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A white paper recently published by CAI Performance Additives  shows data collected by a third-party lab on the burndown performance of the company’s ST-PA210 bioplastic lubricating agent; the test reportedly simulates the impact of processing on the additive material. The findings suggest that the additive is “sacrificial” in that after processing only trace amounts of it remain. As such, compounders using ST-PA210 to enhance melt flow would not see any residual effects in their output, nor would using such an additive affect food-contact compliance of downstream products.

The data also shows performance of the additive in PLA (both talc-filled and unfilled) showing 170%-600% MFI increases at just 2% additive. With PLA’s dominance of the bioplastic market currently there is likely to be significant interest in lowering viscosity in processing stages, particularly additives that will not cause negative effects down the line in finished products. The data suggests ST-PA210 would be ideal for these applications combining its lubrication performance with the benefit of being sacrificial. Said CEO Richard Marshall,  “A common concern of our PLA compounding customers is how additives of any kind could impact food-contact safety in final products. Bioplastics are attracting a lot of attention right now in single-use food and beverage containers, so seeing that ST-PA210 can safely be used to improve processing without affecting critical food safety compliance is great news to our clients.”

As reported when launched last year, ST-PA210 is a proprietary high-performance additive produced by China’s Starbetter Chemical Materials, for which CAI Additives is the sole distributor in North America.  It is also used in in  PC/ABS and PC/PET copolymers, as well as bioplastics PBAT and PHA.