Additives
Antifogging additives
Various fatty acid-based additives, especially those used in plastic to prevent fogging (condensation) of water droplets. In particular, antifogging agents or clear additives are used in transparent packaging materials. The effect is based on the fact that the water droplets no longer condense on the surface and thus no fogging is formed, which leads to a visual impairment and disturbs the clear view of the products. This is done by reducing the surface tension of the water so that droplets can no longer form.
Applications for this product
Antioxidants
Antioxidants protect the polymer against radical degradation reactions. Various factors, such as thermal or mechanical effects, can cause the formation of radicals, which can lead to a loss of functionality in the end product without the use of antioxidants or already during the processing of the polymers. The resulting radicals attack the polymer and destroy the intact polymer chain and further new radicals are formed. Radicals can already be generated during the processing of the polymers and therefore there is a range of antioxidants for the different stages. A distinction is made between primary and secondary antioxidants and between process stabilisers and long-term stabilisers. Without antioxidants, the well-known effects will occur.
Highly effective primary antioxidants for polymers are mostly based on sterically hindered phenols and/or organic phosphite compounds and, in small numbers, aromatic amines. These protect the polymer from thermo-oxidative degradation and act both as processing aids and long-term stabilisers – depending on the area of application with slightly limited performance in the area of processing aids or long-term stabilisers. Primary antioxidants can be combined with a range of co-stabilisers to provide optimal protection for the polymer.
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Products
CAS-Nr.
Application / Polymers
Product datasheet
Product datasheet
WTH-AN 626
26741-53-7
PO, PU, adhesives, organic polymers, engineering plastics, styrene polymers
Applications for this product
Antistatic agents
Various fatty acid-based additives are used for the antistatic finishing of plastics.
Plastics are characterised by a low dielectric constant and a high surface resistance. Relative humidity plays a major role in electrostatic charging in plastics – surface resistivity decreases as relative humidity increases.
This means that the electrical charges created by friction find a very high resistance on the surface and thus cannot flow off or be dissipated by themselves.
This can happen during the manufacturing processes, for example during the demoulding of PET bottles, when leaving the extruder die in the case of PVC profiles or during the “hot forming” process of PS cups.
The effect with single-compound internal antistatic agents: They migrate in traces to the surface in plastics, thereby lowering the surface resistance by 2-3 powers of ten and thus facilitating the dissipation of static electricity.
Applications for this product
EBS wax
Addforce SA EBS is a fatty acid amide wax with very good all-round properties for plastics processing, due to its molecular structure with polar and non-polar groups. Due to its chemical structure, Addforce SA EBS is highly soluble, compatible with active ingredients and develops internal and external lubricating effects in virtually all thermoplastic and thermoset materials as well as in elastomer processing. Addforce SA EBS can be used at processing temperatures of up to 260 °C without any problems.
Products
Grain size
Product datasheet
Product datasheet
Applications for this product
Dyes / Pigments
Dyes and pigments are used for colouring plastics with high glass temperatures, such as PS, ABS, PVC-U, PA and PMMA.
Applications for this product
Lubricants
There are various lubricants such as fatty acid derivatives, synt. waxes, wax esters, PE waxes, Fischer Tropsch waxes and lubricant systems with internal and/or external lubricating effect for PVC, polyolefins and engineering plastics.
Applications for this product
High-performance lubricants
Molybdenum disulphide
The graphite-like layer structure results from the incorporation of sulphur in the molybdenum. The ‘layers’ are arranged parallel to the space and can therefore easily be moved against each other. This structure makes molybdenum disulphide – chem. Formula: MoS2 –an interesting, versatile dry lubricant.
For certain applications such as plain bearings, engineering plastics, mainly polyamides (PA) and fluoroplastics (PTFE), are ‘self-lubricated’ with ‘molybdenum disulphide’. This allows longer running times or the possibility of maintenance-free machine components.
Technical dry lubricants can be used in temperature ranges from -180°C to 350°C.
Applications for this product
Metal deactivators
Metal deactivators protect the polymer from harmful metal ions. They are able to combine them and form stable bonds. This stabilises the polymer, and metal deactivators are used in particular in polyolefin cable and wire sheathing.
Applications for this product
Nucleating Agent / Clarifier
Nucleating agents are used with semi-crystalline thermoplastics to influence the crystallinity. As a result, an earlier solidification of the polymer melt can be achieved. Nucleating agents are generally understood to be germinators.
Nucleating agents are not only used in crystallisable thermoplastics, but can also be added to special polyolefins, polyesters or polyamides.
Generally, nucleating agents increase the temperature at which the polymer starts to crystallise and an increased temperature results in a low cooling time. The moulded part can be demoulded sooner. This results in an improvement of the cycle time and thus an increase in productivity. The change in the crystallisation process results in products with altered physical properties.
In the 1980s, new additive technologies were developed to improve the nucleation process and achieve better transparency and higher heat resistance temperatures. These additives include products based on sorbitol. This special group of nucleating agents is also known as clarifiers, since the use of sorbitol results in the formation of particularly homogeneous, fine crystalline structures. Due to this structure, there is no light scattering, especially with thin precast elements. This increases the transparency.
Other advantages:
- Improved surface gloss
- High transparency (for clarifiers)
- Improvement of demouldability
- Change of the physical property profile
- Time and energy saving potential
- Shorter cycle times
Applications for this product
Optical brighteners
There is no field of application that would remain closed to optical brighteners. Optical brighteners have been used for many years in a number of industries such as paper, detergents or textiles to improve colour brilliance and enhance the appearance of end products. What would a red be if it lost its colour brilliance after just a few days? Optical brighteners do not have to be highly dosed to achieve an optimal effect – even homeopathic quantities are sufficient.
End products without optical brighteners, especially white end products, absorb blue light. Which causes a blue defect in the human eye. By absorbing light, especially in the blue spectral range, which appears to the human eye as a yellowish range, our brighteners are active. You can minimise this yellow cast in other ways, but with optical brighteners, the end products can be coloured in every conceivable colour and this even increases the colour brilliance of the end products. By using optical brighteners, the high-energy UV light is used to excite the brightener and the emitted fluorescent light is amplified. As a result, the yellow tint is compensated for the human eye and the end product comes out significantly better.
In order to achieve a maximum effect of the optical brightener, it must be completely distributed in the final product and also “dissolved” so that no negative effects occur. The requirements for optical brighteners are versatile and generally higher in thermoplastics than in textiles. Depending on the area of application and processing parameters, WTH’s optical brighteners can be applied to or incorporated into the end product in different ways.
The main areas of application for our optical brighteners are:
- Improving the base colour
- Increase of whiteness
- Increase of colour brilliance
Products
CAS-Nr.
C.I.
Application / Polymers
Product datasheet
Product datasheet
Applications for this product
PE wax
PE waxes belong to the synthetic waxes and have been developed for use in rubber compounds. The non-oxidised polyethylene waxes can be used universally as external lubricants. They are also used as carrier materials for colour and additive masterbatches. They improve the processing properties and enable easier extrusion.
For samples and more information please contact us.
Applications for this product
Photoinitiators
Photoinitiators are chemical compounds that form reactive radicals when absorbing light, which contribute to the cross-linking of the coating formulation.
This split-second UV curing makes the process more productive than conventional methods. It saves time, labour and energy compared to thermal curing and is an economical alternative to radiation curing.
When selecting the photoinitiator, the absorption spectrum must be taken into account and compared with the emission spectrum of the light source. When using photoinitiators, it should be noted that the radicals generated with longer wavelength UV radiation (254 to 400 nm) have a greater penetration depth.
WTH®-Chemcure photoinitiators can be used for UV polymerisation of mono- or multifunctional (acrylate) monomers in the following areas:
- Paper coatings
- Wood coatings
- Metal coatings
- Plastic coatings
- Glass fibre composite
- Adhesives
- Gel-Coating
- Printing inks
Products
CAS-Nr.
Application
Product datasheet
Product datasheet
Applications for this product
Primary amide waxes
Primary amide waxes are mostly used as lubricating and abrasive additives for PP and PE applications. In addition, they are used in the rubber industry as release agents or as aids for dye distribution in printing inks. All our amide waxes are plant-based and produced in state-of-the-art facilities.
Amide waxes for rubber
Primary amide waxes generally act as processing aids and to improve the surfaces of elastomers such as NR, NBR, SBR, EPDM or CR. Primary amide waxes such as erucamide migrate to the surface and form a non-oily/non-greasy slippery film there, which positively influences the flow behaviour and demouldability of the moulded articles. Sulphurisation is also reduced. Stearamides are used, among other things, in reducing the tack of unvulcanised in CSM roller compounds. As a saturated fatty acid compound, stearamide does not interfere with the vulcanisation of rubber compounds. In addition, stearamides can be used as mould release agents in soft articles and can also improve abrasion resistance.
Amide waxes for plastics
Various primary and secondary amide waxes can be used as lubricating additives, lubricants or anti-blocking agents in polyolefins. In particular, the higher temperature resistant amide waxes bring advantages when used in BOPP films.
Ethylene bisoleamide and ethylene bisstearamide are used as lubricating additives or to improve the flow properties in polymers.
Oleoamides and erucamides are highly refined products of exceptional purity and low inherent colour. They are particularly recommended for end products where visual impact is important.
Behenamide is an efficient anti-blocking agent for polyethylene/ polypropylene films. It improves film transparency and acts synergistically with inorganic antiblocking agents.
The use of stearamides and erucamides enables excellent anti-blocking properties without disturbing the clarity of the film.
Amide waxes for printing inks
Primary amide waxes can be used to improve dye distribution in printing inks.
Product
Product datasheet
Behenamid
Erucamid
Oleoamide
Stearamid
Ethylene-bis-stearamide
Applications for this product
Secondary amide waxes
Various fatty acid-based additives, especially those used in films to prevent fogging (condensation) of water droplets. In particular, antifogging agents or clear additives are used in transparent packaging materials. The effect is based on the fact that the water droplets no longer condense on the surface and thus no fogging is formed, which leads to a visual impairment and disturbs the clear view of the products. This is done by reducing the surface tension of the water so that droplets can no longer form.
Applications for this product
Extender for TiO2
This is a finely ground and extremely plate-shaped material based on magnesium silicate hydrate or huntite as an effective extender for white pigments.
Applications for this product
Blowing Agent
Blowing agents are used for the production of profiles, sheets, pipes and foams. We only sell chemical blowing agents that release gas during processing.
Endothermic or exothermic blowing agent systems with different active ingredients/contents, gas yields and processing temperatures as powder, paste or granulate (masterbatch) for foaming thermoplastics in the coating, injection moulding and extrusion process. Dust-free, free-flowing powder versions are also available.
Chemical blowing agent preparations
These are blowing agent systems consisting of specially matched components with either endothermic or exothermic decomposition processes and also corresponding combinations. These additive systems are available in various delivery forms as paste, granulate or powder mixture.
Applications for this product
UV absorber
These are various light stabilisers and UV absorbers on different chemical bases such as benzophenone, benzotriazole and polymer/monomer HALS types for plastics and rubber.
Additives such as WTH-Chemsorb (light stabilisers) and WTH-Chemnox (antioxidants) form the foundation for polymer processing.
Light stabilisers and UV absorbers protect plastics from damage caused by exposure to light due to the subsequent consequential damage. The UV absorbers have a pronounced absorption capacity and protect the polymers from harmful UV radiation. The light protection agents have a low volatility.
Product
CAS-No.
Product datasheet
WTH-UV 571
PDB
Applications for this product
Your contact
Dr. Silke-Nicola Trzaska
Phone: +49-(0)4141-5292-24
Mail: sales@wthgmbh.de
Dieter Holst
Phone: +49-(0)4141-5292-26
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Jutta Bösch
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Tomasz Wojtas
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Julia Król
Phone: +49-4141-5292-15
Mail: sales@wthgmbh.de