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universal additive-what's in it?


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hello. i'm a newbie and i promise i've tried searching the forums, but can't seem to find the composition of universal additive. i know what it does (kind of) but what IS it? is it a combo of vybar and something else? or is it it's own special concoction. thank you for any light you can shed.

kim

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The actual composition of it could be proprietary, but in many cases I've at least been able to find out who manufactures an additive. It can be a good way to get more details about its properties. In this case I came up empty, but it must be relatively common knowledge since so many suppliers carry it. Alan?

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It's similar to Vybar but not the same. Several manufacturers seem to have general "wax improvement" additives along these line, even wax manufacturers like IGI and Astorlite, but I haven't seen anything that quite matches the properties of UA as it's described. I sent a note to one of my favorite and most technically inclined suppliers to ask about the manufacturer and will let you know if I find out.

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I suspected this but got confused because suppliers have been listing the congealing point as the melting point, so the properties didn't seem to match up, but turns out I was on the right track after all. In at least some if not all cases, this is Universal Additive.

More properties here.

(Acrobat Reader required)

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Thanks for that link. I think you're right and UA is the same thing as Parafflex. They don't tell you what's in it, but it doesn't appear to be stearic or vybar.

It also turns out that the popular pre-blend IGI 4625 isn't just paraffin with stearic and vybar already in it. IGI calls it a "parafflex" wax so now we know what additive is in it. (That question comes up on this board once in a while.)

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PARAFFLEX seems to be the brand name that IGI uses for all their blends that are preformulated with additives rather than just paraffins. It's a pretty good bet that the 4734 is an ingredient in at least some of those, along with combinations of various paraffins, plus petrolatum in the case of the creamy container gunks.

I confirmed that 4734 is the UA sold by one of my suppliers, which is headed up by a guy who worked for IGI for many years and came up with some of their blends. Alan lists similar properties for Peaks' UA and he is an IGI dealer so I think we can rest assured that his UA is 4734 also.

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