Lubricants for film manufacture

Lubricants are only present in formulations in small amounts but decisively determine the rheology of the PVC. The correct choice and combination of lubricants largely determines whether a perfect, high-quality film is manufactured by calendering. There is no single ideal lubricant for film manufacture. An optimum formulation must be found depending on the demand profile posed by the client and the machine conditions. In general this will only be finally determined by investigations made under production conditions. An important parameter when choosing components for a formulation is price and this is equally true for lubricants. But this means the effective price - price/performance ratio. The results presented in this article show that lubricants with a release effect are often preferable as they affect many properties positively and help to avoid problems.