How You Can Create Synthetic Fibers that Stand Out

The increasingly competitive landscape in the synthetic fibers market has made it essential for companies to seek opportunities to add value and create points of differentiation. This blog post is to review how color and additive solutions impact the functionality and stabilization of synthetic fibers during production and when going to market.

Define Your Goals

Differentiating your fiber products from the competition can be accomplished in a number of ways, it boils down to determining what you are trying to accomplish, and then working with suppliers to find the right solutions. For example, outdoor fabrics for awnings would require different attributes than the lining of a fleece jacket.

Color-Enhancing Solutions

Finding the right mix of polymer color and additives can be the key to unlocking new business opportunities, helping synthetic fiber producers enhance material properties and create improved efficiencies in the spinning process, which adds greater value to end customers when compared to lower-cost alternatives. To further achieve the look you are after, the following color and additives might also be considered.

Goal	Solution
Enhancing appearance	Custom colors, blacks and whites, delusterants, and optical brighteners
Extending useful life	UVA and light stabilizers
Inhibiting the spread of germs	Antimicrobials
Improving processability during spinning	Lubricants, antioxidants and heat stabilizers
Preventing ignition or spread of flame	Flame retardants
Removing static charge from fabrics	Antistatics
Enhancing performance	Moisture managers, odor absorbers, fillers, reinforcement, tracers and biodegradation

In the highly competitive synthetic fibers market, differentiation can be achieved by fine-tuning your processes and finding the right mix of color and additive solutions. By working with a trusted partner, you can effectively balance form and function that will add value to your operation—and your customers.

Americhem’s Product Development Services

Americhem is more than a supplier to the synthetic fiber industry—we’re a partner that can help enhance your existing products and bring new products to market faster. We become fully integrated in your processes to help improve efficiency and overall product quality by employing our unique value-engineering approach. For more information on best practices in the manufacture of synthetic fibers, or to learn more about Americhem’s products and services, visit Americhem.com.

Larry Campbell
Technical Development Director- Fibers
Americhem, Inc.

What’s the Difference Between Pigment and Masterbatch?

As a maker of color concentrates for a variety of polymeric products, exact color matches, lot-to-lot consistency, and color stability are extremely important to our customers. By having Americhem manufacture color concentrates (also known as masterbatches) for use in their manufacturing process, they are counting on us to handle critical aspects of coloring and maintaining color for their products.

We often hear people that misunderstand our part in the value chain and think that we make pigment. Dictionary.com defines a pigment as: 1. a dry insoluble substance, usually pulverized, which when suspended in a liquid vehicle becomes a paint, ink, etc. or 2. A coloring matter or substance.

Although Americhem uses pigments in our products, our masterbatch products can best be defined as a high concentration of pigments and additives encapsulated by a polymer. Instead of powdered pigments that are messy and must be cleaned from every surface that they touch, our masterbatches are most often made in pelleted form, like the picture you see here, and can be made as pellets and beads of differing sizes depending on what’s best for our customer’s manufacturing process.

You might ask if pigments alone can be added during the plastics producing process and the answer is yes. But it certainly isn’t what most plastic and synthetic fibers producers really do. Adding pigment by itself to these products does not disperse well in their equipment. Masterbatch is designed and engineered for optimal dispersion in a polymer matrix. Therefore, products made with masterbatch are consistent with one another and consistent from lot to lot, and even within lots. Masterbatches will give your products the ultimate opacity or transparency, depending on the desired effect. You realize full color value in your products because of the optimal dispersion of the pigment particles. You will also use less pigment when it’s delivered in masterbatch form because of masterbatch’s optimal, pure dispersion.

There are other advantages to color concentrates. Raw pigment can become airborne in manufacturing plants, contaminating other products being made on other manufacturing lines. Color concentrates are much easier to feed and handle during the manufacturing process. You can also match up the polymer you are coloring with the same polymer binder in the masterbatch for better melt processing. And because we make additive concentrates as well as color, we can create an all-in-one, multi-attribute masterbatches containing color and your choice of functional additives such as UV stabilizers, antioxidants, flame retardants and optical brighteners. So instead of having to feed many ingredients into your plastic processing equipment, you could use just one concentrate with predetermined ratios of ingredients to make your life a whole lot easier.

It has been said that masterbatch can be compared with Kool-Aid. A packet of Kool-Aid contains concentrated color and ingredients that give the drink flavor and aroma. When mixed with sugar and water (which are comparable to the polymer in plastics) these ingredients disperse evenly throughout the pitcher, making a drink that looks, smells and tastes great.

Consider Americhem your color and additives expert. If you’d like to explore other aspects of color, join the conversation and let us know by leaving a comment.

Scott Blanchard
Corporate Marketing & Communications Manager 

How Americhem Helps Reduce Your Environmental Impact

Since its start in 1970, Earth Day has grown to become the largest civil observance in the world. In honor of the 45th annual Earth Day on April 22, we’re going to examine what Americhem does to make the world a greener place.

Environmental Goals

At Americhem, everything starts with the company principles that have guided us for the past 70 years. Part of those principles asks us to act as proactive stewards for the environment while providing value for our customer. We achieve this through:
· Product designs with the lowest environmental impact
· Innovative ways to reduce our use of natural resources
· Manufacturing and distribution methods that minimize energy use
· Partnerships with suppliers who share our dedication to sustainability

Providing nBalance™

One of the ways that we reduce environmental impact is through nBalance™ sustainable solutions, a mix of color and additive masterbatches that are designed to:
· Lower environmental impact
· Reduce consumption of natural resources
· Use minimal energy in manufacturing and distribution

Our color and additives also help create products that contain various recycled materials, giving you consistent results with more environmentally-friendly materials. We also make close to 900 unique products that do not require on-site applied materials, eliminating the need for painting, staining, or other on-site finishing methods.

Go Green with Americhem

With Americhem, you have a partner that not only provides you with top-of-the-line color and additive masterbatches, but also one that can help you limit your impact on the environment. Call us today at 1-800-228-3476 or contact us online to see the Americhem difference for yourself.