Millad NX 8000 Clarifier Improves Functional Properties of New-Generation TATREN Packaging Grades

Slovnaft Petrochemicals has embraced the energy-saving and crystal-clear clarifying potential of Millad® NX™ 8000 clarifying agent to launch a new generation of transparent, high gloss, reactor made polypropylene random copolymers (PP) for low temperature processing of thin-wall rigid food packaging and storage.

The new generation grades - TATREN® RM 85 82 CLEAR and TATREN RM 45 55 CLEAR - are based on the latest available technologies to offer the food packaging and household storage solutions sector a new benchmark in pure, high clarity PP.

Developed by Slovnaft Petrochemicals, s.r.o. in close cooperation with Millad NX 8000 innovator Milliken & Company, the clarifying agent was selected for its top industry performance in terms of excellent optical properties and good stiffness. Millad NX 8000 also offers a broad processing window that opens up distinct product quality and consistency advantages plus all-important productivity benefits for converters.

Visitors to Fakuma 2012 will be among the first to see TATREN RM 85 82 CLEAR in action, with a live production run of a food packaging container based on the PP resin at the Haitian Europe GmbH booth in Hall A6 number A6-6107.

Tatren RM 85 82 CLEAR and TATREN RM 45 55 CLEAR offer the following advantages to converters:

• Excellent visual appearance: The addition of clarifying agent Millad NX 8000 brings high-end optics of glass-like transparency and high gloss to rigid packaging.
• Superior organoleptic properties: Using a new phthalate-free catalyst from DOW, the new TATREN PP grades are in full compliance with REACH regulations. As high MFR reactor grades they are made without peroxides, which results in the excellent organoleptic properties required by the food industry. Both grades are low in odor and carbon emissions, and have been evaluated according to accepted automotive industry standards PV 3900 and VDA 277 respectively.
• High fluidity: Complex designs and thin walls can be achieved during injection molding thanks to the high fluidity of the grades. The grades are suited for injection molding of different sized rigid containers for food packaging, and household articles where excellent clarity combined with good stiffness is required.
• Energy savings and cycle time reduction: Millad NX 8000 and high flowability allow for energy savings and cycle time reduction for Slovnaft Petrochemicals’s customers. As demonstrated in industrial trials, the clarifying innovation enables the melt temperature of the new grades to be decreased during injection molding to temperatures as low as 170-180°C, without any impact on the optical performance of the final product. This means converters can drop the standard melt temperature down from 220 / 230°C, for significantly less energy consumption when heating the extruder. The lower temperature reduces cooling time by up to 10%, with the possibility to produce more pieces per hour.

Eleonóra Hudecová - Strategic Marketing, Slovnaft Petrochemicals, s.r.o., comments: “Slovnaft Petrochemicals selected the top industry ingredients available, choosing the very latest in clarifier and catalyst technology to set the TATREN grades apart as a truly new generation solution for the rigid packaging market. Customer trials have shown positive energy reduction and productivity benefits, with the outstanding clarity levels remaining unchanged. We will work closely with our customers to ensure they can realize the full potential of our advanced highly clarified reactor grades.”

Slovnaft Petrochemicals’s customers have access to the brand new Millad NX 8000 Savings Calculator for the iPhone®, iPad® and online PC use developed recently by Milliken. The app is the first tool of its kind to demonstrate energy savings, cycle time and CO2 reductions for PP clarified with Millad NX 8000. It provides quantitative information on processing advantages over alternative clarifying technologies, producing data specific to a user’s product and processing equipment.

Sami T.K.Palanisami, Marketing & Sales Manager Plastic Additives EMEA, Milliken, adds: “Milliken has a long history of cooperation with Slovnaft Petrochemicals and was involved from the start in the development of these benchmark-setting new TATREN grades. We are pleased to support Slovnaft Petrochemicals with the crystal-clear performance and excellent processing advantages offered by Millad NX 8000 over older clarifier generations, to help their development of differentiated impact grades for the packaging market.”