TECHNICAL ARTICLE

Natural Cost Savers – Plant-Based Mould Release Additives Unlock Significant Enhancements in Productivity and Sustainability

Palsgaard’s offering of Einar® plant-based polymer additives is increasingly adopted across a wide range of industries due to their combined performance and sustainability benefits. Noverek/GEA, a leading Mexican supplier of additives to the plastics industry, has developed a calculating tool to quantify the savings potential of Einar® mould release agents in terms of cycle time, energy consumption and part cost.

As injection moulders are constantly seeking to reduce their manufacturing costs without compromising product quality, they also face increasing demands from regulators, brand owners and consumers to improve the sustainability of their processes. This is where renewably sourced polymer additives can play an instrumental role, replacing conventional fossil-based products.

Operating under the umbrella of the Innecsus Group, Noverek Tecnología Química / GEA has been supplying Mexican moulders and masterbatch producers with Einar® plant-based polymer additives for many years. As a result, the company has also gathered extensive expertise in assisting its customers in the effective use of Einar® internal mould release agents from Palsgaard.

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High Performance and Safety

Polyolefin materials, such as polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE), show some shrinkage when the melt solidifies, which can create demoulding as well as subsequent nesting problems. While mould release agents eliminate these risks by lubricating the interface between the part surface and the mould, they must be added with care to avoid undesired plate-out or deposits on the inner mould walls, clogging of mould vents and additive migration, for instance out of plastic packaging products into food.

Einar® mould release additives are tailored to the needs of PP, PE, PVC and polycarbonate (PC) injection moulding as well as PP compression moulding processes. “Based on monoglycerides, which are derived exclusively from sustainable palm, rapeseed or coconut oil, our products provide a renewable drop-in alternative to incumbent synthetic competitors,” explains Ulrik Aunskjaer, Global Business Director for Bio-Speciality Polymer Additives at Palsgaard. “Highly efficient performance can often be achieved at notably lower concentrations than with conventional fossil-based amine and amide release agents.” (Fig. 1)

Next to combining proper mould release with high heat and processing stability, Palsgaard’s Einar® solutions also deliver a slip effect to prevent stacked parts from sticking and facilitate denesting in downstream operations. In addition, their anti-static properties minimise the attraction of dust in handling and packaging. All products are approved for food-contact and potable water applications according to international regulations.

*(Fig. 1) Einar® 201 shows excellent performance in comparison to conventional GMS*.

Added Value Benefits

In a recent project aimed at improving the productivity of a large water tank lid application (Fig. 2), Noverek/GEA suggested the use of Einar® 201 mould release. Initially, the customer had moulded the part at an overall process time of 110 seconds in a PP compound with a recycle content of 30% and no release additive.

“Convincing moulders to change an existing formulation requires solid know-how in both material properties and process optimisation,” says Erick Suarez, GEA managing director. “Backed by our long experience as Palsgaard’s distributor in Mexico, we knew that their bio-based Einar® 201 mould release product would not just ensure adequate lubrication in an ideal migration profile with low volatility, but also provide a number of significant added value benefits to the moulding process itself.”

In comprehensive trials at the customer’s plant, it was demonstrated that the mould release agent enabled a major reduction in process temperatures, reducing the cooling time and resulting in a 17-second faster cycle. Besides generating appropriate energy savings between 13-38%, this meant that the number of parts produced per day could be increased from 785 to 929, equivalent to a rise in machine productivity of approx. 18%.

*Fig. 2: Water tank lid moulded in PP with Einar® mould release, resulting in improved melt flow, lower process temperatures and shorter cycle time. (Photo: Noverek/GEA/Rotoplas )*

Savings Calculator

In order to underscore these benefits more widely in the field, Noverek/GEA has developed a calculator tool to quantify the potential cycle time, energy and cost savings depending on the process parameters and the mould release concentration. In several other application cases, the tool showed possible productivity increases of up to 30%.

“In addition to these savings, manufacturers can capitalize on further beneficial side effects when adding Einar® even at low loading levels of only 0.2%,” Suárez points out. “For example, we found that the mould release agent can improve melt flow, helping customers reduce material costs by allowing them to increase the recycle content in the polymer formulation. It also works as an effective pigment dispersant, reducing masterbatch consumption without losing colour, and has shown to facilitate the purging of machines for faster resin or colour changes.”

Although Einar® 201 was developed by Palsgaard as a general-purpose mould release especially for PP injection moulding applications, many Noverek/GEA customers have been successfully using it also with other polymers, such as ABS, polyamides and bio-based materials, and in different processes from extrusion and blow moulding to lamination. Typical end products include dairy buckets, waste containers and jumbo bins, disposable cutlery, clothing clips and toys.

Superior Sustainability

As polymer additives responsibly sourced from renewable vegetable oils, the benefits of Einar® mould release agents reach even further, addressing the growing demands for reducing fossil depletion and carbon emissions.

“Masterbatch manufacturers, compounders and processors are increasingly seeking additive solutions that will help them eliminate regulatory concerns and meet ambitious sustainability targets,” says Ulrik Aunskjaer. “More than just plant-based, our Einar® additives are produced in factories with a strategic focus on reducing our energy consumption and our CO2-emissions, which gives them an overall superior sustainability profile across the entire value chain from the raw material to compounding and processing.”

This means that customers can effectively minimise the Scope 3 (indirect) emissions of their operations when switching to Einar® mould release additives, without compromising performance or cost efficiency.

Summary

The use of Einar® mould release agents offers measurable energy and cost savings by helping moulders reduce process temperatures and cycle time. A calculation tool developed by Noverek Tecnología Química/GEA in Mexico has proven a valuable means of quantifying these savings to moulders in the field, and Palsgaard is investigating the feasibility of deploying the tool also in other regions.

Further productivity gains derive from added benefits, such as improved masterbatch dispersion, part handling and machine purging. Last but not least, Einar® products are a perfect solution for moulders to reduce their carbon footprint ahead of increasingly strict decarbonisation regulations.