Home Appliance Industry Additive Applications: A Complete Overview

1. Home appliance industry landscape and additive demand

The home appliance industry in 2026 shows the characteristics of "mild total volume with structural divergence". According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in July 2026 refrigerator output grew 10.6% year on year and freezer output grew 18.1%, while air conditioners fell 10.1% year on year and color TVs fell 6.6%. In July the four major appliance categories produced a combined 51.05 million units, down 5.5% year on year overall.

But the structure hides two signals that additive manufacturers should pay even more attention to:

Signal 1: Exports are the most certain source of growth

From January to July 2026, China's cumulative refrigerator exports grew 13.1% and washing machine exports grew about 13%; air conditioner export value to the EU from January to May surged 43.2% year on year, Western European household air conditioner export volume grew 9.7%, and portable air conditioner export volume grew more than 70%. Extreme heat is pushing European air conditioner penetration toward a historic turning point.

Export orientation directly rewrites material standards: appliances sold to Western Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America must serve long term under UV, high temperature and humidity, and salt spray; products sold to Europe and the US must pass RoHS and REACH controls on halogens and heavy metals; export models generally require 5+ years of weather-resistance warranty. These three requirements push the demand for home appliance additives directly from "good enough" to "long-term reliable".

Signal 2: Appearance parts move from "painting" to "paint-free"

Paint-free modified PC/ABS alloys have become the mainstream material choice for appliance housings, with the market size up about 24% in 2026 year on year. Painting brings VOC emissions, wastewater and exhaust treatment costs, and paint-peeling defects that expose the substrate, while paint-free approaches build the decorative effect into the pelletizing step -which also means additives must be "invisible": no blooming, no frost, and no shade differences or flow marks at weld lines.

2. Six major challenges for home appliance plastic parts

1. Processing thermo-oxidative aging: high injection temperatures and long residence times

Appliance parts are mostly injection molded, with ABS/HIPS processed at 200-250°C and PP at 170-230°C. The butadiene rubber phase in ABS oxidizes and degrades very easily at high temperatures, showing up as slight yellowing right out of the mold, a drop in melt index and loss of impact strength. If left uncontrolled,"it starts aging before it even leaves the factory".

2. Outdoor photo-oxidative aging: outdoor units exposed to the sun all year round

Outdoor AC units, portable ice makers and mobile air conditioners are outdoors year round. UV breaks the C-C / C-N bonds in ABS to generate free radicals, triggering chain degradation; the PP main chain contains tertiary carbon atoms and is even more prone to hydroperoxide decomposition. The typical failure sequence issurface yellowing → gloss loss → powdering → micro-cracks → gray-blackening, which maps directly to the consumer complaint of "it looks old after two years".

3. Mutual antagonism between flame retardancy and weather resistance

This is the most typical dilemma in the home appliance industry:to achieve flame retardancy you must add flame retardants, while flame-retardant systems with acidic components neutralize the basicity of HALS, sharply reducing its radical scavenging ability.The common result is that the housing passes the flammability standard but yellows and powders after just two years outdoors. The traditional "brominated flame retardant + classic HALS" combination often fails to do well on both indicators.

4. Blooming and frost on paint-free appearance parts

Paint-free appearance parts are extremely sensitive to thecompatibility and initial color of additives. Low-molecular-weight additives easily migrate and bloom on the product surface, forming a white "frost" haze, or interact with pearlescent pigments and metallic masterbatches, causing shade differences ΔE to exceed limits. The three appearance systems - metallic, pearlescent and matte - each require different additive strategies.

5. Detergents, grease and long-term chemical contact

Parts such as washing machine inner drums, refrigerator door seals and range hood deflector plates are in long-term contact with detergents, grease and food residues. Low-molecular-weight additives are easily extracted and lost, leading to"qualified at the factory but protection fails after some use". This is the most easily underestimated aspect of weather-resistance durability.

6. VOC / odor / regulatory compliance

The EU's RoHS and REACH restrict halogens and certain flame retardants; whole-product VOC and odor standards are tightening; and domestic trade-in and green factory policies are driving carbon footprint accounting.Additives are no longer just a performance ingredient, but a link in the whole product's compliance checklist- a complete additive supply needs to deliver TDS, SDS and REACH/TSCA registration documents at the same time.

3. Tiangang's response approach

In response to the six challenges above, Tiangang's technical route is not "piling on material" butsetting defenses stage by stage along the aging chain - each degradation stage has a targeted interception point, and only when combined do they form a complete protection chain.

Tiangang's four technology propositions

4. Tiangang's home appliance additive product portfolio

Tiangang's supply logic in the home appliance industry is to rely primarily on its proprietary additive packages and specially structured additives, with general grades serving as formulation supplements. The models below are arranged in order of recommended priority - those markedTiangang proprietary are the solutions we recommend considering first; general hindered-phenol/benzotriazole grades are only supplementary options as components within additive packages and are not promoted separately.

4.1 Blended light-stabilizer additive packagesTiangang proprietary · first choice

This is Tiangang's most core recommended category in the home appliance industry.Proprietary compounding technology, which pre-blends high-molecular-weight HALS, low-molecular-weight HALS and antioxidant components into granules at validated ratios - ready to use straight out of the bag.

4.2 NOR light stabilizersTiangang's signature product

4.3 Polymeric high-molecular-weight HALSTiangang proprietary grades take priority

: When customers needa single component for free adjustment (for example, doing their own gradient tests or overlaying an existing formulation), they can choose from the polymeric HALS below. Tiangang's own grades have been specifically improved in low alkalinity, extraction resistance and compatibility.

4.4 Processing stabilization and dyeing additivesTiangang proprietary

4.5 Polymeric halogen-free flame retardantsTiangang proprietary

4.6 General UV-A and antioxidants (as supplementary components of additive packages)

: The following are general grades routinely supplied by Tiangang.In Tiangang's recommended solutions, they appear mainly as components included in additive packages - for example, the UV-A segment in UV-326 and HS-962-type additive packages, and the ratio of AO-1010 and AO-168 in the pre-blended system have already been validated by Tiangang. Separate use is recommended only when customers need to adjust ratios substantially, or have specific regulatory or cost constraints.

5. Thematic detail by topic

: The service environments of different home appliance parts differ enormously, and Tiangang has prepared four thematic solutions by component type. Click to enter the corresponding page for full formulations and indicator requirements.

6. Tiangang's differentiated advantages in the home appliance industry

7. Frequently asked questions and technical notes

Q1: Why does weather resistance get worse after adding flame retardant?

: This is the most common question in the home appliance industry. The reason is that phosphorus/nitrogen flame retardants and their decomposition products are acidic, while classic HALS is weakly basic, and acid-base neutralization makes HALS lose its radical scavenging ability. There are two solution approaches: one is to switch to low-alkalinity HALS (such as HS-300); the other is to switch to NOR light stabilizers with an N-OR structure (XT-8), fundamentally avoiding reaction with acidic substances. Tiangang can assist with comparative validation.

Q2: How should HALS and ultraviolet absorbers be combined?

: The two have different mechanisms and action points and are complementary and synergistic: UV-A "intercepts" ultraviolet light at the material surface, reducing the damaging radiation that enters the interior; HALS is distributed inside the material to "sweep up" free radicals already produced. Industry research gives optimal ratios of about 75:25 in PP/PE and 90:10 in ABS (HALS:UV-A). In Tiangang's additive packages, the ratio of these two segments has already been validated by the technical center, so customers can obtain the synergistic effect by using them directly - this is also the core value of additive packages over self-compounding. Note that acidic antioxidants (such as excessive thioesters DLTDP/DSTP) should be avoided from coexisting with HALS, as their acidic by-products weaken HALS activity; when a flame-retardant system is involved, please switch to the NOR route of XT-8 or FR-810A.

Q3: What should be noted when selecting additives for paint-free appearance parts?

The core islow migration, low blooming and light initial color. It is recommended to directly choose high-molecular-weight polymeric additive packages (HS-362 / HS-962 / T-81), avoiding the blooming risk brought by high proportions of low-molecular-weight HALS at the source; for light-colored parts, AO-427 can be used to improve dyeing uniformity. Metal/pearlescent systems need to watch pigment adsorption of HALS, and the loading may need to be increased by 20-30% where necessary.

Q4: Do indoor unit parts also need light stabilizers?

: Yes, but the grade can be lower than for outdoor units. Although indoor parts are not directly exposed, they are long term near light sources and heat sources, and paint-free appearance parts are extremely sensitive to shade differences. Tiangang recommends graded configuration along the lines of"UV 4k-8k hours for indoor parts, UV 16k-24k hours for outdoor parts", rather than adding uniformly at the highest standard across the whole product - this significantly optimizes cost while ensuring appearance consistency.

Q5: Can Tiangang provide formulation sampling and aging validation?

: Yes. Tiangang's technical center provides formulation screening, pilot samples, aging validation (QUV / xenon-arc / natural exposure) and technical tracking during mass production. You are welcome tocontact us, or visit theproduct center to see the full product line.

8. Obtain home-appliance-specific formulation support