Clariant has expanded its capacity to produce pre-colored compounds for medical devices and pharmaceutical packaging. Facilities to process high-temperature polymers are also being expanded.
The Clariant Masterbatches business unit is known as a supplier of color and additive concentrates or masterbatches. In the last five years, it has been gradually expanding its MEVOPUR® line of color and additive masterbatches, all of which are made from pre-tested and batch-controlled ingredients that have been biologically evaluated to ISO10993 and USP <87>, <88> Class VI, and manufactured at three ‘GMP ISO 13485’ certified and dedicated production facilities located in U.S., Europe and Asia.
In some applications, however, companies may prefer to use fully compounded resins—polymers with color and additives already mixed in. Clariant can supply compounds based on a wide a variety of resins. All are manufactured using the same controlled and evaluated raw materials in the same dedicated and certified plants. Batch quantities available can range from as little as 50 lb (25 kg) up to more than 2,500 lb (1000 kg).
In some cases a pre-colored compound may be preferred over a natural/uncolored resin plus concentrate because of technical difficulties with the molding process or with more difficult resins. Clariant provides both options with the assurance that the raw materials, regulatory procedures and processing steps are all controlled in the same way. This allows, for example, a medical device company to validate both concentrate and compound, giving them the flexibility to choose later the route that best meets their processing, economic and technical requirements.”
To support this offering, Clariant has recently expanded its pre-color compound-production capability at its ISO13485 sites in Lewiston, Maine, and in Singapore. In addition to the commodity resins like polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and engineering polymers such as ABS, polycarbonate/ABS alloys and more, the Lewiston site has recently completed an investment to allow it to handle melt-processable fluoropolymers (e.g.: ETFE, FEP) in addition to its capabilities for resin such as polysulfones and polyetheretherketone (PEEK). As an example of end applications the Singapore site has recently begun developing and supplying MEVOPUR compounds and masterbatches based on polyphenylene sulphide (PPS) to a leading global company for a diagnostic application.
