Grafe develops new additive masterbatches for ABS and PC/ABS

The Thuringian company GRAFE, headquartered in Blankenhain, Germany, develops new color additive combination masterbatches for ABS and PC/ABS, which achieve improved performance in terms of UV and thermal stabilization with lower addition doses. They are suitable for a broad range of applications in a wide variety of industries where the plastic is exposed to direct sunlight and requires particularly good load-bearing capacity and high heat resistance.

GRAFE initially optimized the performance of masterbatches for automotive applications made of ABS. "Our development goal here was to reduce the required dosage of the color additive combination masterbatches while maintaining the same quality. Based on the previous high-performance stabilization packages of our automotive combination masterbatches for ABS, we conducted xenon tests according to PV1303. With these results, we were able to achieve further optimizations," says Clemens Rösler, Team Leader Automotive.

In the xenon test, the test specimens with the optimized stabilization had a higher UV stability with lower batch dosages, the expert reveals. "The significantly improved performance of the color additive masterbatches results in significant cost savings for our customers when purchasing raw materials," explains Rösler, referring to the requirements of the automotive industry for ever higher component quality at ever lower costs.

However, the masterbatch experts at GRAFE were not satisfied with the solution for automotive applications made of ABS, but extended their development work to PC/ABS and its corresponding areas of application. In other applications, too, UV radiation accelerates the aging of plastic materials enormously - with effects on both appearance and function. Vehicle construction, packaging, leisure articles and applications in the construction industry are just a few examples. GRAFE's color additive combination masterbatches help to solve this problem cost-efficiently.