Abstract
We explore the foam extrusion of expanded polypropylene with a long chain branched random co-polypropylene to make its production process simpler and cheaper. The results show that the presence of long chain branches infer high melt strength and, hence, a wide foamability window. We explored the entire window of foaming conditions (namely, temperature and pressure) by means of an ad-hoc extrusion pilot line design. It is shown that the density of the beads can be varied from 20 to 100 kg/m3 using CO2 and isobutane as a blowing agent. The foamed beads were molded by steam-chest molding using moderate steam pressures of 0.3 to 0.35 MPa independently of the closed cell content. A characterization of the mechanical properties was performed on the molded parts. The steam molding pressure for sintering expanded polypropylene beads with a long chain branched random co-polypropylene is lower than the one usually needed for standard polypropylene beads by extrusion. The energy saving for the sintering makes the entire manufacturing processes cost efficient and can trigger new applications.
Subject
Polymers and Plastics,General Chemistry
Cited by
12 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献