Color Masterbatch And Production Machines

Color masterbatch is a new type of specialized coloring agent for polymer materials. It is composed of three basic elements: pigments, carriers, and additives. Its coloring power is higher than that of the pigment itself.

The basic components of color masterbatch

1. Pigments

Pigments are divided into organic pigments and inorganic pigments. Common organic pigments include phthalocyanine red, phthalocyanine blue, phthalocyanine green, macromolecular yellow, perpetual yellow, perpetual purple, etc.

Common inorganic pigments include cadmium red, cadmium yellow, titanium dioxide, carbon black, iron oxide red, iron oxide yellow, etc.

2. Carrier

PE：Polyethylene is odorless and non-toxic. Chemical resistant, insoluble in solvents at room temperature. Low temperature resistance, minimum operating temperature -70~-100 ℃. Good electrical insulation and low water absorption rate.

PP:Odorless, tasteless, non-toxic. It is the lightest type of resin commonly used. Excellent mechanical performance. Good heat resistance, continuous use temperature can reach 110-120 ℃. Good chemical stability. Easy to age, with poor impact strength at low temperatures。

Besides, There are also use PET, EVA ,ABS,PVC ,etc. as carrier.

3. Dispersant

To promote uniform dispersion of pigments and prevent agglomeration, the melting point of dispersants should be lower than that of resins, have good compatibility with resins, and have good affinity with pigments. The most commonly used dispersants are PE wax and stearic acid salt.

4. Additives

Varieties such as flame retardant, brightening, antibacterial, anti-static, antioxidant, etc. are generally not included in the color masterbatch unless requested by the customer.

Basic Formula：

PE 40-60%

Pigment 20-40%

PE wax 1-5%

The varieties and grades of color masterbatch

Classified by carrier: PE masterbatch, PP masterbatch, ABS masterbatch, PVC masterbatch, EVA masterbatch, etc;

Classified by purpose: injection color masterbatch, blow molding color masterbatch, spinning color masterbatch, etc.

Each variety can be divided into different grades, such as:

1. Advanced injection colorants: used for cosmetic packaging boxes, toys, electrical casings, and other high-end products.

2. Ordinary injection colorants: used for general daily plastic products, industrial containers, etc.

3. Advanced blown film colorant: used for blow molding coloring of ultra-thin products.

4. Ordinary blown film colorant: used for blow molding coloring of general packaging bags and woven bags.

5. Spinning colorants: used for coloring textile fibers during spinning. The colorants have fine pigment particles, high concentration, strong coloring power, and good heat and light resistance.

6. Low level color masterbatch: used to manufacture low-level products that do not require high color quality, such as trash cans, low-level containers, etc.

7. Special color masterbatch: It is a color masterbatch manufactured using the same plastic as the carrier based on the plastic variety specified by the user for the product. For example, PP masterbatch and ABS masterbatch are respectively used as carriers.

8. Universal colorant: It also uses a certain resin (often low melting point PE) as a carrier, but it can be applied to coloring other resins besides its carrier resin.

Machine choose

First step: High speed mixer

Mixer is mainly used for the mixing of raw materials. It is one of the necessary equipment for plastic processing plants and has a wide range of uses in the rubber, pharmaceutical and dyestuff industries.

Because it has many advantages: such as fast mixing, the mixture is uniform, the resin is good for the plasticizer, the machine is easy to operate, easy to clean, durable, small size and so on.In recent years, it has gradually replaced the low-speed kneading machine, widely used in a variety of plastic industry in the production.

Second Step: Co-rotating parallel twin screw pelletizing line

Twin screw extruder is developed on the basis of single screw extruder. Due to its good feeding performance, mixing and plasticizing performance, exhaust performance, extrusion stability and other characteristics, it has been widely used in the forming and processing of extruded products.

For colour masterbatch, We suggest small type machine. There are two reasons:

1. Because Its coloring power is higher, the needs is small for every color. Sometimes need to change color frequently.
2. The dispersibility of the machine must be good. if the dispersibility is not good, the color will mix unevenly. The larger the machine, the deeper the screw groove, and the worse the dispersion.

About the screen changer, Quick-open screen changer is the best for needs of change color.

Pelletizing System: Water cooling Strand Cutting System.

High Speed Mixer (inverter):

Operation:

1. Open the cover.
2. Put the raw material inside.
3. Cover it.
4. Open the main switch.
5. Set up the discharge time(20~30 seconds normally)
6. Set up the temperature.
7. Low speed start first, when it is steady, high speed start.
8. Mix about 5~7 minutes, stop mixing.
9. Add other material inside, mix about 5~6 minutes(low speed first, then high speed)
10. Stop mixing, when the temperature reach the number you set.
11. Discharge the material.
12. It will stop the discharge, when discharge time reach.
13. Open the cover, put the material inside.
14. Mix the material of second pot.
15. Same as the first time of mixing, but don’t change the discharge time, temperature.

(Low speed mixing time is 17~ 20 seconds,normally pre-mixing temperature>80°C)

Kerke Twin Screw Extruder:

Kerke Extrusion Equipment Co.,Ltd, a professional manufacturer specialized in designing and producing modular co-rotating parallel twin screw pelletizing line as well as its key parts, devotes itself for 17 years into researching and manufacturing plastic processing machinery. Its main product contains KTE series twin screw extruder with high torque ,high speed and high production, KTE/SE series double stage twin/single compound pelletizing line, ans SE series single screw extruder for waste film recycling.

Operation:

1. Heating: Set the machine heating temperature according to the material and keep the temperature over 30 minutes. Then start the machine.
2. Add pre-mixing material into the main feeder.
3. Start the oil and water pump of the extruder, start the auxiliary parts
4. Set the cutter speed, initial setting of 15HZ speed.
5. Start the extruder with 200 RPM rotary speed, and the feeder with 5HZ speed. Then adjust the cutter speed according to the granule size we got.
6. Increase the machine speed to 600 RPM according to the production capacity needs, then slowly increase the feeding speed and cutter speed, and meantime watch out the current display of the extruder motor. The current should be less than 95% of the motor rated current.

Matters Need Attention:

If color change is required, the machine needs to be cleaned well. First pull out the screw for cleaning, Then Put the screw back in and put the carrier into extruder to extrude until the extruded materials have no color.