Illustrative packaging. Pack format confirmed with your quotation.
About This Product
Chemically, this product is a gel rather than a wax. White mineral oil, CAS 8042-47-5, is set into a clear, rubbery solid by a styrenic block copolymer resin, CAS 25034-86-0, and the hard, high-density grade has the highest polymer loading in the gel range. It melts at 60–80 °C, should not be heated beyond 110–120 °C and is poured at 85–95 °C. It is supplied as transparent jelly blocks.
Polymer content decides what a maker can produce. Raising the polymer fraction makes the gel firmer and more elastic and increases its tensile strength, so this grade holds its form once released from the mould and can be cast as free-standing pieces with no glass around them. The same firmness keeps embedded shells, beads or dried botanicals fixed in position during setting, and that is usually the reason decorative producers pick gel over wax at all.
Because clarity is the whole attraction, bubbles are kept out by pre-warming the mould and pouring slowly. Fragrance is limited, typically to 3–5%, and only fragrances approved for use in gel should be added; an unsuitable oil turns the gel cloudy or causes it to weep.
Display and novelty pieces, retail craft ranges, embedded and decorative candles and moulded clear candles are the main uses. BG Petro Chemicals supplies the hard grade to agreed values for melting point, clarity, polymer content, penetration hardness and flash point.
