Carbon black | additives
New European regulations are demanding carbon black manufacturers meet even higher levels of product purity, while development of conductive and “green” sourced product continues apace. Peter Mapleston reports
Carbon blacks get fit for the future
Producers of carbon blacks for use in plastics com- pounds are hard at work on process as well as product developments. Tougher health and safety legislation in Europe has led to improvements in product purity at traditional suppliers, while new entrants to the market are making progress—possibly a little slower than origi- nally anticipated but still in the right direction—on processes for creating “green” pyrolysis processes that give tyres and other hard-to-recycle products a second life. At the same time, there is much to report back from the conductive front.
Regulatory moves A number of carbon black manufacturers are drawing attention to their moves to fall in line with new Euro- pean Union regulations covering various polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) classified as carcino- gens. Two years ago, the EU Commission issued regulation 1272/2013, which, as noted by carbon black supplier Cabot, “limits the content of eight PAHs in the accessible plastic or rubber parts of certain articles placed on the EU market from 27 December 2015 onward” (see box story on page 28 for more details). The Commission says these PAHs “can be found in
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the plastic and rubber parts of a wide range of consum- er articles. They are present as impurities in some of the raw materials used in the production of such articles, in particular in extender oils and in carbon black. They are not added intentionally to the articles and do not perform any specific function as constituents of the plastic or rubber parts. “In addition, quality certifications such as the
Geprüfte Sicherheit (GS) safety mark in Germany require a limited PAH content in certain consumer- based plastic products. “In order to meet these requirements at the end of
the year, global companies need to act now if they want to maintain compliance,” says Vanessa Craigie, corporate communications manager at major carbon black producer Cabot Corp. “They must have a compre- hensive plan in place to tackle this head on – and more specifically they need to take a hard look at the materials that go into their products.” Cabot says it has initiated a rigorous testing program
to ensure the products certified meet these stringent PAH limits; several other suppliers have adopted similar policies. Craigie says 17 Cabot specialty carbon blacks for plastics applications are certified to comply
November 2015 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 27
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