Calcium Carbonate filler (CaCO3 Masterbatch) has been one of the most widely used fillers in the plastic industry for years, even despite development in the industry and the introduction of new alternatives. This masterbatch has a multitude of applications, used by ourselves regularly, and provides great benefits to its usage – keep reading to find out more!
Fine Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) powder is mixed and heated with virgin plastic and selected additives to form a liquid that is the beginnings of a filler masterbatch. Once this mixture has coagulated, it is passed through an extruder and chopped into the small plastic pellets you see in your general masterbatch. This mixture is called ‘filler’ because its general use is to replace a material during the formation stage of a product to help save money and reinforce selected properties.
Usage Benefits
Aside from saving on material costs, CaCO3 filler has a multitude of benefits to its use:
Enhanced Properties
As mentioned above, this masterbatch is used to reinforce the properties of a product. Several key properties include:
- Improved thermal stability
- Higher impact strength
- Robustness
- General resistances
- Higher print quality for films
Its great dispersion ability allows for this filler masterbatch to be combined with all kinds of plastic bases and be easily processed and shaped by many methods. This includes; injection moulding, extrusion for films and sheets, thermoforming and can even be used in fibrillation for woven fabric like yarn.
Sustainability
Whilst substituting calcium carbonate to save on material costs is great for sustainability, it’s not the sole contributor to the economic advantages of this masterbatch. When used in processes involving heat like thermoforming, CaCO3 filler allows for significant energy savings. It does this by allowing improved productivity, higher outputs and faster conversion rates due to its thermal conductivity. The application of calcium carbonate allows the intended plastic to heat up and cool down quicker, reducing production times and saving on energy usage.
This energy-saving feat also makes the usage of calcium carbonate more environmentally friendly than other methods through the reduction of production times.
Hopefully, this short read will have helped you understand just why calcium carbonate is so widely used throughout our industry. If you’re interested in using a CaCO3 masterbatch for a future project, let us get involved! We can supply all kinds of masterbatch, just check the products page on our website. If you’re still searching for information, we have plenty to read in our News section to keep you up to scratch with all things masterbatch!
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