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Plastic Film is made of PE, PP, PVC, PS, PET, PA, and other resins, used for flexible packaging or laminating layer, are widely used in food, medicine, chemicals, and other fields, of which food packaging accounted for the largest proportion. Among them, PE film is the most widely used, the largest amount of plastic packaging film, accounting for more than 40% of the consumption of plastic packaging film.

During the preparation of plastic films, to improve their processing performance and service life, it is usually necessary to add slip agents. slip agents can reduce the friction coefficient of the surface of plastic films and improve their surface smoothness, thus improving their processing performance and prolonging their service life.

At present, the common slip agents include amide, ultra-high polymer silicone, copolymer polysiloxane, and so on. Different types of film slip agents have different properties and advantages and disadvantages, the following briefly introduces several common slip agents and how to choose slip additive for Plastic Film :

Amide slip agents (including oleic acid amides, erucic acid amides, etc.):

The main role of amide additives in polyolefin film production is to impart slip properties. After the amide slip agent leaves the mold, the slip agent instantly migrates to the surface of the polymer film, and once it reaches the surface, the slip agent forms a lubricating layer, which reduces the coefficient of friction and achieves a slippery effect.

• Advantages of amide slip agents for Plastic Film:

A low additive amount in film preparation （0.1-0.3%）， is added in the form of a mixture or masterbatch in the processing plant to ensure a homogeneous smoothing effect; a good smoothing effect, can achieve a lower coefficient of friction, a very low additive amount can meet the requirements.

• Disadvantages of amide slip agents for Plastic Film:

Influence on printing:  precipitates quickly, leading to influence on corona and printing.

High requirements for climate temperature: for example, the amount added in summer and winter is different. Due to the continuous high temperature in summer, lubricants such as erucic acid amide are very easy to migrate continuously from the film surface, and the amount migrated to the surface of the film will be aggregated as time goes by, leading to an increase in the haze of the transparent film, which affects the appearance and quality of the packaging material. It also precipitates and adheres to metal rolls.

Storage difficulty: Amide film slip agents can also migrate from the heat seal layer to the corona layer after the film has been wound and during later storage, negatively affecting downstream operations such as printing, laminating, and heat sealing.

Extremely easy to precipitate white powder: In food packaging, as the slip agent migrates to the surface, it may dissolve in the food product, affecting the flavor and increasing the risk of food contamination.

Ultra-high molecular weight silicone slip agents for Plastic Film :

Ultra-high molecular weight polysiloxane has the tendency to migrate to the surface layer, but the molecular chain is too long to be completely precipitated, and the precipitated portion forms a silicone-containing lubricating layer on the surface, thus achieving the effect of surface slip.

• Advantages:

excellent high-temperature resistance, slow precipitation, especially suitable for high-speed automatic packaging lines (such as cigarette film).

• Disadvantages:

easy to affect transparency.

Although these traditional amide Slip Additives are commonly used in plastic film, the industry is not without its challenges.

Due to its composition, structural characteristics, and small molecular weight, the traditional Amide film slip agents are highly prone to precipitation or powdering, which drastically reduces the effectiveness of the slip agent, the coefficient of friction is unstable depending on the temperature, and the screw needs to be cleaned periodically, and it may cause damages to the equipment and the product.

Addressing Challenges in the Plastic Film Industry: SILIKE’s Innovative Solution

To address numerous challenges with traditional Slip Additives used in Plastic film production， especially with traditional amide-based slip agents. SILIKE’s dedicated R&D team has successfully tackled these issues with the development of a groundbreaking Non-precipitating Super-slip & anti-blocking Masterbatch Additives  – part of the SILIMER series, which effectively solves the shortcomings of the traditional slip agent, Non-migratory across film layers, ensuring stable and long-lasting slip performance, which brings great innovation to the  Plastic Film Flexible Packaging Industry industry. This breakthrough offers benefits such as minimal influence on printing, heat sealing, transmittance, or haze, along with reduced CoF, good anti-blocking, and improved surface smoothness, eliminating white powder precipitation.

SILIMER series Non-precipitating Super-slip & anti-blocking Masterbatch Additives series has a wide range of applications and can be used in the production of BOPP/CPP/PE/TPU/EVA films, etc. They are suitable for casting, blow molding, and stretching processes.

Why  SILIMER series Non-precipitating Super-slip&anti-blocking Masterbatch Additives is superior to conventional amide-based slip agents？

The Fascinating Technological Innovations Solutions of Plastic Film

Copolymer Polysiloxane: SILIKE launched a Non-precipitating Super-slip & anti-blocking Masterbatch Additives   – part of the SILIMER series, which are modified polysiloxane products containing active organic functional groups, its molecules contain both polysiloxane chain segments and long carbon chain of active groups, the long carbon chain of active functional groups can be physically or chemically bonded with the base resin,  can play an anchoring role, to achieve the effect of easy to migrate without precipitation, silicone chain segments in the surface, thus playing a smooth effect.

Advantages of SILIKE SILIMER series Non-precipitating Super-slip&anti-blocking Masterbatch Additives:

1.Test data show that small amounts of SILIKE SILIMER 5064MB1,  and SILIKE SILIMER 5065HB can effectively reduce the coefficient of friction and have a long-lasting and stable slipperiness regardless of climate and temperature;

2.The addition of SILIKE SILIMER 5064MB1,  and SILIKE SILIMER 5065HB during the preparation of plastic films does not affect the transparency of the film and does not affect the subsequent printing process;

3.Adding SILIKE SILIMER 5064MB1,  and SILIKE SILIMER 5065HB in small amounts solves the problem that traditional amide slip agents are easy to precipitate or powder, improves the product quality, and saves the comprehensive cost.

The stability and high efficiency of the SILIKE SILIMER series of Non-precipitating Super-slip&anti-blocking Masterbatch Additives have made them used in many fields, such as plastic film production, composite packaging film, food packaging materials, pharmaceutical packaging materials manufacturing, etc. SILIKE also provides customers with more reliable and safer product solutions, Do you want to replace the amide slip agents in your hands? Do you want to replace your amide slip agent for Plastic Film, or do you want to use a more stable and efficient environmental protection slip agent for Plastic Film, SILIKE welcomes you to contact us at any time, and we are looking forward to creating more possibilities together with you!