PVOH extrusion

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH, PVA, or PVAl) is a synthetic polymer which is both colourless, odourless and water-soluble under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

Its characteristics made it famous for extrusion, especially for its water-soluble properties.

PVOH properties

PVOH is safe and environmentally friendly and possesses good mechanical and thermal properties as well as good transparency and resistance to oxygen permeation. Nonetheless, PVA has low degradation rates in some environments and relatively high costs. Improvements in biodegradability and cost reduction are given by blending PVOH with starch.

In recent years, PVOH has started to be used as a packaging material and in other single use products such as laundry pods. In fact, PVOH films have many distinctive and useful properties. It exhibits excellent tensile strength and elongation. It has one of the best oxygen barriers known to science, making it ideal for preventing food spoilage. It also provides a superior barrier to oil grease and solvents, which can damage, adhere to or bleed-through other substrates.

The most impressive characteristic is its biodegradability. It simply breaks down into carbon dioxide and water.

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Custom PVOH extrusion

Vinyl alcohol-based thermoplastics can be pelletized by the Bausano MD Nextmover Twin-Screw extruders and then transformed into films or injection molded products and since PVOH is both moldable and extrudable it is possible to imagine combining injection molded components with thermoformed cavities, creating endless possibilities in the medical and pharmaceutical industry.

Bausano takes several aspects into account when determining the correct configuration of counter-rotating twin-screw extruders, which provide better performance than corotating ones in the case of water-soluble bioplastics like PVOH.

The biodegradable and compostable plastics sector is constantly developing, not least because of the measures taken, especially in the European Union, to reduce the use of single-use plastics. For example, the market for PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) is estimated to have a compound annual growth rate of more than 6%. Bausano responds to these new requirements with its special Twin screw extrusion lines of the MD Nextmover family for the production of water-soluble bioplastic granules, ideal for subsequent blown film extrusion.

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