Clariant’s additives business continues to support China’s growth industries’ needs, with new facilities to foster R&D and joint application technology developments at the One Clariant Campus (OCC).
The new additives’ R&D Center will be integrated into the new Clariant Innovation Center China in Shanghai. It aims to bring faster lead times and more speed in development efforts for various application sectors, including E&E, 5G, automotive, packaging, fibers & films, adhesives, coatings, and inks.
Supplementing Clariant’s additives production facilities in China, the R&D Center will offer customers opportunities for joint development and application testing at every step of the value chain. From polymerization to compounding and conversion, all the way to performance testing.
Francois Bleger, head of Clariant additives business, comments: “Demand for high-end additives is growing strongly in China. As local manufacturers develop more sophisticated processes, technologies, and products to align with market needs and China’s environmental goals, sustainable additives can be vital to boosting progress effectively and efficiently.
Our new additives R&D center creates the exciting opportunity to be more agile in our additive development and foster China-relevant innovation together from the start of the creative process. In a nutshell, innovation for customers, with customers, at the heart of the main markets.”
Located right in the main markets for Polyamide (PA), Polyester (PET) fibers, engineering thermoplastics & thermosets, and increasingly biopolymers, the new facility will feature a state-of-the-art plastics processing and testing laboratory equipped with related technologies such as polycondensation, compounding, spinning, injection molding and foaming, and establish a broad range of relevant testing and analytical capabilities.
To support local manufacturers, Clariant has successfully introduced solutions from its AddWorks PKG series in China to improve further the inherent properties of polyolefins for the packaging of highly demanding new applications. It includes AddWorks PKG 113, designed for high-speed Cast Polypropylene (CPP) and Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) resins providing excellent polymer melt protection and high film productivity, and AddWorks PKG 171 designed for vis-broken PP and low discoloration PP applications. Both products will feature at Chinaplas 2021 alongside more new sustainable additive solutions for key market segments.
Clariant’s Chinaplas 2021
At the upcoming Chinaplas 2021, Clariant will introduce several new additives to the region from its EcoCircle initiative to support manufacturers in achieving these goals.
EcoCircle supports the transition from a one-way plastics value chain to a circular plastics economy by going beyond a simple product focus, looking at the entire value chain, and identifying the most sustainable and viable solutions. This includes developing sustainable solutions for mechanical recycling and certified renewable raw materials to produce high-performance additives.
Qualifying products carry a designator based on their mass-balance or accurate renewable carbon content to help manufacturers identify products with key advantages. It includes Terra for products with a high renewable content, minimum 50% Renewable Carbon Index (RCI) based on mass balance certification or actual renewable content, and VITA for products from natural origin with at least 98% RCI real renewable content.
New for the Chinese market is the Exolit OP Terra range, renewable-based halogen-free flame retardants. A like-for-like drop-in alternative to Clariant’s fossil-based Exolit OP products, they achieve UL 94 V-0 rating with stable flame retardancy even after multiple recycling processes. Application areas include electronic and electrical equipment and automotive components.
Licocare RBW VITA will also be presented to customers in China for the first time. Clariant’s fully sustainable, practically 100% renewable, non-food competing bio-additives solutions offer multiple processing and end-product enhancements to biopolymers, such as Polylactic Acid (PLA). And in doing so, Licocare RBW VITA opens up opportunities for brands to consider biopolymers as a viable, low carbon footprint alternative to fossil based-plastics.
Clariant also introduces Licocare RBW 330 VITA, a new renewable-based solution that nucleates polyamides, reduces cooling time and shrink/wrap, yields faster cycles, and leads to better molding costs.
