Situation, status quo and development trend of modified plastics industry

Due to the rapid development of the plastics industry, the filler masterbatch is no longer a single application as a filler material. People use more advanced technology from the production method of open refining and banburying, and add inorganic materials, chemical additives and other materials. Their respective characteristics and commonality, and then using twin-screw extruders and three-screw extruders for mixing and extrusion has become an important way and method for people to improve the special properties of plastic products.

8 Downstream Markets of Modified Plastics
At present, China’s automobiles, home appliances, communications, and high-end tools have a large demand for modified plastics.
· Automobile industry: It is necessary to achieve both lightweight and application requirements, but it is difficult to achieve application requirements with a single resin, and plastic modification has become an indispensable important technology and material.
· Household appliance industry: At present, many plastic parts in various home appliances have replaced metal parts, and the annual demand for various plastics and modified plastics has double-digit growth, and is increasing year by year.
· Electronic and electrical industry: The application advantages of various modified plastics in the communication industry are highlighted. Most of the components such as notebook computer casings, bottom plates, and mobile phones use modified plastics. Such as ABS/carbon fiber, PA/carbon fiber, PP/carbon fiber, resin/silica powder and other materials, these new high-strength plastic functional materials have gradually replaced metal materials.
· Machinery and equipment industry: As the requirements for insulation, flame retardancy, and lightweight of various electric tools continue to increase, plastic modification can improve or enhance their functions, so as to meet the application requirements of the product.
· Railway/Military/Medical/Aerospace: Artificial organs, artificial bone joints and high temperature-resistant, aging-resistant, high-strength functionally modified plastics have played a positive role in the rapid development of transportation, military industry, medical fields, aerospace and other science and technology effect.

5 types of plastic modification methods

Modified filling
The main purpose of filling masterbatch is to reduce the production cost. Most of them are produced by using cheap and widely sourced inorganic powder or industrial waste as filling materials, and adding appropriate amount of additives and synthetic resins.
Heavy calcium carbonate filler masterbatch is a widely used filler modified material in the plastics industry. The manufacturers are all over the country, with an annual output of more than 5 million tons.
Modified masterbatch
Modified masterbatch is a new modified material developed on the basis of filler masterbatch.
Inorganic materials such as glass fiber, talcum powder, mica, wollastonite, barium sulfate, kaolin are added to the resin, or synthetic resins or additives with special properties are added during processing, such as: anti-aging agent, antioxidant, barrier Additives such as fuel or POE, EVA, etc. These composite materials play the functional properties of different materials in applications.
For example, automobile bumpers, instrument panels, automobile interior decoration parts, etc., use PP talc powder, which has the advantages of improving impact strength, improving flexural modulus, reducing shrinkage, and reducing rigidity loss caused by vehicle impact.
Functional modification
Add various materials such as graphene, silicone powder, rare earth, magnesium hydroxide, metal fine powder (silver, copper, zinc, etc.) Physical properties such as high and low temperature have been improved, and special properties such as conductivity, antibacterial, insulation, and reinforcement can also be realized, and it has occupied a place in the main durable plastic product market.
Multiple compound modification
Multi-component compound modification mainly combines plastics with one or more inorganic materials, polymer materials, chemical additives, etc., through blending, grafting, block, etc., by “alloying” plastics, so that The properties of each component complement each other to form a plastic material with multiple excellent properties, so as to achieve the purpose of improving performance and multifunctionality. These material “alloys” have the characteristics of light weight, high strength, and excellent performance after being used in high-tech industries, and have become new functional materials in aviation, aerospace, automobiles, railways, mechanical parts, and medical materials.
Special modification
By adding different functional materials or additives to special plastics, expensive special plastics not only maintain their original characteristics, but also have special functions, and are suitable for market applications of various products.
Such as polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), polyimide (PI), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), polysulfone (PSF) and liquid crystal polymer (LCP) and other high-performance resins, adding carbon fiber, graphene, liquid crystal high Different materials such as molecules and rare earths have good electrical properties, high temperature resistance, dimensional stability and special flame retardancy, radiation resistance, chemical resistance and mechanical properties. These modified new materials are widely used in electronic appliances, automobiles, home appliances, aviation , petrochemical, rocket, aerospace and other cutting-edge technology fields have more and more important application fields.

Three new trends in the development of modified plastics
Nanomaterials
Inorganic materials are widely used in plastics. The functions of inorganic materials gradually become prominent with the ultra-fine particle size. Plastics modified with inorganic nano-powders have many unique properties, which bring new development opportunities to the development of the plastics industry. . Inorganic nanoparticles can endow plastics with new functions, improve the aging resistance and flame retardant effect of plastics, increase the thermal change temperature and wear resistance, etc.
For example, the heat distortion temperature of PA6 modified with 5% organic montmorillonite can be increased by 1.5 times; the gas transmission rate of the material is greatly reduced after adding nanoclay to PET, which is 100 times smaller than the oxygen transmission rate of pure PET. The amount of inorganic nanoparticles added in the plastic is relatively small, generally 3% to 5%, and the density of the composite material is almost unchanged or slightly increased compared with the original resin, and there is no disadvantage of other performance degradation caused by too much filler.
High efficiency of chemical additives
The development of new high-efficiency additives has become an important development direction for modified plastics. In addition to additives commonly used in plastic processing, the additives involved in modified plastics, such as heat stabilizers, plasticizers, ultraviolet absorbers, nucleating agents, antistatic agents, In addition to dispersants and flame retardants, high-efficiency and multi-functional functional additives such as toughening, flame retardant, synergistic, alloy compatibility (interface compatibility) are also critical to modified plastics.
Usually the type and quality of some additives play a key role in the performance and cost of modified plastics, especially when new tougheners, flame retardant The cost reduction of engineering plastics is of great significance.
Environmental protection of modified plastics
With the enhancement of people’s awareness of environmental protection and the increasingly stringent environmental protection regulations, the concepts of environmental protection such as renewable utilization of plastics, environmental digestibility, biodegradability, non-toxic, tasteless, and pollution-free have been integrated into the design and manufacture of modified plastics. In the process, we must pay attention to the conservation and rational use of energy resources, and the development of green and environmentally friendly modified plastic products that are non-polluting, fully degradable, and recyclable has become a new hot spot.