Masterbatch

Masterbatches are made using higher concentrations of pigments, fillers or other functional additives in carrier polymer resin. The highly concentrated mixture is then mixed in larger quantity of resin. The advantage of making masterbatch is the ease of dispersion and processing. However making masterbatch is quite challenging task. Masterbatch manufacturers face challenges in achieving uniform and homogeneous distribution of fillers and pigments. Since these additives do not melt in extrusion process, hence homogenizing and processing becomes difficult. It also increases the load on extruder motor and hence energy consumption of the machine increases. This affects the cost of processing with double effect as along with increasing energy cost it also decreases output as retention time in the machine increases. Moreover blockages and clogging makes it compulsory for processors to stop the machine for cleaning and maintenance and also hampers the consistency. The reproducibility of color without visible specks on the compounded material determines the quality of the masterbatch.