UV absorbers help deliver better, brighter, more stable and more sustainable PET packaging. Naturally.