BASF equips Chinese baby products brand with thermoplastic for bottle manufacturing

24 Jul 2024 --- Chinese baby products brand Thyseed has unveiled its new line of baby bottles made from BASF’s thermoplastic Ultrason P 3010. The polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) is approved for food contact and features mechanical strength, chemical resistance and resistance to superheated steam at 134°C. 

These properties ensure that the baby bottles are safe to use, while being lightweight, shatter-proof and transparent, highlights BASF.

The bottles are designed to withstand the high temperatures in dishwashers and microwave ovens. The baby bottles can be reused without losing their mechanical properties or their optical appearance. 

Thyseed and BASF also entered into a strategic cooperation to explore the advantages of Ultrason for other products of Thyseed in China and beyond.

“Thyseed has been committed to customizing the world's best products, with exquisite materials and processes, innovative product design and services, to protect babies’ entrance into the world,” says Wang Hao, brand founder and CEO of Thyseed.

“The cooperation with BASF is not limited to the supply of Ultrason but involves further development to ensure that this high-performance material can be effectively applied to our products, thereby improving their overall quality and user experience.”

Versatile advantages
Ultrason is the trade name for BASF’s product range of polyethersulfone (Ultrason E), polysulfone (Ultrason S) and polyphenylsulfone (Ultrason P). 

Ultrason P is an ideal, odor- and taste-less material that is food contact compliant in the US, EU and China, showing no discoloration by contact with all kinds of juices and soft drinks as well as green or black tea, according to BASF.

“Ultrason brands can substitute thermosets, metals and ceramics in many household and catering applications because of their extraordinary property profile,” says the chemicals company.

The transparent, lightly honey-colored Ultrason P 3010 is a medium viscosity grade with toughness and stress crack resistance. It is suited for injection stretch blow molding, which is the most widespread manufacturing process for baby bottles in Asia.

“The production advantages of Ultrason P 3010 [include] rapid cycle times and easy processing with suitably configured hot runner systems without scrap losses,” the manufacturer states.

Exploring further applications
The companies’ strategic cooperation, which was officially signed at a launch event in Shanghai on July 17, 2024, includes collaboration on technical innovations as well as exchanges on trends and sustainability topics like reusability and high health standards.

“We are looking forward to further exploring the important baby feeding products market with a renowned and pioneering company like Thyseed,” says Mia Pettersson, head of Global Specialty Polymers at BASF.

“With our high-performance Ultrason, Thyseed can manufacture baby bottles and other infant nurturing products in numerous designs, shapes and colors,” she continues.

“Ultrason has proven its value for baby bottle manufacturers in many countries: They can choose the most suitable material from our portfolio and rely on our on-site technical application support and the global availability of the different grades.”

In other recent advances, BASF and Encina Development Group, an ISCC Plus-certified circular chemicals manufacturer, entered a partnership to jointly supply chemically recycled circular benzene derived from post-consumer end-of-life plastics.

BASF also extended its portfolio of certified compostable biopolymers to include a new “biomass-balanced” version of Ecoflex — the company’s brand of polybutylene adipate terephthalate frequently used in compounding biopolymers.