Trinseo | Trinseo Expert Presents Ways to Tackle Historical Issues of Extrusion Applications

January 17, 2018

Trinseo Expert Presents Ways to Tackle Historical Issues of Extrusion Applications

A white paper developed by Netherlands-based Trinseo technical specialist is providing practical data and research information on selecting a pure Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) material that is particularly suitable for extrusion applications.

Historically, emulsion Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (eABS) used for extrusion applications has experienced issues with color quality, low lot-to-lot consistency, poor UV stability, unmelts causing surface defects, and impurities.

When manufacturers of end products receive different lots of ABS resins from the same producer, or different ABS resins from different producers, extra operations are required for color matching, resulting in additional resources and cost. For end product manufacturers using natural color ABS resins with color masterbatches, a higher pigment loading is frequently needed to mask variations in yellow base color from different lots or different grades of ABS resins.

A QUV-A exposure test concluded that the eABS color aged twice as fast as the Trinseo MAGNUM™ ABS when subjected to UV light. The greater UV light stability of the material represents significant cost savings, as only around half of the amount of UV absorber is needed.

Unmelts in ABS (also called gels) can cause surface defects, because they do not melt during extrusion and may form a surface irregularity. In this study, significantly less medium- and large-size gels were detected in MAGNUM™ ABS compared with various eABS grades.