A recently granted food contact notification for Milliken’s Hyperform HPN-20E in polyolefins is opening new options for customers in the polyethylene (PE) industry.

            The food contact notification covers Conditions A-H, allowing broad usage across a range of food contact applications. Hyperform HPN-20E is a new nucleating agent which successfully nucleates polyethylene bringing a range of benefits: improved clarity, physical properties, and barrier and seal performance.

            “The FCN allows utility of Hyperform HPN-20E in additional applications and adds to our excitement in providing additives that enhance polyolefins and create new solutions for complex challenges,” said Martin Horrocks, global market manager, Polyethylene Additives for Milliken Chemical. “We are determined to bring value to the market segments that depend on polyethylene.”

            Introduced last year, Hyperform HPN-20E nucleating agent works effectively and efficiently in PE, which until Milliken Chemical’s introduction of the new nucleating agent, has never utilized nucleation on a commercial scale. Nucleating agents provide a physical molecular-level trigger point around which highly-ordered crystalline structures called spherulites form rapidly.

            Target applications for Hyperform HPN-20E nucleating agent include monolayer and coextruded film for food packaging, agricultural applications and overwrap films. Early focus has been in the area of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) resins where optical enhancement is vital for shelf appeal. Traditionally this has been achieved through blending low density PE (LDPE) into LLDPE. Unfortunately, this can result in reduction of tear and impact strength of the resultant film. Nucleating LLDPE with HPN-20E can enhance optics without detriment to tear and impact, offering film producers a new and novel option for...

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