The Characteristics Of Rosin

There are three types of rosin:

Gum Rosin Is the oldest commercial sources of rosin and one of the oldest resinous raw materials. The gum resin is extracted from pine trees through an incision in the tree and the sap is collected.

Wood rosin is harvested from the stump of pine trees through extraction and distillation. Traditionally this is done using Hexane, however Leaf resources process uses the trees natural solvent.

Tall oil rosin is a by-product of the Kraft process of wood pulp manufacture when pulping pine trees. It is one of the main by-products after lignin and hemicellulose. Tall oil resin has a stronger odor and contains noticeable amounts of sulfur but when highly distilled has properties similar to wood and gum rosin.[i]

Rosin varies in colour from very pale and slightly transparent to dark brown or yellow. The colour of the rosin is determined by the age of the tree when the sap is extracted and the temperature to which it is heated.

There are different grades of gum rosin based on the color and the softening point of the rosin. The softening point is the temperature the rosin will start to deform under pressure.

The softening point of the rosin reduces as the rosin color gets darker. The table below shows some of the rosin grades:

Rosin has a wide range of industrial applications. For example, the resins can act as binders for paints, they can increase the tackiness of wax mixtures, and they are also used in the manufacture of inks, adhesives, rubber, caulking compounds, and sealants. –

Rosin and its esters are also used in some food and beverages, chewing gum, plastics, and rubbers as well as in detergents, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. They are used as tackifiers, adhesion promoters, emulsifiers, dispersant agents, performance modifiers (rubber), antibacterial and antifouling agents.