What is Vybar made of? How to lower the melting point of PE Wax...?

[candledisaster]

Hi all.

 

I'm living in Asia and it's not possible to easily get Vybar.

I believe it's Polyethylene Wax (PE Wax) with a low melting point.

 

Vybar is a polymer and so is PE Wax.

The mention of Polyethylene, Vybar and polymer comes up interchangeably in a few candle patents as an additive that helps FO.

 

I currently have three types of PE Wax, one is a powder, the other two are a wax - and all have a melting point over 110°C.

They're a little different from each other but seem to hold the FO well and give a good CT.

 

The issue is this melting point makes the process of making candles [at home] a little more troublesome, as I need to heat up over 110°C (tricky when using double boiler method), cool down to 85, add FO, cool down again to 72 then pour.

 

I've gone down the rabbit hole on some chemical web sites but I though I'd reach out on here before going further.

I have just bought 5 more different PE Waxes from other suppliers to see if I can find if they have a lower melting point - I just need to wait for them to be delivered and by next week I'll know if I've found it.

 

Has anyone managed to drop the melting point of PE Wax to make this process a little easier or any general advice with this type of additive?

[TallTayl]

Does this patent for the vybar product help?

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20040040200A1/en

 

 

[TallTayl]

While researching vybar, also look into the patents for polyboost, a very similar product made by Clarus.

 

A candle chemist friend told me vybar was initially developed to be a synthetic beeswax. 
conversations with a rep from Clarus indicated polyboost is an alternative to sub for different microwaxes.

 

in any event, micro waxes, polyboost, and vybar are branching crystal structure products to fill the holes, if you will, between wax crystals.  Too much and everything is glued into place(no Ht).

[TallTayl]

8 hours ago, candledisaster said:

Has anyone managed to drop the melting point of PE Wax to make this process a little easier or any general advice with this type of additive?

Usually I’d make a batch dilution using the base wax and ingredient that needs pre-dilution. then use amount needed of the premixed pre-diluted product in candles later.

 

Example, make a 100 g batch of: 90g of your wax and, 10g of PE. When making your candles, use 10 g of this preblend to add 1g of the PE to your final candle. 

[CandleCocoon]

The only thing that I can think of for you to be able to work with what you are currently is to melt the Wax and PE wax separately.   Then bring up the wax to about 100C.  Quickly add the PE wax to the regular wax, mix and then cool quickly so as not to scorch the wax.  As long as the PE wax blends into the regular wax you shouldn't have an issue with it separating out.  But when using a double boiler I can see as how this would be most difficult.  Heating up the small amount of PE wax with a heat gun should be easy enough.  Just keep the heat gun moving and the pot moving so as not to create a super heated spot.  I hope this helps a bit   Lyschel

 

[CandleCocoon]

Another question - Vybars were invented to act like beeswax.  Have you tried just beeswax? 

[candledisaster]

Amazing replies and gives me a lot to get my teeth into and a bunch more experiments!

 

From what I can understand Vybar isn't PE, but PE is a "olefin" so it looks like it's in the same ballpark. I was never great at chemistry!

 

My current best blend for CF and HT is:

• Paraffin 31%
• Microwax 4%
• Soy 41%
• Palm 4%
• PE 10%
• FO 10%

I had a previous experiment where I replaced the Palm with Beaswax and it performed really well for visual, cold throw but not as good for cold throw.

I think my next experiments will be adding 1% Beaswax and playing with the PE %. I've had good results where the PE was just 1%.

 

I just got hold of some hydrogenated rape seed oil and I'll be experimenting replacing the Palm with that instead.

 

Now it's time to read that patent 10 times until I understand it!

I'll give the batch idea a go too - great idea, especially when I ramp up production!

 

Thanks both, really happy to see some feedback when I woke up this morning!

[TallTayl]

Micro wax is usually used at a super low %, like 1% or less, isn’t it? Ditto with vybar. Too much locks up the scent and makes the candle take on a plastic texture. Poly additives are usually at <1% also. 

 

I love palm in blends. Each palm wax blend has different characteristics. I tested IGI’s 2322, 2779, 5301-a, 5601-a and 5801-a and each was so different as to be a different wax altogether. 
 

when blending palm with soy, I loved 20% or less of palm to prevent the seeping of fragrance and other annoying cavities. I bet you could eliminate the PE, lower the microwaxes and replace those two with the paraffin and have a super candle.

[candledisaster]

I might need to go back to the drawing board.

 

Many of the suppliers I buy from say on their product description 1-10% Microwax.

I even tried a few with more Microwax than Paraffin and I didn't smell/notice any major differences. It could be my testing is flawed!

 

Added some more lines to my testing. I'm enjoying the testing but I seriously didn't expect to be doing so many - but I want a really good product.

download (19).jfif

[Paramold]

We have blends with up to 10% micro and they still work very well, but it is true that it will decrease cold throw.  Try slowly reducing micro % by 0.5 - 1% at a time and see if that helps increase cold throw.  whatever you reduce the micro by, I would increase paraffin, soy, palm or a combination of those.

 

what reason are you adding in PE waxes?

 

Are these container candles or freestanding votives, pillars, etc?