August 2009, Vol.: 1 Vinodrai Engineers Monthly Newsletter.

Vinodrai Engineers, a name to reckon with in Rotational Moulding Technology, has

been active in the field of rotational moulding for the last 16 years. The objective to make the
“Rotomoulding” process easier by each passing day helped us reach at a position, where we
have many delighted customers all across the globe. To keep up with the tradition of sharing
knowledge, we at Vinodrai will publish a monthly newsletter. We hope rotational moulders will
benefit by technical articles by prominent rotomoulders.

Why Carbon Black ?

Sintex introduced water tank in India
with single layer black tanks. Over a period, as
per the demand and preference of customers,
tank makers started offering two layer tanks
with white “clean look” layer from inside. As
competition started hoting up manufacturer
started offering triple layered colored tanks
mainly to satisfy cosmetic desire of customer.
Today triple layer and double layer tanks are
market standards. There is hardly any sale of
single layer tank in smaller size. As tank
manufacturer needs to give guarantee for tanks,
it is very important for rotomoulders to know
role of Carbon Black.
Every material when exposed to sunlight,
will partially absorb the sunlight and partially
reflect the same. Absorbed portion of energy
from sunlight will heat up the material. For
most of the material effect of absorbing sunlight
has no effect other than heating, but there are
many materials which degrades and loose
properties when exposed to sunlight.
Most plastics will degrade when exposed
to sunlight. Studies of the degradation of plastics
by sunlight have shown that Ultra Violet ( UV )
content of high energy portion of sunlight is
responsible for this degradation.
The absorbed UV light breaks the
molecular chains of the polymer material. This
leads to shorter chains, which in turn causes
the plastic material to become more brittle. It
leads to loss of mechanical properties and/or
discoloration, cracking, fading, and chalking.
UV Stabilizers : In order to protect
outdoor plastic products from the UV light, the
plastic needs to be shielded from these harmful
rays. Stabilizers are additives, which are
compounded with plastics to provide the shield
and improve its resistance to UV rays. These
stabilizers are added to the plastic before
moulding. The stabilizers absorb or screen out
the damaging UV light and transform the
energy of the rays, the UV light, into heat,
which is dissipated harmlessly throughout the
product.
Carbon Black is most popular and cost
effective UV stabilizer for plastic and rubber.
Research and experimental data has shown
that the tensile strength of natural material (no
color added) falls below 50% in less than 6
months of exposure. With addition of carbon
black, even after 30 months exposure, the
product still retains more than 90 % of its
strength. This clearly illustrates the
effectiveness of carbon black as an excellent UV
stabilizer.
It is experimentally proven that 2.5%
addition of carbon black gives best result. So
you need to add carbon black master batch in
quantity so as to get 2.5% carbon black in final
product.

Pursuing excellence in Rotational Moulding Technology.

 How to achieve 2.5%Carbon Black:

It is very important for rotational

moulder to achieving 2.5% carbon black in tank
material so as to offer maximum guarantee to
customer. All black master batches looks alike
but carbon black loading may not be the same.
Normally carbon black loading varies from Few New Products :
30% to 60 %.
Find out from your master batch supplier
how much is loading. If carbon loading in
master batch is X%=50%. For every 100 Kg of
LLDPE you need to add 2.5 kg of raw carbon.
So you will need to add ( 2.5 x 100/X ) Kg i.e. 5
kg of master batch of 50 % to be added to 100
kg of LLDPE to get 2.5% loading.
If the carbon black is poorly dispersed or
diluted, its full benefit will not be realized.
Rotational moulding process does not
contribute much to dispersion of carbon black
as rotational moulding is very low shear
process. It is highly advisable to achieve proper
dispersion during compounding. Dry blending
of carbon black with LLDPE powder in high
Children Desk
speed mixture is not right way of dispersion and
should be avoided.
Expected life of Single Layer all black
tank with 2.5% carbon content is highest i.e.
more than 15 years.
Double Layer Tank with outer black
layer will last more than 10 years only if carbon
content is 2.5% and black layer thickness in
tank is more than 2.5 mm.
Triple Layer Tank with middle black
layer will last more than 10 years only if carbon
content is 2.5% and black layer thickness is
more than 2.0 mm.
Most of the triple layer tank available in
market does not have sufficient thickness of School Furniture
black layer & are expected to fail before 10
years.
In nutshell it is very important to
understand the importance of Carbon Black
content in tank material and maintain 2.5%
carbon black loading and minimum of 2.5 mm
thickness of black layer in multilayer tank.

This news letter is for internal circulation only. For subscription e mail: vinodraieng@rediffmail.com

Pursuing excellence in Rotational Moulding Technology.