Game-changing strategy

When DuPont Titanium Technologies (DTT) announced a new and customisable offering  for downgauging flexible films at Chinaplas 2015, it introduced a game-changing strategy in the TiO2 market that could reverberate in the plastic industry. In unveiling Ti-Pure® DownGauge™, Titanium Technologies did more than launch a product – it signaled that the company will take a pro-active role in developing thinner flexible films specific to the needs of brand owners.

To achieve this goal, Titanium Technologies said it will work with both masterbatch and film producers and actively engage the plastic packaging supply chain system to create customised solutions that enable thinner flexible pigmented films.

“With this systems solution, we are trying to enable thinner pigmented films while maintaining desirable, I would say optimal, film properties – for colour, opacity, and light protection,” Guclu Turkoglu, Global Market Segment Manager - Plastics, Titanium Technologies, said.

Skeptics may say that titanium dioxide producers already work with masterbatch formulators, but what if the solution combines not only the TiO2 product and formulation experts, but also processing technology and market insights on differentiation? What if it involves partnering with a top masterbatch producer and a technology-orientated polyolefin resin producer to develop the world’s thinnest yet high-performance flexible films?

“What’s different about this launch is that instead of being product-focused, this year’s launch is more system- and solutions-focused. We’re launching a systems solution – of course, it includes our product – but it’s a solution that incorporates the resin and the machine,” explained Mr. Turkoglu. He added that the company has been in discussion with different partners, but its goal is really to target end-producers, converters and brand owners. “Indeed, when we approach a brand owner, we intend to do so with our partners,” said Mr. Turkoglu.

Think about it, however, and you could name with one hand the number of masterbatch producers that the world’s dominant titanium dioxide producer would even consider working with to ensure the success of this strategy.  “With downgauging, as films get thinner you often compromise properties. We believe that we have the right product with the right capabilities to enable thinner films – which is obviously the trend we are addressing – with the right properties,” he said.

Making an impact
Impact is what Titanium Technologies is after and working with the right partners is a more convincing proposition than presenting a product per se, Mr. Turkoglu said. “We have been hearing for years about the importance of downgauging – but the solution has to fit the problem,” he pointed out. “We believe we can have more of an impact with the system, not just with the TiO2, but with the complete system.”

“Indeed, definitely based on our vast experience, we know with the right TiO2, you get good results. The difference with this approach is that we work with our partners – masterbatch suppliers and resin suppliers – to create a systems solution. So it’s about how that TiO2 interacts within the plastics system,” he adds.

In spite of being the market leader in this sector, Titanium Technologies is impelled to do more. “Improving should never stop, and really, we also want to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace,” he admitted. “If we stop, the competitors will catch up, and our competitors are also continuously developing their product. We love our business, we want to be successful, so we continue to differentiate and develop new products.”

Mr. Turkoglu said the systems solution approach has been ongoing at Titanium Technologies for about two  years and the systems focus and approach will cover the TiO2 applications in the Paper, Plastics and Coatings segments. This collaborative business approach has started to bear fruit, first with Coatings segment with Ti-Pure® One Coat™ and now Plastics with Ti-Pure® DownGauge™.

Unexpected but welcomed
Titanium Technologies has introduced the systems solution approach to a few, select partners with whom they have begun working with. The initial reaction was surprise and then excitement, after all, in the past, the more typical approach was to sell the product to a masterbatch supplier, do the best to explain how the product works and to promote it, and then have the masterbatch supplier take it from there.

“But now we will work with our partners to approach brand-owners together, also bringing in resin suppliers and even extending the partnership to possibly include machine suppliers because the film will be produced with the masterbatch and resin, and it’s produced on a machine. Of course there will be other additives, but we it will be a total solution,” said Mr. Turkoglu.

Titanium Technologies has run studies on Ti-Pure® DownGauge™ in its own labs and with some customers to specifically address the growing focus on resource optimisation.

“Downgauging is a very important trend, because there’s a growing focus on resource optimisation. If you look at all the major brand-owners, each one wants to have attractive packages but use less plastics in line with their sustainability goals and also reduce costs.

“But usually, downgauging entails compromise. If you reduce something, and you don’t change anything else, you could come up with something worse. So what we’re trying to do here is expand this film application – and we have currently defined thin films as the focus area,” Mr. Turkoglu said.

The systems solution approach is also more effective in overcoming the challenges associated with downgauging in order to create brand-specific solutions. “It’s important to emphasize that it’s inherent in the system that the solution will be customised for the end-user. So the material can be the same, the substrate can be the same, but the application will be customized,” Mr. Turkoglu explained.

Solutions for downgauging can only accelerate, he added, owing to still unbridled demand for Plastics that is being driven by increasing urbanisation and an expanding middle class worldwide. Plastics is growing at one-and-a-half to twice the GDP, and is the fastest-growing segment for Titanium Technologies.  Meanwhile, annual global TiO2 market growth tracks global GDP, requiring about 150,000 to 200,000 metric tonnes of additional product to serve the marketplace each year.

“Plastics is the fastest-growing segment for our business, and so you can imagine that it’s important and crucial to growing our business further. Urbanisation and the rising middle class is driving the adoption of plastics as this demographic moves to the cities and buys more packaged products; moving to houses with more appliances and using more products to stock or to use with these appliances,” he said.

Beyond the macroeconomic trends that favour the growth of plastics, there is one other important factor that Mr. Turkoglu pointed out: Plastics itself as a material continues to replace other materials.

“So it is replacing glass, metal and paper, and even replacing cork – while it is not a new material per se, the pace of technology has allowed it to replace other resources,” he said. “So then we again come back to resource utilisation – in practically, every industry, plastics are replacing materials that are heavier, more difficult to transport and to carry around.”

Tangible results
In meeting an urgent request from leading film producer to reduce film thickness from 60 microns to 45 microns, for instance, the Ti-Pure® DownGauge™ strategy allowed less trial and error for the masterbatch producer to come up with the optimal loading level of Ti-Pure R-350 that met important performance properties like resistance to lacing and discolouration at elevated processing temperatures, high opacity strength and a blue undertone desired in some thin film applications. Other Ti-Pure pigments can provide white (R-104) or natural white (R-101) undertones as desired.

“We have over 80 years of knowledge, experience and great products with TiO2, but again, we want to take this latest product – the Ti-Pure® DownGauge™ systems solution – and create even bigger impact by working within the supply chain with our partners,” Mr. Turkoglu stressed.

Together with partners,  Titanium Technologies will approach brand owners to offer customised solutions to meet their resource optimisation goals.

 And on the shelf, the first-ever product with a high-performing, resource-saving film?  Mr. Turkoglu smiled. “Optimistically, in 2015/2016 we will see which brand owner,” he remarked.