Greener Solutions from your Colouring Experts banner

We’ll be exhibiting at Interplas 2023, with our biggest and best stand yet! This will be the 5th time we’ve exhibited at the UK’s leading plastics trade show, with our first show being back in 2011. We’ll demonstrate solutions to help brands and moulders improve the sustainability of their plastic mouldings. Look out for greener solutions from your colouring experts.

Historically, we’ve been known for our expertise in colouring plastics. But in recent years, expansion of our in-house R&D facility has assisted the development of additive masterbatches and custom compounds. With the world focused on reducing plastic waste, brand owners, pack techs and plastic moulders are increasingly seeking sustainable options. Visit our stand at Interplas 2023, to find out more about our greener solutions.

Our NIR Detectable ‘Piano Black’ Masterbatches are designed to improve the recycling compatibility of black plastics. These colourants deliver a rich ‘piano black’ finish, without a reliance on high levels of carbon black pigments, which typically pose a barrier to the recycling of black plastics. Carbon black pigments are strong absorbers of infrared radiation, so items containing traditional black pigments will not reflect a signal to the detector in NIR recycling facilities. This impedes the ability to sort the item, resulting in tonnes of otherwise recyclable plastic going to landfill.

“Broadway’s NIR Detectable Piano Black Masterbatch is a real achievement for our team. It provides a rich, high-gloss black, whilst retaining the potential for NIR detectability. This demonstrates our commitment to diverting materials away from landfill whilst also maintaining a resolute focus on the aesthetics of the moulded component. We’ll be exhibiting sample mouldings at Interplas, and demonstrating their detectability with our NIR detector.”
Dr Stephen Rayner, Technical Manager

A recent addition to Broadway’s impressive additive portfolio is our endothermic blowing agent. In the competitive world of plastic manufacturing, a blowing agent masterbatch can offer multiple benefits to moulders and their customers. These include cost savings and weight reductions of up to 9%, based on recent trials. Using less polymer is beneficial both from an environmental and commercial perspective and lightweighting plastic items offers benefits for various market sectors. Our blowing agent masterbatch relies on an endothermic reaction, so it’s more environmentally friendly than widely available exothermic blowing agents, which can give off harmful gases.

Broadway’s solutions for recycled materials will also be exhibited at Interplas. We’ll showcase our colouring expertise, demonstrating how colour formulations for virgin materials can be altered to achieve the same end colour in a PCR moulding. Broadway’s free on-site colour matching service is great for anyone formulating new colours for use in PCR. We can dose colour into a sample batch of a customer’s recycled material and colour plaques can be reviewed hot off the injection moulding machines. There will also be an interactive smell test to show the impact of our odour neutraliser additive. This is designed to reduce the smells which are often apparent when using recycled materials.

We can also run masterbatches using a PCR carrier resin, this is particularly useful for brands seeking to legitimately claim “Made from 100% recycled plastic”. Anyone making such a statement must be mindful that there will be a carrier resin within their coloured masterbatch. Although the masterbatch only forms a small proportion of their material, this also needs to be made using recycled polymer in order for any “100% recycled plastic” claims to be genuine.

Sustainability stand

Sales Director, Nick Barber spoke about the importance of exhibiting at Interplas:
“Interplas offers us the opportunity to catch up with old friends and to engage with new prospects. For us it’s a great chance to talk about Broadway’s solutions which offer sustainability improvements. This has been a real focus for us since we last exhibited, both in the way we operate and within our developing portfolio of innovative materials. In recent months we’ve also seen great interest in the special effects we’ve posted on our socials. Nothing beats seeing a moulded sample first hand, so look out for some of these on our stand too. We’ll look forward to seeing you there.

Interplas 2023 will take place at NEC, Birmingham on 26th – 28th September. You’ll be able to find us in Hall 4, Stand B12.
To book an appointment with us ahead of the event, please email sales@broadwaycolours.com or call 01986 875 100.

Click here for more details on our sustainable solutions.