Abstract:
Stiffening agent plays an important role on the plastic woven sacksindustry, especially for enhancement of the stiffness and friction property of sacksurfaces. This research aims at lowering the material costs of stiffening agents usedin the production process while improving the characteristics or finding new agentsfor the packages. The motivation is to increase profits while lowering the costs ofimported stiffening agents of the company. Thai Formosa Plastics Industry Co., Ltd.is a case study and a provider for the facilities of this research.The investigation of the effects of stiffening agent on the properties of thefabrics was carried out in three steps. These are procedure for benchmarking, effectsof CaCO3, CL-5775 and effects of ASA-G6 on the properties of fabrics. Procedurefor benchmarking is used as a standard compare with the company results. Theinvestigation has found that CaC03 and CL-5775 are the ingredients that impart thefabrics with more surface friction and stiffness, respectively. ASA-G6 is aningredient that has an effect on the stiffness only.In order to lower the material costs of the stiffening agents, steps to findthe recommended formulation of the stiffening agent were camed out using twoprocedures. First procedure is to find the recommended ratio of CL-5775 to toluene.Second is to find the recommended ratio of ASA-G6 to the mixture ofCaC03-toluene. The former found that the recommended ratio of CL-5775 to tolueneis 0.75 Kg to 12 Kgs of toluene. The latter found that the recommended ratio ofASA-G6 to the mixtures of CaC03-toluene is less to 12 Kgs to the mixtures ofCaCO3-toluene. With the recommended formulation, the material costs savings areexpected to be about 15,496 Baht per year for CL-5775 agent and 1,400,475 Baht peryear for ASA-G6 agent.For the part of domestically available stiffening agent, the additive usedfrom Bond's Chemicals Co., Ltd., No. 649, U-80 and U-82, were found to be notsuitable to replace the use of CL-5775 and ASA-G6. Other chemicals should besearched and identified in future works.