A Breif Introduction On Glow In The Dark Masterbatch

One of the most common use of photoluminescent pigment is to make glow in the dark plastic products, including glow in the dark plastic bottles, caps, shoe soles, fish bait, fiber, etc. However, if the glow in the dark pigment is directly added into plastic to make the final product, the pigment is very likely to turn black during processing. This will not only influence the final plastic product’s color and appearance, but also will cause it to have a lower luminosity and shorter glow time. To prevent this, we recommend our clients to first use our glow pigment to make glow in the dark masterbatch. Then use the glow in the dark masterbatch to make your desired product.

Glow in the dark pigment

Glow in the dark masterbatch, also known as photoluminescent masterbatch or luminous masterbatch, and these names will be used interchangeably in the following article. It is a kind of plastic granule with self-luminous function. It can be made using high-grade glow pigment and transparent plastic like EVA, PE, PP, ABS, PC, PMMA TPU. Photoluminescent masterbatch can be directly mixed with other required materials to make the final plastic product. The glow pigment is encapsulated in the granule, which prevents it from lots of friction, so the problem of blackening will not happen.

Below is our general guide on how to make glow in the dark masterbatch. Please note that these guidelines can only be referred to when using Zhejiang Minhui Luminous Techonology Co., Ltd (MINHUI)'s photoluminescent pigment. You may need to adjust certain parameteres during actual production. 

How to make glow in the dark masterbatch

Selection of Resin

We recommend to source powder resin with a relatively high melt index, resin with high transparency and softer resin. 

Selection of photoluminescent pigment:

Generally, we recommend to choose glow in the dark pigment with a particle size(D50) of 25~35um. Photoluminescent pigment with glow color of yellow-green and blue-green have higher luminosity and longer glow time, so MHG-6D and MHG-4D, or MHB-5D and MHB-4D are great for making glow in the dark masterbatch. 

If the final product you are making is glow in the dark fiber, then we recommend photoluminescent pigment with smaller particle size(D50), about 2~10um. We recommend choosing MHG-6F and MHG-4F.

 

MINHUI's glow in the dark masterbatch

Production:

If the goods needs color mixing, try best to use the fluorescence pigment. The proportion of photoluminescent powder to plastic varies from 15-50% (weight proportion) based on requirement of brightness. 

Add dispersant, lubricant and light stabilizer. Dispersants like white oil and lubricants are conducive to the dispersion of glow pigment and can reduce the friction of machinery during processing, which will effectively preventing blackening. According to the user's needs, other adjuvants can be added to improve the product’s performance.

The do’s and dont’s when making photoluminescent masterbatch:

Glow in the dark masterbatch tend to turn black when heated, which affects its luminescent properties. This problem can be overcomed by optimizing the equipment or the manfacturing process. Through the adjustment of the screw structure, you can reduce the shear and friction of glow in the dark pigment during processing, which can largely prevent the pigment from blackening. Also, properly increase the temperature of the screw, so that the material can be in a viscous flow state soon after entering the equipment , and quickly wraps the photoluminescent pigment to reduce its friction on the screw.

More information

Glow in the dark masterbatch can be difficult to make if you are not a professional. To help our customers to have a easier time developing your novel glow in the dark product and satisfy the market needs, we manufacture high-quality and easy to use photoluminescent masterbatch. We own 3 glow masterbatch production lines and more than 20 injection molding production lines. So if you want to leave the production of your glow product to us, we are also here to help.