Houston, Texas – In the beginning of April, ExxonMobil has announced the commercialization of its Exceed S performance polyethylene (PE) resins, which it says deliver better combinations of stiffness and toughness while being easier to process. This is a development or refinement of the Exceed XP performance PE grades that provided good mechanical properties with a combination of low density and fractional melt index.
The new PE platform apparently provides opportunities to reduce the complexity of film formulations and designs while improving film performance, conversion efficiency, and packaging durability. In an online conversation with Kwin Lee in Singapore and Thomas Miller in Texas in the United States we learned that the Exceed S PE films are in a significant number of trials across the world and also by some converters in India. The initial applications for which films are being designed are food, industrial and agricultural applications. At the same time we are aware that with the shortage of corrugated liners there is a huge uptake in the Indian market of PE based collation shrink wrap films being produced for brands such as Coke, Pepsi and Bisleri. At times these films are also being printed.
Every step of producing and converting printed film into durable packaging is prone to complexity-induced inefficiency, scrap and human mistakes. What if your resin could help simplify all of this? “Exceed S performance PE resins deliver simplicity without compromise,” says Tom Miller, Exceed S marketing manager, ExxonMobil. “Now converters can get high performance with easy processing, stiffness and toughness with less blending, and resin solutions that can simplify operations and improve package durability. It is a platform of performance polyethylene grades designed to do so much, so simply.”
Simplifying the supply chain with easier to make PE high performance structuresGraphic ExxonMobil
By utilizing Exceed S functional layers to maximize performance, innovative converters can reduce the need to add HDPE for stiffness or LDPE for easy processing. ExxonMobil claims the new resins can create flatter, less extensible films to increase print and package line efficiency.
First three Exceed S resins available for blown film lines
The first three commercially available grades of Exceed S resins are designed to ensure low melt pressure and high output on blown film lines. The combined benefits of Exceed S resins are claimed to allow the creation of a broad range of packaging and film applications. Large format heavy duty sacks used in industry and agriculture along with silo bags for farming benefit from increased puncture, impact and tear resistance.
The resin’s combination of low melt pressure and high extrusion output can help increase converter’s production capacity. In primary packaging, non-laminated coextruded films used in pouches and bags containing liquid, food, or other goods can benefit from improved toughness and are less likely to break when transported or dropped. Multi-wall bladders used in hot-filled bag-in-box packaging exhibit exceptional resistance to heat-induced blocking and flex cracking. PE//PE laminates with improved stiffness, toughness and bag drop survival help facilitate larger pouch sizes and accommodate more aggressive contents, helping to expand market usage of mechanically recyclable packaging (in those regions and countries and environments that collection, waste handling and recycling solutions are available).
A new level of stiffness and toughness for PE resinsGraphic ExxonMobil
In applications requiring durable performance, the mechanical properties of Exceed S resins can be used to increase film performance, maintain comparable performance at a thinner gauge, produce more durable mono-material products, or incorporate high percentages of recycled content. Providing such solutions are a part of ExxonMobil’s approach of using performance polymers to help facilitate solutions with sustainability benefits.
“ExxonMobil has been at the forefront of polyethylene innovation for nearly thirty years. The new Exceed S platform embodies our most advanced product and process development informed by deep, long-standing partnerships with our customers,” said David Hergenrether, vice president Polyethylene, ExxonMobil. “The innovation opportunities that Exceed S performance polyethylene offers has already resulted in successful collaborations with over 75 customers globally working on over 100 different applications. We look forward to collaborating with our customers on new opportunities to advance their products.”
