COLOURS AND MASTERBATCH | MATERIALS
Combining colour benefits with sustainability
Injection moulders continue to want new and exciting colours for their brand owner customers. However, masterbatch suppliers are also having to help achieve rising sustainability targets, writes Mark Holmes
Masterbatch manufacturers are increasingly being requested to supply more sustainable solutions for plastics injection moulders, while continuing to meet market needs for innovative new colours and reliable global colour consistency. With increased use of recycled polymers and biomaterials, new colour and masterbatch technology is needed to meet these industry challenges. According to Matthew Hellstern, Chief Executive
Officer of Americhem, the current market needs for colouring technologies have shifted due to the discussion on the environmental impact of the plastics industry. “Today, there is a significant focus on single-use plastics and how we can make them more sustainable for our future so they do not end up in landfills and our oceans,” he says. “Customers are already beginning to demand not only high performing masterbatches, but these products must also be environmentally conscious. As masterbatch manufacturers, it is our duty to meet the customers’ needs and take on our own responsibility to make
www.injectionworld.com
our products more environmentally sustainable through formulations and processing. The entire value chain needs to come together to understand the carbon footprint of the entire process for contin- ued environmental improvement.” Hellstern highlights a number of opportunities for the plastics industry to create a more sustain- able future. These include continued light weight- ing or metal replacement with plastics in the automotive and aerospace industries, as well as increased use of recycled resins in the production of colours and masterbatches for sustainability across industries. He adds that surgical and medical devices continue to rapidly change with the trends and the plastics industry has and will continue to make monumental impacts that change the way we think of modern healthcare. Material replacement across a multitude of industries will continue. In the building and construction industry, for example, using polymer products for outdoor applications such as fencing
Main image: Americhem supplied a dark coloured masterbatch for a fencing application
July/August 2019 | INJECTION WORLD 49
PHOTO: AMERICHEM
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
