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(BASF) -- The light stabilizer Tinuvin a
XT 200 from BASF prolongs the service life of films in agriculture. A
greenhouse offers plants optimal growing conditions: it protects them against
wind and weather while still admitting the light they need to grow. With ideal
temperatures and targeted watering, plants flourish at a rate that would be
unthinkable in an open field.
Increasingly, conventional glass greenhouses are being replaced by
greenhouses consisting of simple frames covered with plastic films and combining
lower cost with greater flexibility. 900,000 metric tons of these greenhouse
films (usually made from polyethylene) were produced worldwide in 2009. Enough
to cover about 800,000 hectares, or roughly the entire surface area of the Greek
island of Crete, with greenhouses. To make these films resistant to intense
sunlight, light stabilizers – of which BASF offers an entire product range under
the trade name Tinuvin – are added to the material.
The light
stabilizers protect the plastic against its worst enemy: weathering from the
sun's intense UV radiation and the heat developing at the contact points with
the metallic greenhouse frame. In fact, plastic films can become brittle and
dull within a few weeks, an effect further intensified by the use of some
agrochemicals. Unless, of course, they are protected by light
stabilizers.
mrcplast.com
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