Common Fillers and Additives in Plastic Manufacturing

Common Fillers and Additives in Plastic Manufacturing

Manufacturing custom plastics isn't just about molding them into specific shapes, though that's a significant part of it, of course. It's also about ensuring the plastic has properties necessary to meet design needs. Often, this requires additives, coatings, and other customizations to the plastic itself. For example, you want casing for wires made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) because it's durable and resistant to impact and moisture, but PVC is a hard, brittle polymer, so a casing wouldn't be able to curve with the wire. Adding a plasticizer to the PVC makes it softer and more flexible, making it ideal for wire casing. Our thermoforming company is sharing a closer look at fillers and additives in plastics to help you understand how we achieve the necessary qualities in our customers' custom plastics.

Contact us to discuss your requirements for glove filler. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.

What Are Plastic Additives and Fillers?

Additives and fillers are organic or inorganic compounds introduced into plastic to change its properties. While most plastics in their original form are impact resistant and long-lasting, they are often brittle, hard, combustible, or too heavy for the intended use. Adding additives or fillers can transform the plastic to meet the intended use without sacrificing the qualities that made it attractive to begin with. The PVC wire casing example above is just one instance, but nearly every plastic has some type of additive included to optimize it for the intended use.

Plasticizers Used for Flexibility

The most common additives in plastics are plasticizers. These are typically liquid, non-volatile organic substances that improve flexibility, particularly when thermoforming, shaping, and molding. Most often used in PVC, plasticized PVC is used in automotive thermoforming, flooring, roofing, and cables. You'll also find plasticizers used in acrylics, PET, and polyolefin.

Most plasticizers are esters created when acids react with alcohols, and the amount added affects the finished product. For example, vinyl gloves consist of around 50% plasticizers, so they are pliable and comfortable to wear.

Fillers Reduce Cost and Weight

Often, minerals such as calcium carbonate, silica, clay, kaolin, and carbon are added as fillers to polymers. While most people think these are simply used to add bulk and lower cost, many of these mineral fillers make plastics easier to mold and shape while ensuring the stability of the compounds. For plastics that require heat resistance, mineral fillers can increase heat deflection and reduce thermal expansion.

Carbon Fillers in Plastic

Carbon fibers are frequently added to polymers because they offer several benefits, including increasing tensile strength without adding weight, improving heat deflection, and enhancing electrical conductivity.

Polymer Stabilizers Increase Lifespan

While we've discussed antioxidants in plastics at length, we also wanted to touch upon them here. Polymer stabilizers are chemical additives that inhibit or slow down degradation caused by oxidation, UV exposure, and heat degradation while minimizing reactions with catalysts that could break down the plastic at the chemical structural level. In addition to antioxidants that block autoxidation, which occurs when a polymer reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere, additional stabilizers include:

• UV absorbers
• "Quenchers" that absorb energy created when light reacts within the polymer
• Acid scavengers
• Metal deactivators
• Heat stabilizers

Flame Retardants

Flame retardants are a type of stabilizer, but they stand out because they improve fire resistance and minimize the risk of combustion. Most thermoplastics are flammable and, when exposed to high temperatures, are designed to bend and melt. Adding flame retardants delays ignition and burning, minimizes smoke, and reduces the spread of flames, which keeps people safe and minimizes property damage. They also offer long-term benefits by reducing free radicals. Aluminum hydroxide, phosphorus compounds, and brominated compounds are the most common types of flame retardants.

Call Us for a Quote on Custom Plastics Today

At Advanced Plastiform, Inc., we offer comprehensive plastic manufacturing services, covering everything from design to drop shipping, for a wide variety of industries. With low per-unit pricing and fast lead times, we make durable, high-quality custom plastics affordable and accessible to customers across the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Natural rubber latex gloves, often simply referred to as latex gloves, offer good resistance towards acids and alkalis.* However, they are permeable to many solvents. Due to their outstanding elongation, latex gloves are very comfortable to wear and traditionally provide optimal fit and feel. One main disadvantage is that natural latex proteins can cause or trigger natural rubber latex allergies.

Nitrile gloves are made of nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR), a synthetic material. They can be used as an alternative glove choice for people suffering from an allergy to natural rubber latex. A significant advantage is the improved resistance towards many chemicals* as well as oils.

Vinyl gloves are a cost-efficient alternative when mechanical stress and barrier protection are less of a factor. Their skin-friendly material is suitable for users suffering from latex or chemical allergies. A disadvantage is that the use of plasticizers as the key component in the production of vinyl gloves excludes their use in handling lipids and fatty foods. Furthermore, the comfort of wearing vinyl gloves is less compared to nitrile or latex gloves, mainly due to the limited elasticity of vinyl.

* CAUTION: Before gloves are used in contact with chemicals, please consult the chemical resistance lists, which can be found here. Failure to observe this information can result in personal injury and/or material damage. In case of doubt, obtain expert advice before use.

The company is the world’s best hand cover gloves supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly specialized and will help you find the product you need.