Rotocast #29 | Cost reduction – Release agent technology and special additives feat. Satio Okamoto

What you gain by watching

• You learn how to reduce cost in rotomolding with powder release agent, 3 g/kg dosage and additive-enhanced recycled material before micronization.
• You understand how to meet recycled content targets with traceability, while maintaining finish, strength and productivity.
• You discover additives and technologies for smell, dust, scratches, color, porosity and recovered molds without welding that opens holes.

Episode chapters

1. 1

   49 years of plastics and a patented mold release born from the future

   We start episode 29 welcoming Satio Okamoto, from Mirai Química, and the first question was simple: who is this chemical engineer who has been in plastics for 49 years? The answer turned into a masterclass in the field — injection, extrusion, blow molding, rotomolding, thermoforming, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat, mold texturing and the partnership with the American group Standex — until we reached the purpose of Mirai, whose name in Japanese means future, and Mirai RM21, a patented mold release that he made a point of showing to the camera.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 5:21
2. 2

   From a rant in Turin to the patented powder mold release

   Imagine being in a factory in Turin at ten at night, in front of the machine, and hearing from the production director that the mold release you formulate is flammable, toxic and still forces you to clean the mold after every application. That complaint stayed with him for almost a decade, until it became the basis of a patented product quite different from what exists on the market: a powder mold release based on silicones, developed to be mixed during extrusion or pigmentation and to make the part self-releasing, without degrading the material.

   Look, you who formulate mold release, you have to make something better, you know?

   ▶ Watch at approximately 10:28
3. 3

   Mold release that cleans the mold and eliminates porosity without welding

   If the common mold release already creates a film that kills the mold's finish, it also builds up and burns near 300 degrees, forcing constant cleaning and polishing — and that's why we showed the difference between solvent-based, flammable and toxic, and the fluorocarbon technology that doesn't exist in Brazil. The breakthrough is that this water-based material cleans the mold itself, copies the finish, is completely non-toxic and even eliminates porosities, including in cases of recycled plastic and in vases with a sand and granite effect, with an application of only 0.3%.

   The material itself cleans the mold, the material copies the mold's finish and another thing, it's a completely non-toxic material, completely non-toxic

   ▶ Watch at approximately 15:30
4. 4

   Three grams per kilo in rotomolding, and in injection the mold release becomes pellet

   We talked about how the rotomolder can solve that compound that sticks too much with just three grams per kilo of additive, and we showed real cases where the material didn't perform until the product was applied. Then we switched gears to injection: the same modified silicone base, but pelletized as Mirai DI 40, because powder doesn't perform well in the injection molding machine.

   Three grams per kilo is enough for you to have excellent mold release

   ▶ Watch at approximately 20:42
5. 5

   The mold release that yielded 50 thousand parts with a single application

   We brought to Brazil a novelty that changes the mold release math in injection: Ultra Release, which I call permanent because it lasts thousands of parts, not dozens. We showed the tests that prove it — 25 thousand polycarbonate headlight parts at Magneti Marelli, 15 thousand ABS housings, over 50 thousand PET tubes at Lexca — and we told how, despite being applied in drops to the mold, it ended that deformation problem from irregular application and the lost weekend washing molds in a water tank because of the thinner smell, besides avoiding cycle stops to reapply product.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 25:46
6. 6

   The part nobody wants to throw away: how the right mold release changes the math

   You know those first parts that most entrepreneurs throw away because they come out oily, scratched or with bubbles? Well, that's exactly where the game turns: while the aerosol departs and all goes into the air — and still leaves the can as residue —, the pellet mold release is mixed into the raw material and releases on every rib of the part, without waste and without loss. We talked about this in practice, showing why productivity rises when no one needs to discard the first parts anymore.

   With the pellet mold release you don't lose a single part

   ▶ Watch at approximately 30:48
7. 7

   The decree that mandates 20% to 30% recycled content and the additive that makes rotomolded parts hold up

   With decree 12.688/25 already in force, the requirement to use 20% to 30% recycled plastic with traceability caught many companies by surprise — and talking about recycling quickly runs into the loss of properties with each cycle, which is even harsher in rotomolding because of the long cycle. That's where we dug into PoliRenew, the additive that builds a molecular bridge between virgin and recycled material, protects against oxidation, raises thermal resistance and even brings in the silicone that makes the part self-releasing. The conclusion we stitched together with Júlio is that the challenge is no longer recycling, but recovering with quality: that's our commitment, because recycling and delivering a bad part serves no one.

   The challenge is no longer using recycling, that's not it. The challenge is using recycled material with quality.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 35:55
8. 8

   Why polyethylene recycles more than PET and PVC

   Not every plastic withstands the same number of recycling cycles — and the answer lies in the chemistry of the chain: polyethylene, simple and stable, goes back into the process several times, while PET and PVC, with their branches, degrade quickly. That's where we got into the graph showing how the additive holds properties even without raising losses as much during reprocessing, and we discussed how this changes the game in rotomolding, where linear PE settles and flows well, unlike PP, which can even crosslink under certain conditions but behaves differently — and which, as we mentioned, is already thermoformed abroad in applications ranging from toys to TPU.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 40:56
9. 9

   The PP that runs abroad and is still crawling in Brazil

   Why is it common abroad to rotomold PP with additives and specialty resins, while here almost everything is still linear polyethylene? We talked about how the barrier isn't lack of will, but information and technology that haven't yet arrived at scale — and that's precisely the role of Rotocast and Start Rota: bringing a new mindset to those just entering the market now. Along the way, Ivan Grisolia, from CX Contábil, even showed a tax adjustment case that returned hundreds of thousands of reais to a transport company's cash flow.

   Here we're lacking information more than technology.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 45:59
10. 10

    The calculation nobody makes before micronizing recycled material

    If you use virgin resin today, did you know you can use 50% recycled material and still save R$ 1.81 per kilo? In the example of a vase, we show that the virgin resin at twelve reais already comes additivated, so those who switch to recycled material need to replace the additive and, in the case of thin walls, add the rigidity additive — and the key is to do this additivation before micronization, mixing virgin pellet and color masterbatch, extruding, and only then micronizing. That's where the cost reduction truly shows up, with all the prices on the table for you to check.

    ▶ Watch at approximately 51:10
11. 11

    Recycled in 50,000-liter tanks: what the melt flow index reveals

    When it comes to using recycled material in large technical parts, the first reaction is to back off and say you only work with virgin material — but we show that there is a technical explanation behind this and that the key lies in the melt flow index: the greater the impact required of the part, the lower the MFI needs to be, and that is why a 50,000-liter tank calls for material in the 2.0 to 2.5 range, while 3.5 is for tanks of twenty-something thousand liters.

    ▶ Watch at approximately 56:10
12. 12

    The bumper Fiat had ground up and the lesson about recycling with traceability

    We found out that a supplier was grinding Fiat bumpers because they believed the automaker prohibited recycled material, until a conversation in Italy showed that fifteen to twenty percent reuse changes nothing — and that the real obstacle is not technical, it is the lack of traceability. In the end, crises like resin shortages force exactly this shift: without knowing the origin, industries remain stuck with virgin material, but with traceability it is possible to reuse safely.

    Every crisis is the mother of, of, of creativity

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:01:11
13. 13

    When money gets tight, Brazil shows it knows how to innovate

    No one knows what will happen next month, so companies can't just let the business roll — they need to look for alternatives before the bill gets too expensive. That's how we remembered when we brought Methon to Brazil and made the first thermoformed panel for the Kadett, something no one abroad knew how to do, and the insight that remains is that difficulty pushes us toward the solution: we need to advance in recycling with quality, traceability, and performance, because the creative Brazilian has that differentiator.

    The creative Brazil, creative Brazilian. Yes. You know? That's our differentiator.

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:06:25
14. 14

    Additives that help the part overcome smell, dust, and risk

    In rotomolding, recyclate usually arrives carrying the odor of burning, paint, or even meat from a slaughterhouse, and you can't solve everything with a fragrance on top — as we joke, it's deodorant on a pig. The way out is in odor neutralizers that work by adsorption, encapsulating the smell molecules, and in the right choice between migrating antistatics (temporary, so a cosmetic cap doesn't attract dust) and permanent ones, which prevent a shock on a slide or the risk of a spark in explosives transport. The same reasoning applies to the anti-scratch additive in the automotive industry, which hardens the material against keys on the dashboard.

    This one I joke is applying deodorant on a pig there, deodorant on a pig.

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:11:32
15. 15

    From yellowed PET to dark color masterbatch: additives that save color and shelf life

    When the recycled PET bottle loses its clarity and the beverage loses shelf life, or when the dark color masterbatch ruins light-colored parts, the factory floor feels it in its pocket. We talked about anti-yellow, oxygen scavenger, barrier, and the brand-new anti-color masterbatch, which lightens the material and restores the shade without needing extra pigment — with the detail that one percent is already enough, and you can adjust the touch as needed.

    The anti-color masterbatch makes the color masterbatch lighter. It removes this, this darkening of the, of the color masterbatch.

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:16:43
16. 16

    The weld that opens a hole in the mold and the technology nobody knew about

    We know that TIG welding at a thousand degrees opens a huge hole in the aluminum and that the plastic mass can't handle it as it expands and contracts — that's why we went after someone who has a solution that withstands over five hundred degrees and can still be machined like metal. That's when we discovered a porosity recovery technology that we didn't know about and that can solve a very common problem on the factory floor, both in rotomolding and in injection molding.

    Nothing, zero. You can, you can machine it if you want.

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:21:54
17. 17

    Losing a mold is a common pain — and there's a solution in the right chemistry

    Mold loss came up in the conversation as a very common pain in the market, and the way out lies in details that many people still ignore, such as using powder release agent to eliminate this problem for good. There was an invitation to come back to this topic when we have more cases gathered, because that's how our work happens: it only exists thanks to these partnerships with people who bring information and don't keep it to themselves — "when you hide, neither the customer nor the seller reaches you".

    When you hide, neither the customer nor the seller reaches you

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:26:58