Polypropylene and Trade Names

PP comes in various forms, flexible and rigid packaging, and can therefore be applied for a variety of uses in households, garments and textiles, or moulded for sizeable parts for many industries such as auto parts.

PP can be recycled, in line with the trends of packaging and other products. They can be moulded into numerous forms such as for biaxially oriented (BOPP), blown moulding, extrusion blow moulding and injection etc.. Their physical properties can be readily modified by simple chemical and additive reactions to enhance durability and chemical resistance well as insulating capacity.

Homopolymers have an isotactic molecular structure, resulting in higher melting points and excellent strength, excellent scratch resistance, and chemical corrosion resistance, either acidic, basic, or ionic, as well as excellent resistance to environmental stress crack resistance (ESCR), including from contact with alcohol, ester, detergent, and other ionic hydrocarbon compounds.

HOMO PP has a wide range of MFRs and therefore can be cast and moulded in various forms, ranging from extrusion into pipes through forming into thin-walled injection moulding (TWIM).

High crystalline polypropylene (HcPP) is physically stronger and more rigid than homopolymers due to its molecular structure, which provides a unique solution to specific customers’ needs for thickness of the PP product. HcPP is a downgauging (or thinner) product of homopolymers while maintaining all other properties including excellent resistance to chemical corrosion and heat. HcPP moulding is done by either extrusion or injection.

Random Copolymers (RACO) are derived through modification of the polypropylene chain by the addition of small comonomers. The modification results in improved optical properties.

RACO is more transparent with a clear appearance and excellent gloss, improved hot-sealing characteristics as well as improved physical impact, RACO PP resins show good chemical resistance including inorganic acidic, basic, and ionic, as well as to environmental stress cracks (ESCR).

Random Copolymers are commonly used as a skin layer in extrusion application for flexible packaging and in injection moulding for consumer goods due to their unique optical properties and excellent clarity.

Heterophasic Copolymers (HECO) are generated by polymerization of a rubber component within the polypropylene matrix polymer, leading to unique PP with extraordinary resistance to physical impact, especially at low temperatures. HECO can be applied in extremely harsh environment, from negative temperatures to very high temperatures such as from the refrigerator freezer to microwave. Because of its extraordinary resistance to high physical impact, HECO is widely used for the manufacture of vehicle bumpers, crates and pails, containers, and drainage pipes.

HECO is inherent with a broad range of melt flow rates (MFR) and can therefore be moulded by piping extrusion, blown film extrusion, or thin-walled injection (TWIM).

Terpolymers are derived from three monomers to create special PP with a uniquely high flexibility physical properties perfectly fit for a skin layers in flexible packaging, including CPP (cast polypropylene), BOPP (biaxially oriented polypropylene), and POF (polyolefin shrink film).

Terpolymers were developed as a breakthrough for the film industry with unique physical properties including sealability at low temperatures, technically termed low SIT (seal initiation temperatures), excellent optical properties with high transparency and high gloss, as well as excellent forming under high-speed processing machinery.