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Sustainability, coloring solutions for products with a high proportion of recycled materials and support for design-for-recycling approaches are currently the focus of product development at Karl Finke GmbH & Co. KG from Wuppertal, one of the largest medium-sized manufacturers of high-quality masterbatches, color pastes, pigment preparations and liquid colorants for the plastics processing industry in Europe. Drawing on its fundamental research in its own technical center, the company has already launched numerous solutions that make it easier for compounders and plastics processors to achieve their sustainability goals without having to compromise on attractive colors.
Attractive coloring for products with a high recyclate content
A special proprietary process allows for full exploitation of the entire design range of FIBAPLAST masterbatches for polyolefins, even with a high proportion of recycled material. This is made possible by encasing the core of recycled material in a thin layer of virgin material. In addition to numerous bright colors and many pastel shades, the products with masterbatches from the FIBAFEKT range can be finished with a metallic look, pearlescent or glitter. A masterbatch with interference color from the FIBAFEKT range can also be used for the outer layer on dark substrates.
With the FIBAREC series, Finke has developed a range of completely recyclate-based masterbatches for common thermoplastics. FIBAREC masterbatches are available based on recyclates of common packaging polymers. As they can be processed in the same way as masterbatches based on virgin material, they are also ideal as a drop-in solution.
In addition to masterbatches, liquid colorants are becoming increasingly important for coloring plastics with a high recyclate content. The main advantages are independency from the carrier material and high material efficiency. Finke’s FIBASOL range of liquid colorants offers a large selection of colors. Temperature and light resistant as well as physiologically safe, FIBASOL liquid colorants can be used in almost all thermoplastics, even those with a high proportion of recycled material. Their properties can be precisely controlled by selecting suitable pigments and additives and can be individually combined according to customer requirements.
Meeting design-for-recycling requirements
New products from the FIBAPLAST masterbatch series for laser marking, the FIBATEC uncolored additive batch series with special functions and the FIBAPLAST NIR detectable black masterbatches help to meet important design-for-recycling requirements for plastic packaging.
An expansion of the masterbatch range for laser markings enables dark markings within transparent plastics such as PET, PC or PMMA and colored laser markings in many colors and shades on black, carbon black-colored plastics such as POM, ABS or PET without damaging the matrix material. Attractive decorative designs and permanent markings are thus possible without the use of printing inks which facilitates recycling.
FIBATEC is a new uncolored additive batch series with special functions developed by Finke based on various carrier polymers. The FIBATEC UVA additive batches, the latest development in the series, provide plastic products with UV protection. This enables the production of colorless bottles for the food and cosmetics sectors. The FIBATEC UVA additive batches are free of benzotriazoles, PAAs and PAHs and contain neither CMR substances nor SVHCs and comply with the regulations for food contact plastics in the EU, the USA and China. They are approved for packaging and registered according to REACH and in the corresponding chemical inventories in the USA and China. The FIBATEC UVA additive batches are available on the basis of bottle-grade PET or rPET, among others.
Finke also has developed a FIBAPLAST NIR detectable Black Masterbatches to improve the sortability of packaging waste using NIR systems. The formulation contains no carbon black pigments so that even black plastics are easily detected during sorting in NIR systems. FIBAPLAST NIR detectable Black Masterbatches are available for all common packaging plastics such as HDPE, PP, PS and PET and can be precisely matched to the application in the Finke technical center within a very short time.
