6Additives for Polymers November 2011

A Schulman unveils new range of polymer processing aids

Ohio-based A. Schulman is enhancing its range of polymer processing aids (PPAs)

in masterbatch form with a new line of Polybatch® AMF products. Containing third-generation PPAs, they are ideal for film extru-sion applications and help to substantially increase customers’ productivity, the company claims.

The new Polybatch products combine the advantages of previous series whilst also providing additional supe-rior properties, for example, excellent dispersion perform-ance and an effective coating of the extrusion hardware, A. Schulman claims. Customers benefit from the rapid elimination of melt fractures (sharkskin), it says. In addi-tion to this, for some time now A. Schulman has been offering cost-effective, state-of-the-art additive solutions for film, sheet and profile extrusion, as well as injection and blow moulding. Polybatch AMF 706, for example, is an economic additive masterbatch based on the latest PPA research. The company also revealed that other PPAs for different applications and technologies are currently being developed.

In other company news, A. Schulman has updated its adjusted net income guidance figure to between US$50 million and $52 million for its 2011 fiscal year ending 31 August, down from its earlier guidance of around $57 million. The decrease was driven primarily by two special charges totalling $5 million before tax, which will negatively impact fiscal 2011 fourth-quarter and full-year results. The revision does not, however, include any impact from the company’s plans to realign its engineered plastics business in North America, which will see it close its Nashville, TN, plant by the end of February 2012, with the loss of around 60 jobs. About 24 million lb (c. 11 000 tonnes) of production will be moved to existing production lines at the company’s Akron and Bellevue plants in Ohio.

Contact:A. Schulman, Inc, Akron, OH, USA.

Tel: +1 330 666 3751,

Web: www.aschulman.com

CTS enhances TPE sustainability with oyster shell powder

French thermoplastics manufacturer CTS claims to have increased the environmental perform-

ance of its Tefabloc® thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) range by adding oyster shell powder (OSP) to its formulas. The OSP is used to replace chalk as a functional filler and CTS reports that it imparts the same cycle time, rheology and reprocessing properties as quarried chalk.

Chemically, OSP is very similar to chalk, both being predominantly calcium carbonate, and both represent a CO2 ‘sink’. However, using OSP has several environmental advantages. Firstly, it does not require environmentally damaging and energy-consuming quarrying, and it can be purified without chemical or heat treatment, according to CTS. Also, the source rapidly regenerates in less than five years. Further, CTS sources the OSP from shellfish farm waste, taking oysters that have died prematurely through disease or predation and preventing them from being discarded into the marine environment, where they may cause localized pollution, and instead fixing them (and their CO2 content) in plastics. With 12 to 15 million tonnes of oysters produced each year for consumption, the amount of waste oysters produced is also significant.

Contact:CTS, Tiffauges, France. Tel: +33 2 5165 7143,

Web: cts-compound.eu

COMPANY STRATEGIES

Songwon completes expansion of antioxidant plant, introduces two new forms of Songnox 1076

Korea’s Songwon Industrial Group reports that the expansion of its antioxidant capac-

ity from 55 000 to 70 000 tonnes/year has been completed ahead of time. This is the result of the consolidation of Songnox® 1076 production into its new fully backward-integrated Maeam plant [ADPO, January 2011 & September 2009],

STRATEGIES