PROCESSING | PROCESS AIDS AND LUBRICANTS
film web defects or even breaks and increased cleaning times, which indeed remains a technical challenge to new PFAS-free solutions,” Weber says. The HiTerra T5 PFAS-free PPAs from Techmer PM is also said to have been used successfully in large-scale commercial applications. The company says it is now developing a second-generation HiTerra PPA that will be both PFAS-free and siloxane- free.
Houston, US-based Ingenia Polymers recently
Above: Film producers should be aware of
potential for interactions between PPAs in base resins and additive masterbatches, warns Ingenia Polymers
in Europe and Polyfil in the US. Some of the solutions are said to be suitable for high-tempera- ture processes running at up to 310°C (590°F), such as pipe extrusion and production of HDPE MDO [oriented] films. Michael Weber, Technical Services and R&D manager at Constab Polyolefin Additives, says PPAs prevent melt fracture on the surface of the film, explaining that these can occur due to various mechanisms, including high wall-shear stress at the die exit and melt flow irregularities. Another type of melt fracture can occur at the interface of core and surface layers in coextruded multilayer film structures due to differences in viscosity of the individual streams of molten polymer inside the die. These flow incompatibilities affect the clarity of the film similarly to surface roughness and can also be addressed with PPAs. “PPAs also prevent build-up of material on the die lip, which can degrade and slough off, causing
introduced two PFAS-free PPA masterbatches — IP1171 and ITZ-526 — for clearing sharkskin melt fracture and preventing die-lip buildup. The two new products sit alongside the company’s initial IP1170 PPA, which was launched in 2022. Speaking at the AMI Polyethylene Films Conference in Tampa, FL, US, last month, Ingenia Polymers Scientist Manal Khan shared data comparing these masterbatches to other non-fluorine materials used as processing aids, explaining that some of the alternative materials caused screw slippage and surging, which reduced output, while taking longer to clear melt fracture. Khan also presented a study of combinations of the Ingenia PPAs with other alternative PFAS-free PPA chemistries. It showed that the new Ingenia grades primarily had positive interactions with other PFAS-free PPA chemistries. However, a combination of siloxane and IP1171 showed an antagonistic effect in the time to clear sharkskin melt fracture testing and a combination of polyethylene glycol (PEG) blend and IP1171 resulted in an antagonistic effect on die-lip buildup prevention. IP1171 and ITZ526 on their own provided the best performance in terms of prevention of die-lip buildup.
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