Masterbatch

What is Masterbatch?

A solid additive known as a masterbatch (MB) is used to give plastics color (color masterbatch) or other qualities (additive masterbatch). A masterbatch is a concentrated mixture of pigments and/or additives that has been heated and encapsulated in a carrier resin before being cooled and crushed into granules. The processor can economically color raw polymer using masterbatch.

Masterbatches are an alternative to completely compounded materials, which may be more expensive and less susceptible to product variability, such as color, or on-site compounding from raw materials (which is prone to issues with achieving full dispersion of the colorants and additives and prone to preparing more material than what is used for the production run).

How is Masterbatch made?

A masterbatch is a concentrated combination created by mixing additives and colors into a polymer carrier using a high shear mixing extruder and heat treatment. The mixture is then pelletized, chilled, and chopped into granules. The compounding method has significant challenges while producing masterbatch since the pigment and additive components must be totally homogeneously blended with the base polymer.

Masterbatches can be substituted with completely compounded compounds made on-site from raw components. Masterbatches require more storage space and longer lead times than pure pigments. Additional heat exposure to the additive and carrier, which is necessary for pigments with limited thermal stability, is another downside. Masterbatches use and reduce the issues with the additive insufficient dispersion because they are premixed compositions. Although the masterbatch has a higher proportion of the additive than the final polymer, the additive is appropriately disseminated in the master resin. They are somewhat related to how ferroalloys are used to combine alloying elements with steels.

One tone of a natural polymer can fit into a 25 kg bag thanks to the high "let down ratios" of masterbatches, which are extremely concentrated. Because of their diluted form, masterbatches enable more precise dosing of pricey components. Since the solvent in the polymer won't evaporate, masterbatches solid crystals tend to have a longer shelf life. Although the range can vary from 15 to 80 percent in a select few other circumstances, they often contain 40 to 65 percent additives. Highly accurate dosing and rapid color changes between machines runs are made possible by liquid masterbatches.

Uses of Masterbatch

Masterbatches have versatile uses and some of the uses are mentioned below: