Waxes

NuCera’s family of microcrystalline waxes are petroleum-derived microcrystalline waxes consisting of complex mixtures of paraffinic, isoparaffinic, and naphthenic hydrocarbons. They are refined and optimized for your specific requirements and are available in grades ranging from hard, high-melting crystalline waxes to soft, low-melting flexible waxes.

Typical Applications and Products That Use Microcrystalline Waxes

Candles

  • Reduces the size of base paraffin crystal structure
  • Increases melt point, scratch hardness, heat stability, and opacity of the base paraffin

Cosmetics and personal care

  • Brings dimensional stability to solid lipsticks
  • Emulsions, creams, and lotions realize improved emolliency and stabilized viscosities
  • Imparts high temperature strength in anhydrous products such as lipsticks

Electrical and electrical insulating agents

  • Microcrystalline waxes offer good electrical insulating properties and provide a moisture barrier

Gum base

  • The high crystalline structure provides texture and tack control to chewing gum

Hot melt coatings

  • Addition of these waxes to EVA based coatings improves resistance to animal and vegetable fats, improves adhesion to various substrates, and increases resistance to low temperature cracking
  • High and low melting microcrystalline waxes used alone or in combination provide various desired physical properties including gloss retention and sealing strength improvement

Inks, paints, and solvent-based coatings

  • Microcrystalline waxes improve rub resistance, reduce printing off-set, act as lubricants, and act as anti-mar agents

Investment and precision casting of metal

  • The use of a microcrystalline wax minimizes contraction from a metal surface by reducing the crystallinity of a casting wax
  • The flexibility of these waxes promotes good adhesion to metal surfaces
  • These waxes provide good dimensional stability and low ash to the wax pattern

Laminating adhesives

  • Reduces the size of base paraffin crystal structure
  • These waxes are widely used as functional laminating adhesives having low MVTR and low gas transmission rates

Plastics

  • Microcrystalline waxes make excellent Antiblocks

Polishes and coatings

  • These products serve as high gloss lubricants in wax rich polishes and coatings

Rubber

  • Highly branched microcrystalline waxes provide controlled surface migration for rubber products

For more specific information, please contact your NUCERA representative.