US compounder and distributor Avient (Avon Lake, Ohio; www.avient.com), formerly PolyOne (see Plasteurope.com of 02.07.2020), launched a special-effect masterbatch package that enables the production of natural-looking wine corks made of thermoplastic elastomer.

The masterbatches, offered under the compan’s “Renol” and “Remafin” brands, were developed at Avient’s “ColorWorks” facility in Merate / Italy. Trial production of the special masterbatch formulation was used in combination with TPE from Italian compounder Marfran (Corte Franca; www.marfran.com) and a foaming agent to produce prototype corks with a unique black swirl pattern and random black specs.

A TPE cork mitigates the ingress of oxygen into the bottle, which can sometimes be a problem with natural corks, which can spoil the wine. The new masterbatch formulations comply with applicable FDA and EU food-contact standards, and can be produced using existing injection moulding technology, delivering good mouldability and resistance to sterilisation.