| HYDROCEROL Concentrates are specified worldwide to reduce weight, improve performance, and optimize costs in products ranging from business machine housings, food and medical packaging to material handling systems, automotive parts and window profiles. |
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The HYDROCEROL NUC Series is designed to provide process-relevant nucleation solutions to specific application requirements. They are available as either active foam nucleators or as chemically inactive nucleating masterbatches, such as talc. NUC grades are typically supplied as PE- or PS-based masterbatches, corresponding with the resins most commonly used in physical foaming.
The nucleating agent created nucleating sites where the physical foaming agent will come out of solution during foam expansion, providing a starting point from which the foam cells start to grow. If a nucleating agent can provide a high number of nucleating sites, more cells will be formed and the average cell size will be smaller. | |  |
There are basically two types of nucleating agents: Passive (or inactive) and active nucleators. Passive nucleators include solid materials with fine particle size. Talc would be a typical example. The efficiency of these materials is affected by the shape and size of the particles.
Chemical foaming agents, materials that generate gas upon decomposition, also act as nucleating agents, Mixtures based on sodium bicarbonate and citric acid powders or ready-to-use masterbatches are widely used as interactive nucleating agents.
The nucleation of direct-gassed systems with chemical foaming agents is called "active nucleation". Active nucleators are four to six times more efficient and provide smaller and more uniform cells than passive nucleators.
Foam extrusion with chemical foaming agents can achieve foam densities as low as 500 kg/m3. Lighter weight thermoplastics foams with densities as low as 15 kg/m3 can be produced only with physical foaming agents in a direct-gassed extrusion process. Using HYDROCEROL active nucleating agents produces a more uniform, fine-celled structure.
HYDROCEROL NUC grades are also available as blends of active and passive nucleating agents, combining the advantages of both types. These special products are supplied either as powders or as masterbatches. |