Plastic Additives basics
Plastic additives make plastics possible. They play a key factor in enabling thermoplastics, thermosets and elastomers to meet service life expectations in many applications. Wherever you find plastics, the additives make them more durable, resistant to weathering, lightweight, and more versatile.
While our experts are ready to answer your questions, you can find the basics below. Generally plastic additives can be organized into the following three categories:
Antioxidants
These products protect polymers from oxidation, or damage from heat and oxygen, during manufacture, processing, and use. They also improve the processing of the material, which helps reduce waste and energy consumption.
Light Stabilizers
Additives of this type are designed to protect polymers from photooxidation induced by the intense UV energy coming from the sun. Some additives absorb these energy packets, which means that the polymer itself doesn’t have to, other scavenge radicals generated by the high energy packets, preventing deterioration of the polymer.
Functional Additives
There are many specialized additives with a wide range of benefits. You can learn more about them here. These solutions can make polymers more fire resistant, anti-static, transparent and more.
Finally, in response to a growing demand for circular plastics, there are many additives to improve the processing, performance, and quantity of recycled plastics. This market will continue to change and improve, as we advance the plastics circular economy.
