Kraton is a family of synthetic rubber polymers used across dozens of industries, from the grip on your toothbrush to the asphalt under your car. These polymers are styrenic block copolymers, meaning they combine hard plastic segments with soft, rubbery segments in a single material. The result is a versatile compound that can be molded like plastic but stretches and cushions like rubber.
Kraton Corporation manufactures several product lines (most notably the D, G, and FG series), each engineered for different performance needs. Here’s where they actually show up in the real world.
Everyday Consumer Products
If you’ve ever noticed a soft, grippy coating on a tool handle or kitchen utensil, there’s a good chance it’s made with Kraton. The polymer is widely used to create that rubbery “soft touch” feel on hard surfaces. Screwdrivers, pliers, hammers, pen grips, razors, toothbrushes, can openers, and cooking utensils all commonly use Kraton-based compounds for their handles.
Sporting and outdoor equipment relies on it heavily too. Bicycle gear shifters and handlebar grips use Kraton G compounds because the material stays soft to the touch while holding up against sun, rain, and temperature swings. Golf club grips, ski pole grips, and pocket knife handles are other common applications. In water sports, Kraton helps create the flexibility and toughness needed in swim fins. Even garden tools and foam clogs use it.
Road Paving and Roofing
One of Kraton’s largest markets is infrastructure. When mixed into asphalt binder, Kraton’s styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) polymers transform ordinary pavement into something far more durable. A conventional polymer-modified asphalt binder contains around 2% to 3% polymer by weight. Highly modified asphalt mixtures, marketed under Kraton’s HiMA technology, push that to 7% to 8%, more than doubling the polymer content.
That extra polymer changes the binder’s behavior at a structural level, making it act more like rubber. The practical payoff is significant: roads resist cracking and rutting much better, which means fewer repairs and longer service life. Test sections built at Auburn University’s National Center for Asphalt Technology in 2009 have consistently shown superior performance over the years since. Departments of transportation in Oklahoma, Florida, New York City, Virginia, and Utah have all used highly modified asphalt in high-stress pavement locations and reported extended service life with reduced maintenance costs. In lifecycle analyses, the enhanced durability eliminated the need for overlay repairs that would otherwise be required at years 12 and 24.
Kraton-modified binders are also used in roofing membranes and waterproofing applications, where the same flexibility and weather resistance that benefits roads also protects buildings.
Medical Devices and Equipment
Kraton polymers are increasingly replacing polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in medical settings. Traditional PVC medical products like IV bags and tubing require chemical plasticizers (often phthalates) to make them flexible enough for use. Those plasticizers can leach out of the material over time, raising safety concerns.
Kraton’s alternative compounds are inherently flexible without added plasticizers. The Kraton G1646 product, for example, delivers transparency, flexibility, and kink resistance in medical tubing while remaining completely plasticizer-free. These polymer blends can also withstand most sterilization methods, which is critical for medical-grade materials. Applications include medical bags, tubes, and flexible films used throughout hospitals and clinics.
Adhesives, Sealants, and Tapes
Kraton polymers serve as the backbone of many pressure-sensitive adhesives, the kind found in packaging tape, labels, and sticky notes. The polymers provide the right balance of tack (initial stickiness), peel strength (how hard it is to pull off), and shear resistance (how well it holds under sustained force). Bookbinding adhesives and woodworking glues also use Kraton-based formulations.
Kraton’s bio-based product line, marketed under the Sylvalite RE name, pushes into this space with materials containing up to 93% bio-based content, certified by TÜV Austria. These rosin ester products target packaging, tape and label adhesives, flooring, and bookbinding applications for manufacturers looking to reduce their petroleum-derived material use.
How Kraton Compares to Regular Rubber
Traditional vulcanized rubber is a thermoset: once it’s cured, it can’t be melted and reshaped. Kraton polymers are thermoplastic elastomers, which means they can be melted, molded, cooled, and remelted repeatedly, just like conventional plastics. This makes manufacturing faster and cheaper, and it allows scrap material to be recycled back into production rather than discarded.
The D series uses styrene-isoprene-styrene (SIS) structures and is typically chosen for adhesives and sealant applications. The G series uses a hydrogenated midblock that gives it better heat and UV resistance, making it the go-to for outdoor products, medical devices, and applications where weathering matters. Hardness values vary by formulation, with some grades measuring around 71 on the Shore A scale, roughly the firmness of a pencil eraser. Softer and harder grades are available depending on the application.
This combination of rubber-like performance with plastic-like processing is what makes Kraton show up in such a wide range of products. It fills the gap between rigid plastics that are too stiff and natural rubbers that are harder to manufacture and less consistent.