New TekTuff™ Colors from Teknor Apex Let Molders Enhance Impact Strength, Design for Thinner Walls, or Increase Color Levels for Brighter or More Opaque Parts
PAWTUCKET, RI, U.S.A., September 15, 2017: New functionalized dry colors to be introduced by Teknor Apex Company, Color Division, at Rotoplas 2017 enable rotational molders to increase impact strength while avoiding the added cost of a pulverized impact-modified compound (Booth 406).
TekTuff™ dry color blends provide impact performance that is substantially greater than standard dry colors and is equivalent to or greater than that of impact modified compounds, whose manufacture requires the extra steps of extrusion and pulverization. The enhanced impact strength available with TekTuff colors provides rotational molders with the options of boosting part performance, designing parts with thinner walls, or increasing color levels for brighter or more opaque parts. With standard dry colors, higher loadings often result in reduced impact resistance.
When compared with standard dry colors in the Association of Rotational Molders (ARM) cold impact tests, the new TekTuff colors exhibited 40% greater impact resistance in red formulations and 33% greater in black.
“TekTuff dry color blends resolve a longstanding dilemma faced by rotomolders,” said John Wood, technical manager for the Color Division of Teknor Apex. “While dry color is the most cost-effective way of adding pigments, higher loadings can cause unacceptable impact performance—a key metric in the rotomolding industry. Until now, the only alternative has been to use pulverized pre-colored compounds. TekTuff colors offer the benefits of pre-colored compounds without the substantially higher cost.”
The Color Division of Teknor Apex has decades of experience as a supplier of colorants for multiple processes, including rotational molding. In recent years it has developed a number of “functionalized” color product lines under the TekTuff brand for achieving enhanced impact performance in extrusion, injection molding, and blow molding. The new TekTuff blends for rotational molding draw on the company’s expertise in the manufacture of dry colors.
