For years, cashew nutshell liquid technology has had the reputation of producing only products that are dark in color or only usable for non-color sensitive applications. Over 10 years ago Cardolite started to change this trend and pioneered lighter colored cashew products with the introduction of the LITE series of epoxy curing agents and diluents. This first generation technology was able to produce products having wet color stability of 8-10 on the Gardner scale. Now, Cardolite’s Ultra LITE technology is the next generation in light colored cashew technology with the ability to produce products with Gardner color less than 1.
Central to light colored cashew products is the quality of cardanol extracted from raw cashew nutshell liquid. Cardolite has always used cardanol distilled from its own facilities, and this is a key component to controlling the quality and consistency of cardanol-based products. New proprietary process technology is at the core of the Ultra LITE series products, and enables the production of a much purer cardanol building block. Combining this with further research in product process technology, Cardolite is able to develop new grades of epoxy diluents, resin modifiers, polyols, diols and curing agents with very good wet and dry color stability.
This technology has opened up a whole new set of doors for cashew nutshell liquid technology, and Cardolite continues to invest heavily researching and developing products that utilize it to bring the unique properties of cardanol to a variety of application areas.
