INNOVATION | CARBON BLACK


easy-to-disperse carbon blacks within almost all thermoplastic applications requires unique process design and raw materi- als that possess low sulphur and ash,” he says. The company’s recently launched Printex kappa 70 conductive carbon black is one of the fruits of these investments, Brooks says. “Printex kappa 70 offers a combination of cleanli- ness and conductive efficiency that makes it well suited for traditional conductive plastics applica- tions in electronics and safety and allows access to growing markets such as electric and autonomous vehicles.” Orion Technical Market Manager Vasanth


Narayanan says: “Customers who process carbon black in fibre and thin film applications expect excellent dispersion and product purity to enable their applications. Film thickness can be achieved at processing rates that are acceptable to our customers and that reduce product defects for end users.”


Concentrate products Recently, Unipetrol said it had developed several new concentrates and compounds based on PVC and its highly conductive carbon black Chezacarb. The company says there is a possibility to produce these materials at large scale in cooperation with Anwil, a sister company within the PKN Orlen group that produces PVC and fertilisers. The concentrates can be used for pipes, ESD shielding, cables, flooring, extruded profiles and other products. Unipetrol points out that resistivity is significantly


Left: Electronics packaging makes use of Orion’s carbon blacks to provide conductivity and cleanliness


influenced not only by carbon black content


but also by other additives. “So tailoring of such a concentrate can be quite a challenge,” a company spokesperson explains. “Usually it is recommended to use less filler when using our carbon black as it also makes the compounds stiffer. When we tried different plasticiser content in PVC (DINP, diisono- nyl phthalate), there was significant synergy between carbon black and plasticiser: the resistivity was decreasing quicker. But after a certain point of plasticiser addition, the plasticiser will change the PVC inner structure, resulting in a slower reduction of resistivity.” The results can be seen in Figure 3. Unipetrol has also introduced a PLA concentrate with carbon black, which is aimed mainly at 3D printing using the fused filament fabrication (FFF) technique. “Along the way, there were a few challenges such as brittleness of PLA after addition of carbon black, but it was solved by blending PLA with other biopolymers,” the spokesperson says. “These biopolymers influenced not only the mechanical properties but also the resistivity, so it was crucial to select the right one which had the optimal properties.”


Figure 3: Specific volume/surface resistivity of DINP-plasticised PVC compounds containing Chezacarb conductive black Source: Unipetrol


40 COMPOUNDING WORLD | November 2019


CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: � www.blackbearcarbon.com � www.envirosystems.se � www.pyrolyx.com � www.kleanindustries.com � www.bolderindustries.com � www.polyone.com � www.carbonrecovery.at � www.monolithmaterials.com � www.cabotcorp.com � www.imerys-graphite-and-carbon.com � www.farrel-pomini.com � www.birlacarbon.com � www.himadri.com � www.orioncarbons.com � www.unipetrol.cz


www.compoundingworld.com


PHOTO: ORION ENGINEERED CARBONS


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  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86