Preventing Discoloration from Titanium Dioxide Pigment

Problem

A specialty plastics company were using titanium dioxide in high performance plastics. It imparted not only a bright white color but also other key properties that gave them a unique, industry-leading product. However, problems persisted. The titanium dioxide produced discoloration when compounded into the plastic at high temperature due to degradation of the plastic material. Also, dispersion was not ideal and abrasion levels were too high. Conventional coatings had failed because they lacked the thermal stability to survive the processing operations. A new, special titanium dioxide coating was needed.

Action

Using a proprietary method, we were able to quickly test many new coatings for the titanium dioxide. The method showed some new coatings with promise, so lab-scale samples were made and sent for testing with the client.

Solution

Compounding and molding trials revealed that one of the candidate coatings performed extremely well. It eliminated discoloration, abrasion and dispersion issues. After some optimization we were able to find the ideal coating level, a process to  apply the coating consistently at commercial scale together with QC methods to ensure optimal coating in each production run. Thus a new special titanium dioxide coating was born. Quite an achievement when you consider the size of the titanium dioxide industry and the players involved.