New UV/TS stabilization packages - GRAFE optimizes masterbatch performance for automobiles

The demands of the automotive industry on component quality, while at the same time saving costs, are constantly increasing and are higher than ever due to the current market situation. With this goal in mind, GRAFE has developed new color additive combination masterbatches that achieve improved performance in terms of UV and thermal stabilization of ABS automotive applications with lower addition doses.

UV radiation accelerates the aging of plastic materials enormously. Particularly in the automotive sector, many indoor and outdoor applications are exposed to direct sunlight, which requires particularly good load-bearing capacity and high heat resistance. The plastics specialist from Blankenhain has now successfully completed the development of new UV/TS stabilization variants for ABS which, in combination with color, guarantee high surface quality and excellent stabilization of the base polymer used.

"Our development goal here was to reduce the required addition dosage of the color additive combination masterbatches from 6.5% to 4% without compromising quality. Based on the previous high-performance stabilization packages of our automotive combination masterbatches for ABS, we conducted xenon tests according to PV1303 to derive formulation-property relationships. Based on the results, we were able to successively optimize the stabilization packages," says Dr. Jan Stadermann, head of the Material Sciences department. "In the xenon test, the test specimens with the optimized stabilization show higher light fastness with lower batch dosage," Dr. Stadermann continued.

The significantly improved performance of the color additive masterbatches offers our customers potential cost savings of up to 30% when purchasing raw materials.