additives | TiO2


product range. South Korean manufacturer Cosmo does not have any plastic grades in its product range. There are several dozen Chinese TiO2


manufacturers. We


estimate that 12.5% produce Type 1, 17.5% produce Type 2 and 15.7% produce Type 3.”


Grade development Gonchar highlights a number of technical trends over the past 10-15 years for TiO2


in plastics. “There has


been a move away from grades with a hydrophilic surface to hydrophobic grades. There has also been a move towards the production of grades that have water-repellent additives, chemically bonded to the surface of TiO2


. The market is rejecting grades


containing water repellents, which are only physically adsorbed. These lead to migration of the additives to the plastic surface during the manufacture of plastics, creating the ‘oily surface’ effect,” he says. Gonchar says there are also separate trends


occurring for the individual product types. “With Type 1 and 2 grades, we are observing moves to increase lacing resistance when using the pigment for the production of high temperature cast films while increasing the level of dispersibility by lowering the Filter Pressure Value. This has led to the emergence of Type 2 grades like Chemours’ Ti-Pure R-350. For Type 3 grades, we see improved durability levels in conjunction with increased hiding power. In addition, granulated pig- ments are emerging on the market for improved extruder feeding, making processing more uniform. These include Type 1 grade Deltio-5X from Huntsman, which is based on the Tioxide R-FC5 grade.” China will continue to increase its importance in the market of the future, according to Gonchar. “There


TiO2


are around 50 companies operating more than 55 factories in China,” he says. “In 2014 the effective capacity in China accounted for a total of 2,750,000 tons/year, but this capacity is now higher. Four plants in China are now using chloride technology, with the effective capacity of these plants being 200,000-250,000 tons/year.”


Limited differentiation According to independent consultant Peter Waugh, from a pigment producers’ perspective, the plastics market for TiO2


is largely commoditised with very


limited differentiation. “As a consequence it is generally straightforward to switch between many of the grades of the global producers, with some exceptions such as PVC profiles, where durability is important, or plastic films where lacing performance is a differentiator. There is no effective substitute for the properties that TiO2


attributes that TiO2


pigment provides to plastics. The most important have in plastics are optical (opacity


or hiding power), dispersibility (ease of incorporation into the polymer), and UV stability (resistance to breakdown),” he explains. Waugh adds that the price peaks in TiO2


from


of 4-5 years


ago saw attempts by users to reduce costs by either thrifting (using less), substitution (with fillers such as calcium carbonate) or by using lower cost TiO2 China. However, at the time Chinese TiO2


was more


inconsistent in quality, which caused issues in the more differentiated markets. However, over the intervening years, he says that a number of the larger Chinese businesses have looked to improve consistency, and their major weakness now is a lack of meaningful product development and differentiation. On current market demand in the plastics industry,


Titanium dioxide developments


Cristal has introduced TiONA 242, a sulphate rutile TiO2


product produced at the


company’s Bahia manufacturing plant in Brazil. According to the company, TiONA 242 has been designed with a high performance organic treatment to provide optimal dispersibility in polymers. It is recommend- ed for use in plastics masterbatch and other applications where durability is not critical. The grade is claimed to provide easy processing, quality consistency and high tint strength, which will provide plastic proces- sors with benefits such as ease of handling and increased productivity. Huntsman has developed Tioxide TR48


46


pigment, which the company says offers good colour properties and has been engineered to process well, even at high temperatures. The product has been designed as part of the Tioxide TR28 pigment range. Hybrid Plastics has developed POS silanol SO1450 as a dispersing agent for nano-TiO2 particles in polypropylene. SO1450 is a hybrid molecule with an inorganic silsequioxane a the core, organic isobutyl groups at the corners of the cage, and three active silanol functionalities. ❙ www.cristal.com ❙ www.huntsman.com ❙ www.hybridplastics.com


PIPE & PROFILE EXTRUSION | January/February 2017 www.pipeandprofile.com


PHOTO: CRISTAL


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58