Market Trends
Key Emerging Trends in the Gum Rosin Market
Gum rosin is a versatile substance, mainly used in chemically modified forms rather than its natural state. It primarily consists of abietic and pimaric acids, along with some neutral compounds. Because of its inherent acidity and other chemical properties, it can be transformed into many different forms used in various applications. These include salts, esters, maleic anhydride adducts, as well as hydrogenated, disproportionated, and polymerized rosins. These derivatives find applications in producing adhesives, paper sizing agents, printing inks, solders and fluxes, surface coatings, insulating materials for electronics, synthetic rubber, chewing gums, soaps, detergents, and more. Gum rosin and its derivatives play a crucial role in the production of soaps, varnishes, sealing wax, printing inks, driers, paper sizes, adhesives, binders, soldering fluxes, gloss oils for paints, and cask pitch. Additionally, gum rosin is employed to prevent slipping on violin bows, dancer shoes, and studio and stage floors.
In the paint industry, gum rosin is fundamental because it easily dissolves in alcohol, gasoline, turpentine, and other organic solvents. It is converted to resinate, then refined with drying oils like tung oil, and mixed with volatile solvents to create various lacquers. Gum rosin is also used in making thermoplastic coatings for road sign illumination. The metal processing industry utilizes rosin as a soldering aid and metal polishing agent. Due to its weak acidity, rosin can remove oxidation film from metal surfaces and slightly erode them.
The papermaking industry benefits from gum rosin as a sizing agent, preventing printing oil from soaking and dispersing in paper. It enhances paper strength, smoothness, and anti-abrasion properties. However, crystal rosin is not suitable for paper sizing agents due to saponification difficulties, leading to spots on paper and potential issues in the production process. In the printing ink industry, gum rosin serves as a color carrier, improving the ink's color adhesive ability. When used in offset printing ink, it transforms into modified phenolic rosin, while in photogravure printing ink, it becomes metal salt rosin. Polymerized rosin can be employed to create special printing inks.
The synthetic rubber industry benefits from gum rosin as a softener, improving the plasticity, tear strength, heat resistance, flexibility, and anti-abrasion properties of synthetic rubber. Gum rosin is also used as a dispersant and emulsifier in this industry. Furthermore, it serves as a low-cost tackifier and softener in rubber products like hoses, belts, footwear, flooring, and molded goods. This helps in processing various elastomer compounds by enhancing green tack, filler incorporation rate, stock flow, and knitting. In the electric equipment industry, gum rosin is used as an insulation material and can be combined with bakelite and other synthetic resins for electric loops. Due to its physical and chemical properties, the demand for gum rosin in various end-use applications is expected to rise in the forecast period.
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