MATERIALS | COLOURS


Right: Gabriel- Chemie has received COTREP certification for black masterbatches that are


NIR-detectable


clage des Emballages Plas- tiques - Technical Commit- tee for the Recycling of Plastic Packaging). Kafrit’s CC 90778 LL Black masterbatch is another non NIR-absorb- ing alternative, devel- oped and optimised to enable sorting and recycling of black plastic products. The producer says it has high tinting strength and opacity, NIR-reflectivity at any concentration, and is extremely heat resistant, making it suitable for use with all plastics, even after multiple processing steps. Kafrit launched its NIR-detectable black pigment


in 2019, and it now has FDA food contact approval in the USA as well as in Europe and Japan. Feddersen Group company AF-Color says it can


now offer carbon-black-free versions of almost all its colour masterbatches. It says that during product development, the main focus was on achieving the greatest possible colour depth in the black range and enhancing competitiveness. However, carbon black is not only an issue in blackening. Many masterbatches contain carbon black in certain colorations and therefore fall through the sorting grid. “In view of the resulting requirements, we have already reformulated and successfully recreated some products from our portfolio both in preparation and at the request of our customers,” says AF-Color. Gabriel-Chemie’s newest product line is TagTec


– short for Taggant Technology. The company says the product series will facilitate the identification and sorting of colours more easily in future. Additional to the colour recycling application, it lifts the application possibilities of product authen-


IMAGE: GABRIEL- CHEMIE


tication to the next level focus- sing on safety, traceability and automation of


product processes. In addition to predefined options, Gabriel-Chemie


offers its customers tailor- made solutions. The ground-breaking


technology works with small particles, which are incorporated


into plastic parts and detected by either Star or Tau sensors from Gabriel-


Chemie’s co-operation partner Sensor Instru-


ments. “In other words, plastic parts receive an individual DNA – an identity signature like a finger- print, which enables the documentation of an entire product,” says the company. “Therefore, all stages of a product life cycle – from manufacturing, quality management, supply chain or circular economy of raw materials – are traceable.” Holland Colours too has a solution for food


brands and PET bottle converters who are looking for a better way to prevent counterfeiting and also ensure product safety through laser marking. MarkIT is a library of encapsulated colour pigments that support melt-free and burn-free laser marking, in many cases without using laser-marking addi- tives. The technology works with both PET and rPET and can also be used on PVC products for the building and construction industry. As more PET bottles get recycled, it is inevitable


that the material will have an increasing number of useful lives. Even with solid stating during mechani- cal recycling, there is a risk of property degrada- tion, including discolouration. Tests carried out by Avient, whose portfolio includes various additives for PET, show that after five melt histories, equiva- lent to material being recycled twice, discoloration can be notable. Today, with 30% rPET already used in numerous


bottles, 9% of material has already seen two or more loops. In the future, with 50% rPET in a bottle, 25% of material will have been through two or more loops. This means that recycle performance will have a greater impact on bottle quality, there will be increased yellowing (measured as b*), and there will be more colour variability, unless corrective action is taken. Andrea Smith is Global Product Manager for PET


Carbon black compared with Kafrit CC 90778 LL Black Reflectance in the NIR range


36 PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | July/August 2021 Source: Kafrit


resin functional additives at Avient. She says the company is involved in a new project involving what is likely be a liquid additive that is applied to PCR flake prior to extrusion into rPET pellets. “We are currently evaluating different types of chemistries


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