POP Masterbatch: The Gloss Revolution for HDPE Packaging

time：2025-05-19 click：

Industry Trends: Market Drivers of High Gloss Packaging

The preference for high gloss, molded packaging in personal care, cosmetics, food and other industries has driven packaging manufacturers to make beautiful products that compromise production and performance. A company has developed a patented combination of special high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and POP High Gloss Color, a high gloss masterbatch, which can improve the inherent gloss of the resin and reduce other negative effects. Compared with other high gloss options, this combination also has improved mechanical properties.

Performance Breakthrough: Revolutionary Solution for 200% Gloss Enhancement

Compared with the gloss exhibited by conventional HDPE materials, the combination of POP color and resin can increase gloss by more than 200%. The result is an opaque HDPE container that can often replace those processed from PET materials, achieving significant cost and processing advantages.

Industry Voice: Perfect Balance of Cost and Performance

Doug Brownfield, Strategic Business Manager, said: "Packaging manufacturers prefer higher gloss products to make their plastic bottles and containers eye-catching on retail shelves. Our POP color approach gives them an alternative way to achieve higher gloss using HDPE without sacrificing performance and integrity when blow-molding and injection-molding PET packaging products."
"This importance is because HDPE is cheaper than PET and requires low-cost processing equipment. It also does not have the difficulties involved in PET processing. POP color also allows processors to add special effects that were difficult to obtain in the past, resulting in high-gloss HDPE packaging."
Compared with other products that improve HDPE gloss, POP color can produce greater HDPE hardness and better melt strength. Improved mechanical strength can support high-gloss HDPE materials for both single-layer bottles and as surface materials for multi-layer bottles. Other high-gloss HDPE compounds lack sufficient parison strength when used in single-layer bottles, so they can only be used as outer layers. The use of POP color can also avoid melt fracture or excessive parison residence time, and help push-stack compression strength.
The low viscosity associated with HDPE containing POP colorants virtually eliminates demolding issues and many downstream handling problems, such as chafing and hanging during conveying. HDPE containing POP colorants has a relatively high heat distortion temperature, so it is less likely to deform when the package is stored at higher temperatures. POP colorants also meet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines for food contact.
The addition of POP colorants to the current HDPE molding process can be processed using both high-speed and low-speed extruders and other equipment. They include the company's SmartColor processing technology, which allows easier cleaning during color changes. For POP colorants, the advent of SmartColor technology reduces downtime, optimizes production and improves product quality.