Masterbatches…The Current Buzzword in Plastic Industry

I find this masterbatches thing quite fascinating. Have you ever thought how the plastic which we use in our day to day life gets its color from? It is masterbatches which imparts color to the plastics. As a result of exploding demand for plastic, the demand for color masterbatches is sky rocketing.

My research and the people at RPIndustries (the leading masterbatch exporting and manufacturing company where I dug info for my school magazine article) are telling me that there is a huge growing potential of masterbatch business in Asia. The demand has grown from just under 90,000 tons in 1990 to nearly half a million tons in 2004.

There are many factors responsible for its growing use. Many plastics processors in Asia are supplying to Western or Japanese OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) or the export markets in West who have a very specific requirement and demand in terms of color match and performance. They manufacture and supply masterbatches keeping in mind the standards and quality that these markets demand.

Nowadays there is a wide variety of colors to choose from. The color masterbatches manufacturers keep a record of every tiny little detail of the compositions of masterbatches and processing conditions. This helps in reproducing the same masterbatches at anytime in future without any deviation in color shades or other properties.

Not just color masterbatches but demand for UV Masterbatch is also on the rise. This is mainly due to increasing use of color and special effects to differentiate products. Plus, the requirement for improving performance criteria from polymer materials in terms of features such as UV stabilization, flame retardancy, etc., has also been growing rapidly.

This brings us to the end of the series. I hope it is of any use to you people. At least it gave me a chance to revise and share with you all the amazing stuff I learnt about this technology, about which honestly, I had no clue earlier..

Food Tasting Bad?..May Be It Is The Packaging

Hi all. I am back with more stuff on masterbatches, the coloring and special function imparting agents in plastics. Thanks for the encouragement and comments, they are really justifying my efforts, which honestly I thought had gone down the drain.

In my last two posts I talked about the types of masterbatches and  the points to consider while manufacturing them. Now I will discuss the role of colorants and additives in food & beverage packaging.

Plastic packaging is boon for food and beverage industry. Not only does it keep the contents fresh for long but also attractive packaging makes them irresistible for the consumers. But is the packaging really beneficial to the consumers? No point arguing that the plastic packaged content is usable for long (let’s not go to the pros and cons of that) but plastic, especially colored plastic does something to the food and all, doesn’t it?

Plastic packaging can alter the taste and odor. More often than not it is subtle, but sometimes the change can be major and irritating. Take a neutral product like bottled water; it is really susceptible to organoleptic influences.

Given the resources that go in creating compelling products, the last thing manufacturer need is to have a plastic package skew the taste and odor of their offerings.

From the knowledge gleaned from interaction with RP Industries functionaries (the guys I approached to research for my doomed school magazine article) I can safely say that understanding the interaction between resins, colorants, and functional additives and product taste and odor is essential to being able to limit the organoleptic interaction between the plastic package and its contents. It is especially necessary for UV Masterbatch suppliers and others involved in compound formulation.

The best approach is to choose an “organoleptic-friendly” colorant and avoid the use of functional additives. Moreover colorants require careful selection because of their certain chemical composition which might be more problematic than others when it comes to taste and odor. Many masterbatch manufacturers avoid or at the very least put strict limits on compounds that contain either chlorine or sulfur due to their potential to cause sensory issues.

Several other factors can effect the organoleptic integrity of a package such as the choice of carrier resins used in masterbatches. These should be neat resins that are free of low-molecular-weight components.

Amazing, isn’t it! Just a little (to be frank hell lot of it!) research and we know why our plastic packaged food tastes bad. Now it is up to the plastic manufacturers and the masterbatch suppliers to ensure that plastic packaging just alter the looks of a product not its taste.