Dust Less Blends

Experience in the use of DLB's over recent years indicates that they are easy to feed and they become well dispersed into the polymer. Their ease of incorporation and subsequent dispersion is usually better than powder products, but is at the very minimum, similar. One of the major reasons for this is the melting rate of the DLB, which is often higher than that of the related powder form

The high melt rate of the DLB may not at first sight be expected because of ist larger particle size an, consequently, lower surface area to volume ratio. This expectation would be reinforced by the relative melting rates of the traditional physical forms of additives, which are powder > granules > master-batch pellets.

When the unexpectedly high melting rat of the DLB is considered in more detail the explanation is relatively simple and is that the DLB is really a mixture of pre-dispersed solid additives in a binder consisting of the lowest melting additive. Upon incorporation into the resin, the low melting component melts very quickly allowing the other components to disperse immediately within the polymer. A second benefit of the low melting carrier is that it acts similarly to a wax dispersing agent and actually aids the dispersion of higher, and even non, melting additives.

The advantage of a high melting rate and improved dispersion in the polymer leads to the potential for reducing the additive load levels, a more consistent product quality and potential productivity gains (e. g. reduced temperature for extrusion, faster throughput ...).