Choma Color launches biocompostable color master batch | Plastics News

McHenry, Ill.-based Chroma Color Corp. (S25116) has launched its new biocompostable color master batch for difficult-to-recycle parts made up of combinations of different polymers or those used for in-mold labeling applications.

"Most consumers are not going to take the time to rip apart the paper and the plastic component," James Walsh, vice president of technology at Chroma Color, told Plastics News at NPE2024.

"Unfortunately, it just ends up in a landfill. [But] we're getting more educated as consumers.

"There are a lot of converters that have put a lot of technology and capital resources into their product," Walsh said. "They just can't completely change the whole technology they've invested in."

Chroma Color worked with its suppliers to create a PHA polyester that complies with ASTM-6400 and DIN EN13432 biocomposting standards, which specify requirements for the biodegradation of solid materials through composting plastics intended for aerobic composting in municipal or industrial settings and procedures for determining the compostability and aerobic treatability of packaging, respectively.

Chroma Color's technology team developed three new colors for one of its customers using a specifically designed carrier resin for the masterbatch, including 41OR0001SC41CO-F Orange 50/1, 41RD0001SC41CO-F Red 50/1 and 41WH000141CO-F White 50/1.

PHAs are a group of bio-based and biodegradable polyesters made by bacterial fermentation.

"Alone or when blended with other polymers, [PHAs] dramatically improve environmental characteristics while enhancing physical properties in a broad range of consumer applications," a news release said.

Pigments from Chroma Color's suppliers have also passed those tests, Walsh said.

Once customers mold their product with the material and color concentrate, they'll need to do their own compostability tests depending on the "form factor," or thickness and configuration of the part, he said, adding that they'll have a "95-99 percent chance" of meeting that standard because the ingredients have already passed.

"There's a certain amount of oxygen and nutrients that need to go into this testing procedure for it to pass," Walsh said.

Since 2018, Chroma has made nine acquisitions, one of which is Newark, N.J.-based Epolin LLC, now its dye, coating and ink division that specializes in near-infrared absorptive dyes and thermoplastic compounds.

Recently, the company has seen management changes, including the appointment of Joe Herres, previously vice president of sales and marketing for Chroma, as CEO, replacing Shruti Singhal.

Now, Epolin and Chroma are working closer together to develop NIR dyes for applications like LiDAR, security cameras and advanced driver assist systems, among others.

"It's really level-set the organization," Walsh said. "Everyone's contributing to improving products."

"The company is really coalescing," said Barry Gilbert, director of sales for Epolin. "Previously, there were a number of plants that had their own identities, but now it's all becoming one."

Dyes for the medical market are the most "challenging" of Epolin's products, Gilbert said.

Epolin has made fluorescent dyes used during robotic surgeries to stain tumor tissue, lighting up the tumor and giving robotic surgeries a higher rate of success.

"[The robot] can see exactly what it needs to remove," Gilbert said.

It's also made dyes for use in endoscopes to filter out LED light, he said.

"A lot of these materials have been around for hundreds of years, and now we've developed applications where people are able to take advantage of them," Gilbert said, adding that Epolin can "shift" molecules to be "applicable to that exact application."

Through chemical synthesis, Epolin builds dyes that are soluble in polymers, that absorb UV, visible and infrared light for applications like lenses, eye protection for welding or lasers, or in phlebotomy applications such as a camera system that filters out pink light to view the blue hue of veins under skin, he said.

"When it's compound extruded, the dye dissolves to the molecular level and becomes a part of the material," Gilbert said, "like sugar and water."

Epolin also makes dyes for medical devices, aerospace and automotive applications like car sensors, which use certain dyes to filter light and automatically turn on headlights or tip a mirror, he said.

They can also be used to create advertising platforms, like creating a green screen on hockey rink panel boards. Typically, that advertising is local, Gilbert said, and broadcasters wanted to make that space available to other advertisers.

"If you look at it with an infrared camera, it's basically one continuous color [instead] of all the artwork" you'd see in person, he added.

Epolin's colors are also used for brand protection and authentication in the automotive and pharmaceutical markets, among others, he said.

The colors have codes that coincide with their own "very specific absorbance," Gilbert said. "If we can't detect that in there, then this wasn't the same stuff we sent you."

These can be used to "region lock," or indicate where a drug or other product came from, he said.

One of Epolin's automotive customers in the U.S. "was buying a high-dollar, very specific resin and sending it to Mexico to be processed," Gilbert said. "In Mexico, [the processor was] swapping it out for a similar, lower-quality resin and … sending it back."

Epolin ships products to more than 50 countries for applications using injection molding, film extrusion, casting, lamination, pressure-sensitive adhesives, solvent-borne coatings, and other manufacturing processes and technologies.

Chroma Color Corp. supplies color concentrates for wire and cable, packaging, health care, pharmaceutical, consumer products and other markets.

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