Why is pvc masterbatch Better?

In the plastic manufacturing and processing industry, PVC Compounds and Masterbatch are important materials. These two materials are widely used in various fields, including cables, construction materials, and plastic piping, but they differ in characteristics and applications. This article will delve into the features, manufacturing processes, and uses of PVC Compound and Masterbatch, helping you better understand and choose between these two crucial materials.

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Introduction to PVC Compound

PVC Compound is a pre-mixed plastic composite material, which is made of PVC resin combined with various additives according to a specific formula. These additives may include plasticizers, stabilizers, fillers, lubricants, pigments, etc. PVC Compound is a finished formula that can be directly processed into final products without the need for further mixing with other materials.

〈Recommended Product：PVC Compound〉

 

Types of PVC Compound

• Rigid PVC Compound: Used for manufacturing pipes, and window profiles, etc.
• Flexible PVC Compound: Applied in cable sheathing, flooring, etc.
• Semi-rigid PVC Compound: A blend between rigid and flexible and is used for specialized applications.

 

PVC Compound Process

The manufacturing process of PVC Compound usually includes the following steps:

 

1. Raw material mixing and melting steps

The primary plastic powder is mixed with other additives in specified proportions. Usually, 85-95% plastic powder, 0.1-10% light diffusion powder, and 2-14.5% anti-blue light powder are blended evenly using a mixer and then heated to a certain temperature to ensure the materials are fully mixed and plasticized.

 

2. Cooling and Solidification step

The fully or partially melted plastic mixture is extruded into the desired shape through a screw. The extrudate is then cooled to a solidification temperature using water or air cooling methods, such as blowers, to solidify it into a dry solid form.

 

3. Pelletizing Process steps

The solidified plastic strands are cut using a pelletizer, precisely trimmed to the required pellet size depending on their intended use. The final product appears as blocks or granules, completing the PVC Compound manufacturing process.

 

Application fields of PVC Compound

PVC Compound typically appears in granular or pellet form, making it easy to process and use for producing both soft and rigid PVC parts, such as pipes, sheets, and films. Below are six major industries where PVC Compound is applied:

 

1. Cable Trunking industry

• Improve insulation: Ensure safe operation of wires
• Increases wear and weather resistance: Extends product lifespan.
• Improve processing performance: Facilitate the production of wire ducts of various shapes and sizes
• Improve product quality: Boosts overall performance and durability.

 

2. PVC Flooring Industry

• Enhanced weather resistance, impact resistance and abrasion resistance: reduce aging, fading and surface damage
• Adjust hardness and softness: Accommodates different process requirements
• Improved impact and scratch resistance: Extends the product’s lifespan.
• Achieve diverse colors and appearances: Enhance product appeal

 

3. Window frame industry

• Reduce production costs: Improve market competitiveness
• Enhance tensile strength and weather resistance: Improve product durability
• Minimizes deformation and wear: extend service life
• Provides a variety of color choices: Enhance the aesthetics of the building
• Improve sound insulation and thermal insulation performance: Increases window frame functionality

 

4. Plastic valve industry

• Improve material flow and processability: Facilitate the manufacture of valves of various shapes and sizes
• Enhanced durability: Improved oxidation resistance, weather resistance and chemical stability
• Reduce production costs: Increases efficiency, saving raw materials and energy

 

5. Optical Fiber Cable Applications

• Produces protective sleeves: Moisture-proof, corrosion-resistant, ensuring fiber stability.
• Enhanced flame retardancy: Improved safety
• Improve mechanical properties: Boosts tensile strength and wear resistance, reducing damage rate
• Provides diversified appearance: Meet different product needs

6. Plastic pipes and plates

• Enhances processing performance: Increase flow, facilitate molding, cutting and installation
• Enhanced UV resistance: Especially suitable for transparent PVC pipes maintaining transparency
• Improve physical properties: Increase strength, hardness, tensile strength, compressive strength and wear resistance
• Adapts to a various of products: Suitable for pipes, plates, transparent plastic pipes and other products

Introduction to Masterbatch

Masterbatch is a high-concentration additive carrier mainly used in the plastic processing industry. It is a granular mixture where pigments, fillers, or other additives are highly concentrated and dispersed within a resin carrier. The purpose of masterbatch is to provide color or specific functionality during the plastic processing stage, simplifying production processes and enhancing product quality.

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Features of Masterbatch

1. High Concentration: Typically contains 20-80% additives, much higher than the concentration in the final product.
2. Easy Dispersion: Designed to ensure quick and uniform dispersion of additives within the base resin.
3. Versatility: Provide color and functional properties, such as UV stability, flame retardant, etc.
4. Cost-Effectiveness: Reduce the number of SKU in inventory and production costs.
5. Precise Control: Allows for accurate control of additive quantities.

 

Types of masterbatch

1. Masterbatch

The most common type, used for coloring plastics.

• Single-Color Masterbatch: Contains a single color pigment
• Multi-Color Masterbatch: Includes multiple pigments for special color effects.

 

2. White Masterbatch

Contains high concentrations of white pigments (e.g., titanium dioxide), to increase the opacity and brightness in plastics.

 

3. Black Masterbatch

Contains carbon black pigment and is used to produce black plastic products.

 

4. Functional Masterbatch

• Antistatic Masterbatch: Reduce static accumulation on plastic surfaces.
• Antibacterial Masterbatch: Provides antibacterial properties, commonly used in medical and food packaging.
• Flame Retardant Masterbatch: Improves the flame retardant performance of plastic products.
• UV Stabilizer Masterbatch: Enhance the resistance to UV radiation, extending outdoor durability.
• Foaming Masterbatch: Used for producing lightweight foam plastic products.

 

5. Filler Masterbatch

Contains mineral fillers (e.g., calcium carbonate, talc powder, etc.), used to improve the mechanical properties of plastics or reduce costs.

 

Masterbatch manufacturing process

1. Ingredients Preparation: Precise weighing of various raw materials according to the formula.
2. Pre-Mixing: Initial mixing of pigments or additives with part of the resin carrier.
3. Melting and mixing: Melting the mixture at high temperatures, followed by dispersion and homogenization.
4. Extrusion: Extruding the molten mixture through an extruder.
5. Cooling: Cooling and solidifying the extruded material.
6. Pelletizing: Cutting the cooled material into uniform granules.
7. Screening and packaging: Quality inspection, screening of qualified products, and packaging.

 

Application areas of Masterbatch

1. Packaging industry: Plastic bags, food containers, beverage bottles, etc.
2. Automobile industry: Interior parts, dashboards, exterior parts, etc.
3. Electronic appliances: Household appliance casings, electronic product accessories, etc.
4. Construction industry: Pipes, profiles, doors and windows, etc.
5. Agriculture: Agricultural film, irrigation system, etc.
6. Consumer goods: Toys, household items, sports equipment, etc.
7. Medical industry: Medical equipment, pharmaceutical packaging, etc.

Comparison of PVC Compound and Masterbatch

Composition

• PVC Compound: Contains base PVC resin and all necessary additives, a complete formula.
• Masterbatch: Typically contains a high concentration of pigments or functional additives and needs to be mixed with the base resin during use. Primarily used to provide color or specific functions.

 

Usage

• PVC Compound: Ready for directly for molding processing without additional mixing steps. Ideal for situations where quick production or the absence of mixing equipment is needed.
• Masterbatch: Requires blending with base resin in a specific ratio before use. This process requires an additional mixing step during production but allows for more precise control over the formulation.

 

Concentration

• PVC Compound: Lower concentration of additives, typically between 10-40%, suitable for direct processing without further dilution.
• Masterbatch: High additive concentration, ranging from 20-80%. The high concentration means less material is needed, saving on transportation and storage costs, but requires precise mixing with the base resin.

 

Flexibility

• PVC Compound: Fixed formula, low flexibility. Each Compound has specific properties and colors, and changing the formulation requires reordering a different recipe.
• Masterbatch: Allows for the adjustment of additive ratios according to needs, offering higher flexibility. This is suitable for production scenarios where product characteristics need to be frequently changed.

How to choose: PVC Compound or Masterbatch?

The choice between PVC Compound and Masterbatch depends on various factors, including your specific needs, production scale, technical capabilities, and cost considerations. Here’s a detailed guide to help you decide:

 

When choosing PVC Compound

1. Direct Usage requirements: If you need a material ready for immediate molding and processing, PVC Compound is ideal. It contains all the necessary additives, requiring no additional mixing.
2. Large-Scale Production: For large-scale production, using PVC Compound can simplifies the production process and increases efficiency.
3. High stability requirements: If your product has strict performance stability, pre-formulated PVC Compound can provide more consistent quality.
4. Limited Expertise: If your team has limited experience with recipe adjustments, using ready-made PVC Compound reduces the risk of errors. APEX offers a professional R&D team that can customize PVC Compound according to your needs.
5. Special Performance Requirements: Some specific performance (e.g., high flame resistance, high weatherability) PVC products may require complex formulations, making it more appropriate to choose professionally formulated PVC Compound.

 

When choosing Masterbatch

1. Flexibility Requirement: If you frequently need to adjust the color or functional properties of your products, Masterbatch provides greater flexibility.
2. Inventory Management: Using Masterbatch can reduce the number of SKUs stock as you can manufacture a variety of products using the same base resin with different Masterbatches.
3. Cost-effectiveness: For small batches or multi-variety production, using Masterbatch may be more cost-effective because you can adjust the addition ratio according to your needs.
4. Customized Requirements: If your customers often request specific colors or functions, using Masterbatch can respond to these requirements more quickly.
5. Strong Technical Capability: If your team has expertise in blending and mixing, using Masterbatch can give you more control and achieve more precise performance adjustments.
6. Space Saving: Masterbatch is usually more concentrated than PVC Compound, saving storage space.

 

Comprehensive Considerations

• Product type: Some products may be better suited to PVC Compound (such as medical supplies requiring high consistency), while others may be better for Masterbatch (such as consumer goods with frequently changing colors).
• Production Equipment: Make sure your equipment can effectively handle the materials you choose. Using Masterbatch may require additional mixing equipment.
• Quality Control: Consider your quality control capabilities. Using PVC Compound may be easier to maintain consistent quality, while using Masterbatch requires more rigorous process control.
• Environmental Factors: In some cases, using Masterbatch may be more environmentally friendly because it reduces material waste.
• Supply Chain Considerations: Evaluate the reliability and lead time of suppliers. Sometimes, choices may be influenced by supply chain factors.

FAQ

Q1: How to ensure the quality of PVC Compound products?

To ensure the quality of PVC Compound products, the key is to have a complete quality control system. A high-quality supplier will provide professional in-factory quality control inspection, usually covering four stages: incoming material sampling inspection, in-process quality control inspection, finished product quality inspection, and post-production analytical inspection. These stages enable comprehensive monitoring of the product production process to ensure that the PVC Compound produced meets high standards of quality.

 

Q2: What international standard should a high-quality PVC Compound pass?

A high-quality PVC Compound should pass multiple international standard tests. In addition to in-factory quality inspection, institutional inspection is equally important! This includes testing items to ensure that plastic Masterbatch meets international standards, such as RoHS specifications, eight heavy metal testing, powder inspection, tensile testing, etc., and follows relevant standards such as IEC :, EN71-3, ASTM-F963, etc. These standards ensure the safety and quality of PVC Compound.

APEX's PVC Compound Features

1. Premium Raw Materials: We use high-quality PVC resin as the base material to ensure the stability and reliability of the product.
2. Highly Customizable: We offer a wide range of color options and custom formulas to meet customer-specific application needs.
3. Superior Coloring Performance: Our PVC Compound exhibits excellent coloring performance, which can achieve uniform and stable color distribution in plastic products and improve their visual appeal.
4. Modification function: In addition to coloring, our PVC Compound has modification capabilities that improve the mechanical properties, weather resistance, and overall quality of plastic products.
5. Environmentally Friendly and Reliable: Our products can be customized to comply with relevant environmental standards to ensure safe and reliable use.
6. Stability and Reliability: Through strict quality control and testing processes, we ensure the stability and reliability of each batch of products.
7. Wide range of applications: Our PVC Compound is widely used in optical fiber, wire insulation and sheathing, rigid extrusion, rigid injection molding, flexible extrusion and flexible injection molding to meet different application needs.
8. Customizable: Our products can be customized according to customers' specific requirements to ensure that the products fully meet customer needs.

 

Conclusion

PVC Compound and Masterbatch are both important materials in plastic processing, each with its own unique characteristics and application. Understanding the differences and applications of these two materials can help you make the right choice for different production needs. As a professional supplier, APEX provides high-quality PVC Compound and Masterbatch products to meet customer needs in various fields. No matter which material you choose, APEX can provide you with a professional solution. Feel free to contact us .

 

Different options compared

Different types of colorants used to color PVC

There are several types of colorants that can be used to color PVC, including pigments, masterbatches, and color concentrates. Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages, which should be considered when choosing a colorant for a specific application. 

1. Dry Format (Pigments): Pigments in a dry powder form are one of the most basic ways to color PVC. They're composed of organic or inorganic materials that absorb certain wavelengths of light, giving them color. Pigments have high thermal stability, which is ideal for PVC processing. They are directly mixed into the PVC matrix during the compounding process. However, achieving a uniform and consistent color can be challenging with pigments due to issues with dispersion. The success largely depends on the mixing equipment and conditions. A downside is that they might require additional additives or surfactants to aid dispersion, and the process can be dusty.

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2. Liquids (Pastes): These are pigments dispersed in a liquid carrier, often a plasticizer, which is compatible with PVC. The benefit of using pastes is the ease of mixing and better dispersion of pigments within the PVC matrix, leading to a more consistent color. Also, because the pigment is already well dispersed, the energy required during processing can be lower. However, it's important to consider that the liquid carrier can act as a plasticizer and affect the final properties of the PVC product, which may require reformulation of the PVC compound. Additionally, handling liquids can be messy and can potentially lead to waste if not managed properly.

3. Hybrid Carriers: Hybrid carriers refer to colorants which use a blend of polymeric and non-polymeric (often liquid) carriers. They offer a middle ground between pure polymeric carriers and liquid pastes, aiming to leverage the benefits of both. They can provide good dispersion, similar to liquids, but with less impact on the formulation as they can be designed to have similar rheological properties to the base resin. The balance can be tailored depending on the specific requirements of the application.

4. Polymeric Carriers (Masterbatches): These are highly concentrated colorants encapsulated in a thermoplastic carrier chosen to be compatible with PVC, like EVA or universal polymers. This carrier resin is colored by adding a high loading of pigments (typically around 20-50% by weight) and is then cooled and cut into a granular shape. The advantage of masterbatches is that they offer excellent dispersion of the colorant and they are easy to handle and dose in the manufacturing process. They have minimal impact on the physical properties of the PVC and are less dusty than dry pigments. However, they can be more expensive per unit of color due to the inclusion of the carrier resin, and they require precise dosing equipment to ensure color consistency.

5. Pre-Coloured Resin (Compound): In this case, the PVC resin itself is pre-colored during its manufacture. This method can provide the most consistent color and properties since every pellet of PVC is identical. However, the downside is that it's less flexible - if you want to change the color, you need to change the whole batch of resin, leading to potential wastage. It also requires a longer lead time to produce and can be more expensive due to the labor and resources involved in its production.

Each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the choice between them will depend on factors such as the specific requirements of the end product, the capabilities and preferences of the manufacturer, and cost considerations. It's also worth noting that different methods might be combined or adapted to suit specific applications. For example, a masterbatch might be used to provide the base color for a PVC product, with additional pigments or additives added separately to achieve specific effects or properties.

Powder pigments

How are pigments used when coloring PVC?

Pigments, are commonly used to color PVC (polyvinyl chloride). Pigments are insoluble solid particles that provide color to the PVC. Pigments are available in various colors and can be mixed to create a wide range of shades and hues.

Pigments are added to the PVC during the manufacturing process in a dry powder form. The pigments are mixed with the PVC resin and other additives, such as plasticizers and stabilizers, in a high-speed mixer. The mixing process disperses the pigments evenly throughout the PVC, creating a uniform color throughout the material.

Powder pigments are usually the cheapest option in terms of the initial purchase price. However, as stated above, pigments come with several disadvantages that can have a negative effect on the total cost of ownership. 

Pigments vs Masterbatches

Pigments vs Masterbatches such as Holcobatch

Powder pigments and masterbatches are both common methods of coloring PVC. However, there are some differences between the two:

1. Concentration: Powder pigments are less concentrated than color concentrates. This means that larger quantities of powder pigments are needed to achieve the same color strength as a smaller amount of color concentrate.
2. Dispersion: Powder pigments can be more difficult to disperse evenly throughout the PVC compound, which can result in inconsistent coloring. In contrast, color concentrates are specifically designed to be easily dispersed, leading to more consistent coloring.
3. Handling: Handling and metering powder pigments can be more difficult and time-consuming than using pre-made color concentrates. Color concentrates can be added directly to the PVC compound, while powder pigments may need to be blended with a carrier resin before being added to the compound.
4. Customization: Color concentrates can be easily customized to meet specific color requirements, whereas powder pigments are typically available only in standard colors.
5. Cost: In some cases, powder pigments may be less expensive than color concentrates. However, the lower concentration and potential for uneven dispersion can result in higher overall costs due to the need for larger quantities and potential waste.

While powder pigments can be a cost-effective option for coloring PVC, they may also be more difficult to handle, less consistent, and less customizable than color concentrates. Masterbatches such as our proprietary Holcobatch, are a convenient and efficient option for coloring PVC with a high degree of consistency and customization options.

Advantages and disadvantages of each method

Both pigments and masterbatches are commonly used in the coloring of PVC pipes, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Pigments are finely ground powders or particles that are added to the PVC resin to produce a specific color. They are often used in relatively small amounts, typically around 1-5% by weight, and are typically added during the compounding stage of PVC processing. Pigments are highly customizable, and can be formulated to produce a wide range of colors and shades.

Masterbatches on the other hand, are pre-mixed blends of pigments and other additives, such as stabilizers, lubricants, or processing aids, that are added to the PVC resin in larger quantities, typically around 5-10% by weight. Masterbatches are often preferred in high-volume PVC processing operations, such as pipe extrusion, as they can help to streamline the production process and reduce the need for additional handling or processing steps.

One perceived advantage of pigments is that they tend to be less expensive upfront than masterbatches, which can be a factor in some applications. However, it's crucial to factor in the total cost of ownership. 

Masterbatches on the other hand, offer several advantages in terms of processing efficiency and consistency. Because they are pre-mixed, they can help to ensure that the color is evenly distributed throughout the PVC resin, reducing the risk of color variation or streaking. They can also help to simplify the PVC processing operation, reducing the need for additional equipment or processing steps.

In the next segment, we will discuss the differences between Holcobatch, our proprietary product vs powder pigments with regards to handling and ease of use. 

In-Line Dosing

How do powder pigments compare to masterbatches with regards to in-line dosing?

In-line dosing is the process of adding colorants directly into the PVC melt stream during processing. In this context, masterbatches like Holcobatch, are typically preferred over powder pigments for in-line dosing due to their superior dispersion and easier handling.

Powder pigments can be more difficult to disperse evenly in the PVC melt, which can result in inconsistent coloring and lower quality end products. They may also require more processing time and higher shear rates to achieve proper dispersion, which can increase production costs.

On the other hand, masterbatches are specifically formulated for easy dispersion and consistent coloring. They are pre-dispersed blends of pigments, additives, and carrier resins that are designed to be added directly into the PVC melt stream during processing. This allows for more precise dosing and better control over the coloring process, resulting in higher quality end products.

While powder pigments can be effective for coloring PVC in certain applications,  masterbatches are generally preferred for in-line dosing due to their superior dispersion, ease of handling, and consistent performance.

Contact us to discuss your requirements of pvc masterbatch. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.