There are two major types of UV stabilizers:
– UV stabilizers
– UV stabilizers with barrier effect

The former have the purpose to protect polymers from the degradation caused by the sun’s UV radiations.

The latter have the purpose to absorb UV radiations and transform them into thermal energy, thereby protecting the contents of the articles to be manufactured.
The percentages of use of these products vary according to the requested stability to light — expressed in kly — and of their geographical area of ​​exposure.

Possible processing problems
The use of UV additives in the extrusion process can give rise to the ‘die buildup’ phenomenon, the formation of encrustations on the head of the extruder due to a deterioration of the polymer, which leads to problems for the finished product and downtime in order to clean the head.
Rifra products have been formulated to avoid this problem, thereby improving production efficiency.
During the raffia extrusion process, however, the phenomenon of WCO (Water Carry Over) might appear; that is, dragging of water that limits hourly productivity.
We formulated products that eliminate this phenomenon, thereby improving production.

Possible problems for manufactured articles
Heat shrink PE products may incur in problems such as caps weldability; we solved this problem by creating a specific product.
Loss of UV performance due to interaction with environment pollutants (chlorine, pesticides, sulfur); in this case too we are able to formulate specific products that can withstand such conditions.
Rifra manufactures products specifically designed to ensure the Anti UV functionality requested by the customer even in the presence of flame-retardants (FR), which usually inhibit the functions of UV additives.