The SPE Library contains thousands of papers, presentations, journal briefs and recorded webinars from the best minds in the Plastics Industry. Spanning almost two decades, this collection of published research and development work in polymer science and plastics technology is a wealth of knowledge and information for anyone involved in plastics.
Hybrid polymer nanocomposites based on polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS®) molecules with improved surface properties are of interest for a wide range of engineering applications. POSS molecules exhibit remarkable ability to modify polymer surfaces. Nylon 6/POSS Nanocomposites based on two different classes of POSS, a closed cage octaisobutyl POSS and an open cage trisilanolphenyl POSS, were prepared via extrusion. Surface topography and friction properties were evaluated utilizing atomic force microscopy. Contact angle investigation reveals enhanced hydrophobicity. Relative surface friction of Nylon 6 was also reduced by 45% by the appropriate selection of POSS molecules.
The American plastics industry is in the Ability Age created by outsourcing, industry consolidation, the power of Wall Street, the Information Age, and dynamically changing rules and environments.The challenges of this age are continually making right decisions and providing leading global valued growth while facing dynamically changing rules and environments. The opportunity of this age is having sufficient resources and information to act quickly.Coming from this age will be a new set of hypotheses aimed to continually make right decisions and provide leading global valued growth. One such hypothesis on using internal emerging technologies to lead outsourcing is proposed in this paper.
We report one rheological and microstructural investigation of dispersions of polyethylene microgels in squalane. Emphasis in literature has mainly been limited to systems that depend largely on polymer-solvent interactions and little is known of systems that exhibit both intra- and inter-particle crystallinity. The majority of similar reported systems are prepared using a bottom-up approach while the described system is prepared from recycled bulk XLPE via mechanical grinding and fragmentation by sonic energy. Bulk rheological properties and particle surface interactions are explored using conventional rotational and oscillatory rheometry.
M.Y. Serry Ahmed, Y.H. Lee, C.B. Park, N. Atalla, May 2007
High internal phase emulsion (HIPE) polymerization foaming process is controlled for production of novel foams with various microcellular structures and morphologies. In this study, organoclay, C10A and C20A and natural clay, Sodium montmorillonite (NaMMT) was introduced at different concentrations to control the microcellular morphology, cell size and open cell content. Scanning electron microscopy was used to observe the microcellular morphology and open cell contents, volume expansion ratio and cell sizes where evaluated. It was found that the open cell content increased as organoclay content increased, due to lowering the viscosity ratio of dispersed to continuous phases due to the addition of high molecular weight clay into the oil phase of emulsion. A correlation for the open cell content and volume expansion ratio depending on clay content was attempted and the result was quite satisfactory.
Han Jian, Yan Chenguang, Shen Changyu, Liu Chuntai, May 2007
The effect of processing conditions on the birefringence distribution in Polystyrene injection molded parts with weld lines was investigated. The gapwise averaged birefringence of injection molded parts was measured by photoelasticity method. Birefringence at weldline area generated by different obstacles was also investigated. It was found that melt temperature and packing pressure are the two dominant factors that determine the birefringence development of the molded parts. Birefringence distribution has an appreciable distinction at weldline area, which is attributed to the molecule orientation distribution, local flow behavior and melt meeting angle at the melt front.
Michael W. Alabran, Joey L. Mead, Carol M.F. Barry, David J. Carter, Ahmed A. Busnaina, May 2007
The effect of tooling geometry and processing conditions on the ability to injection mold nanoscale features was investigated for thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs). While pattern geometry was not as critical as feature size in determining good replication, TPUs exhibited enhanced replication quality when compared to a polycarbonate control. Melt temperature was limited by polymer degradation, but increasing mold temperatures provided better replication. Very high mold temperatures, however, did not improve replication and were detrimental to cycle time.
In attempts to develop new process modifiers for thermoplastics, two ionic liquids with long chain hydrophobic cations and different anions were introduced in a biodegradable polymer. Methods of incorporation included melt blending, solvent casting and microencapsulation from w/o/w systems at concentrations up to 10 wt%. The modified polymers were characterized rheologically and by TGA to determine process and thermal stability, respectively, and by DSC to determine miscibility and types of the polymer-ionic liquid interactions. Potential applications in plasticization, lubrication and emulsification are discussed for selected polymer-ionic liquid combinations.
Adriana Knapkova, Bruce Dehning, Daniel Remes, Jiri G. Drobny, May 2007
The topic of clusters has emerged as a crucial idea in competitiveness and economic development in the last years. This paper shows and discusses (basing on concrete plastic cluster in the Czech Republic) possible approaches to the cluster performance measurement. There are analyzed problems related to the performance measurement and suggested suitable performance measures. This case-study also shows the possibilities for mutual cooperation and ways in which the research results can be transferred into working practice.
Batch trials were performed on a kneader reactor where a bulk co-polymerization was carried out. Polymerization conversion, viscosity build, reaction kinetics, and heat transfer calculations were performed using the experimental data from the batch trials. A continuous process was proposed for this bulk copolymerization and the models and results from the batch trials were used in designing the continuous process. Predictions of the continuous process using the batch trial data are compared to the actual continuous process, with a focus on polymer conversion, heat transfer, and torque prediction.
R.Vedaiyan, A.V.Harinath, C.Banerjee, Jag Sankar, J.Lou, May 2007
In this paper, we describe a method for preparing thiol capped Self Assembled Monolayer (SAM) of gold-nanoparticles. Because of the variety of functional groups that can be supported using SAM techniques and due to the relative stability of the monolayers generated, we believe these materials will be useful for developing a variety of chemical or gas sensors. Thiol-capped gold nanoparticles are used as conducting filler for poly dimethyl siloxane matrix in the detection of organic vapors. Thin films of nanocomposite is deposited using Continuous Ink-Jet printing system (CIJ) on the interdigitated microelectrodes (IDE) thus forming chemiresistors" and are analyzed by exposing to different analytes (N-methyl pyrolidine tetrahydrofuran methyl ethyl ketone
Hard and soft thermoplastic polyolefins (TPOs) have been used in the automotive industry for many years. Most of the applications did not involve interaction between these two materials. Recent developments have combined these two materials together. Therefore, there is a need to understand the weldability of these two materials.This study examined the weldability of these two materials using vibration welding in a T-joint geometry. A two factor and two level DOE was used to evaluate the weld strength of several TPE-TPO combinations. It was found that the weld strength was not sensitive to the welding parameters selected in the study. It was also found that the weld strength was dominated by the soft TPO used in the system, not the hard TPO. Additionally, the failure mode was also dominated by the soft TPO. A ductile failure mode was possible for some soft/hard TPO combinations with appropriate welding conditions. and toluene) at very low concentration and different relative humidity (RH). The chemo resistive response is measured by four- probe method for different analyte at various concentrations and the results show a linear profile of concentration vs. conductivity at different RH. The response time and percolation threshold vs. conductivity of this novel chemiresistor compares favorably over conventional carbon black (CB) polymer composite."
Wirote Sae-Chieng, Alongkorn Kanokboriboon, May 2007
This paper examines the influence of adding a fine-particulate industrial by-product namely fly ash as reinforcing filler into a rotomolding-grade polyethylene. The compounds of various filler contents were added either by dry-blended or by-meltcompounded, and their rotomolded parts were analyzed to check fro their appearances, processabilities, and mechanical properties.In terms of rotomoldability, it was possible to add the filler up to about 10% without dramatically affecting the part removal capability. In terms of stiffness, a slight improvement was made at such filler loading; however, the impact properties were drastically reduced even a small amount of the filler was present.
Nafaa Mekhilef, Ramin Amin-Sanayei, Stephan Moyses, May 2007
The effect of electron beam radiation on the shear and extensional rheology of polyvinylidene fluoride and its copolymers with hexafluoropropylene is investigated. The samples were exposed to low levels of radiation ranging from 0 to 5 Mrads at room temperature. The shear rheology showed an increase in the storage modulus, as the level of radiation increased while the viscosity at high frequency remained unchanged. These results suggest the formation of chain branching and/or the formation of a second population of higher molecular weight. The results were corroborated using size exclusion chromatography combined with light scattering (SEC-MALLS), which confirmed both the presence of chain branching and the formation of a higher molecular weight tail. Extensional rheology showed strain hardening as the level of radiation is increased.
The effect that different process conditions have on the structural characteristics and the mechanical response of cylindrical block copolymers is investigated. It is observed that structural characteristics such as domain size and spacing change due to different process conditions and thermal treatment. Subtle changes in dspacing (from small angle x-ray scattering) are shown to correlate with the material's stiffness. This change is explained by the temperature dependant segregation between the styrene and rubbery phases at a particular process/annealing temperature.
The quality of an injection molded part is strongly influenced by the filling balance of the mould cavity. This paper presents a method and the relevant software application to determine the best gate location for an injection molded part. The proposed optimization method automatically and iteratively calculates the gate position that maximizes the melt flows balance during the filling phase. The software is based on the Moldflow Plastics Insight®/Microsoft Visual Basic® interface and uses a non-linear optimization algorithm based on the Gauss-Newton and Conjugated Gradient techniques. The effectiveness of the developed method is demonstrated through some significant case studies.
Investigating the solubility of blowing agent blends in polymer and the phase equilibrium of multicomponents mixture system is a challenge due to the following reasons: (1) the composition ratio in the vapor phase is not the same as the composition ratio of blowing agents dissolved in polymer, and (2) one blowing agent has an effect on the solubility of the other blowing agent. This paper describes the general thermodynamic model that simplifies these investigations. The model is established by measuring sorption with a magnetic suspension balance, and not only predicts the overall solubility for the blowing agent blend but also calculates the solubility of each component dissolved in the polymer melt.
Julius Vogel, Melissa T. Montalbo, Gowrishankar Srinivasan, David Grewell, May 2007
As the demand for ethanol as fuel additive increases, a consequent rise in the production of distiller's dry grain with solubles (DDGS) and commercial zein is expected. Corn dry milling processing produces two major coproducts; ethanol and DDGS. In wet-milling, pure zein is a high value by-product of corn processing. This study evaluates the potential of ultrasonic compaction of zein and DDGS composites to produce biodegradable biorenewable plastics. Various amplitudes, compaction times and compositions were characterized in terms of tensile strength. It was found that samples could be formed within a few seconds with tensile strengths as high 12 MPa.
E. Soos Takacs, M. Emami, D. D’Agostin, J. Vlachopoulos, May 2007
The term orange peel" describes a surface defect that is characterized by irregular grooves and pitting—much like the topography of the outer skin of an orange. Although similar phenomena have been reported for high-pressure processes such as injection molding the root causes of orange peel in rotational molding are essentially unknown. The presence of orange peel is undesirable not only for aesthetic reasons but also for its potential negative effects on the functional properties of the final product.A fundamental study was conducted to determine the root causes of the orange peel in rotational molding. The effects of material properties such as density rheological thermal and powder properties and process parameters were investigated. In addition comparisons are made between the dry blended and melt blended samples in terms of orange peel development."
Graphite can be an attractive reinforcement for polymers due to its high stiffness and low thermal expansion as well as high electric conductivity. Graphite was melt blended into poly(ethylene-2,6-naphthalate) (PEN). After molding extruded composites into films via biaxial squeezing and uniaxial stretching, their stiffness, thermal expansion and gas barrier properties were tested. Even though graphite in PEN matrix appeared to form unintercalated or partially intercalated morphology, noticeable enhancements in composite stiffness and hydrogen barrier properties were observed. Less improvement in dimensional stability was found. We evaluated average aspect ratios of anisotropic graphite sheets embedded in PEN by interpreting experimental data with composite theories. Young's modulus and dimensional stability of composites were dramatically improved by film drawing.
According to the classical nucleation theory, the free energy barrier for bubble nucleation and thereby the nucleation rate are functions of the bubble pressure, Pbubble. In computer simulations of polymeric foaming processes, almost all previous research has approximated the value of Pbubble by the saturation pressure, Psat. In this paper, the thermodynamic equilibrium condition and the Sanchez- Lacombe (SL) equations of state (EOS) are employed to determine the value of Pbubble. It is shown that the Pbubble approximation using Psat will lead to significant overestimations of the nucleation rate and the final cell density.
Kim McLoughlin Senior Research Engineer, Global Materials Science Braskem
A Resin Supplier’s Perspective on Partnerships for the Circular Economy
About the Speaker
Kim drives technology programs at Braskem to develop advanced polyolefins with improved recyclability and sustainability. As Principal Investigator on a REMADE-funded collaboration, Kim leads a diverse industry-academic team that is developing a process to recycle elastomers as secondary feedstock. Kim has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Cornell. She is an inventor on more than 25 patents and applications for novel polyolefin technologies. Kim is on the Board of Directors of SPE’s Thermoplastic Materials & Foams Division, where she has served as Education Chair and Councilor.
A Resin Supplier’s Perspective on Partnerships for the Circular Economy
About the Speaker
Gamini has a BS and PhD from Purdue University in Materials Engineering and Sustainability. He joined Penn State as a Post Doctorate Scholar in 2020 prior to his professorship appointment. He works closely with PA plastics manufacturers to implement sustainability programs in their plants.
A Resin Supplier’s Perspective on Partnerships for the Circular Economy
About the Speaker
Tom Giovannetti holds a Degree in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Tulsa and for the last 26 years has worked for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company. Tom started his plastics career by designing various injection molded products for the chemical industry including explosion proof plugs and receptacles, panel boards and detonation arrestors for 24 inch pipelines. Tom also holds a patent for design of a polyphenylene sulfide sleeve in a nylon coolant cross-over of an air intake manifold and is a Certified Plastic Technologist through the Society of Plastic Engineers. Tom serves on the Oklahoma Section Board as Councilor, is also the past president of the local Oklahoma SPE Section, and as well serves on the SPE Injection Molding Division board.
Joseph Lawrence, Ph.D. Senior Director and Research Professor University of Toledo
A Resin Supplier’s Perspective on Partnerships for the Circular Economy
About the Speaker
Dr. Joseph Lawrence is a Research Professor and Senior Director of the Polymer Institute and the Center for Materials and Sensor Characterization at the University of Toledo. He is a Chemical Engineer by training and after working in the process industry, he has been engaged in polymers and composites research for 18+ years. In the Polymer Institute he leads research on renewably sourced polymers, plastics recycling, and additive manufacturing. He is also the lead investigator of the Polyesters and Barrier Materials Research Consortium funded by industry. Dr. Lawrence has advised 20 graduate students, mentored 8 staff scientists and several undergraduate students. He is a peer reviewer in several journals, has authored 30+ peer-reviewed publications and serves on the board of the Injection Molding Division of SPE.
Matt Hammernik Northeast Account Manager Hasco America
A Resin Supplier’s Perspective on Partnerships for the Circular Economy
About the Speaker
Matt Hammernik serves as Hasco America’s Northeast Area Account Manager covering the states Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. He started with Hasco America at the beginning of March 2022. Matt started in the Injection Mold Industry roughly 10 years ago as an estimator quoting injection mold base steel, components and machining. He advanced into outside sales and has been serving molders, mold builders and mold makers for about 7 years.
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