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.
Birgit Braun, Teresita Kashyap, Paul Cools, Megan Brooks, Serena Stephenson, Marc Dees, May 2016
Mooney viscosity is a key specification item for process and quality control for EPDM rubbers but can only be measured in a laboratory instrument. For early process upset detection and reduction of off-grade production, higher data frequency from continuous analysis would be beneficial. However, at this point in time available process analyzers do not deliver Mooney viscosity as a standard feature. In this study, a model was developed based on rheological principles to predict Mooney viscosity from viscosity curve information that can be measured using process rheometers. The model is evaluated against dynamic mechanical spectroscopy (DMS) data for its general validity, and it was found that only slight adjustments were required to achieve a prediction error of only ±10%. However, prediction of Mooney viscosity from process rheometer data collected using a slit die was less accurate and required a correction factor (-16.6 to 4.8% prediction error).
This study systematically investigated the efficiency of ultrasonic treatment on dispersion of different fillers in polypropylene (PP). PP/graphene nanoplatelets (GNP), PP/carbon nanotube (CNT) and PP/carbon black (CB) were prepared using twin screw extrusion without and with ultrasonic treatment. The ultrasonic power consumption varied with filler concentration exhibiting different trends in these composites: the power consumption increased with concentration for PP/GNP and decreased with concentration for PP/CNT, but for PP/CB, it only slightly increased at high concentration. The difference is related to the bubble concentration in the polymer composites. The efficiency of ultrasonic treatment was verified by rheological, electrical and morphological studies. The morphological study showed that CB exhibited the best dispersion in PP which is followed by CNT, whereas GNP showed the worst dispersion. However, the rheological and electrical percolation threshold from low to high was successively shown in PP/CNT, PP/CB and PP/GNP composites. For PP/CNT and PP/CB composites the storage modulus and complex viscosity at low frequency were increased by the ultrasonic treatment. However, PP/GNP did not show obvious change with ultrasonic treatment. The ultrasonically treated PP/1wt%CNT at an amplitude of 13 um dropped 8 order of magnitudes in electrical resistivity compared with the untreated sample, while PP/5wt%CB dropped 4 orders of magnitudes and PP/5wt%GNP only dropped 2 order of magnitudes. Morphological studies show that the agglomerates and agglomerates area ratio were decreased with ultrasonic treatment for PP/CNT and PP/CB composites, but not for PP/GNP composites. An ultrasonic mechanism is proposed based on the experimental data.
Nylon 6/OMMT/elastomer composite was first prepared by molten compound method and then how its rheological properties, mechanical properties, micro morphology and the shape of fracture surface vary with elastomer content was investigated. The results indicate: With the increase of elastomer content, impact strength increases significantly, tensile strength, flexural strength and modulus decline and elongation at break declines first but then increases?the SEM images of fracture surface go well along with the results of impact tests, and critical matrix thickness for the composite materials of brittle ductile transition layer is 0.14?m. With the increase of elastomer content, the apparent viscosity increases first but then declines, non-Newtonian index declines and the activation energy declines first but then increases. So adding elastomer makes it possible for Nylon 6/OMMT/elastomer composite to flow steadily in a wide temperature range under a constant shear stresses and makes the composite easy to fabricate.
Mauricio Gonzalez-Garzon, Shant Shahbikian, Michel A. Huneault, May 2016
This study presents the rheological and thermal behavior of mineral reinforced Poly(lactic acid)/Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PLA/PMMA) blends prepared by melt processing. In particular, combinations of amorphous or semi-crystalline PLA with high or low viscosity PMMA were used to prepare the blends. The effect of the addition of three commercial minerals, clay, calcium carbonate and quartz, was investigated. The glass transition, crystallization and melting of these blends were examined by differential scanning calorimetry. The blend rheology was investigated by small amplitude oscillatory shear rheology. Miscibility was inferred from the shift in glass transition temperature. A single glass transition temperature was observed for all blends indicating initial miscibility of the PMMA/ PLA blends over the entire composition range. This observation was reinforced by the fact that the mixtures remained transparent. It was however possible to induce a phase separation when placing the blends in conditions that favored PLA crystallization. The ability of PLA to crystallize was strongly restricted by the presence of the amorphous PMMA fraction but remained possible in selected conditions. All binary blends showed a typical viscoelastic behavior with a Newtonian plateau at low frequency range. However, the filled blends showed an increase in viscosity at low frequency typical of materials exhibiting a yield stress.
When applied to shear flow, Maxwell-type constitutive models typically over-predict shear thinning. For many known models such as the Leonov model, the slope of the viscosity vs. shear rate plot in log-log scales converges to -1 at high shear rate. This is not realistic for polymer melts and concentrated solutions. In this work, rotational retardation is introduced to the evolution equation so that rotational ‘softening’ can be better controlled in rotational flow such as shear flow. The new evolution equation involves a new parameter n to control the affine advection of rotation so as to adjust the degree of shear thinning or thickening. In combination with finite stretch, a five-parameter nonlinear viscoelastic fluid model is proposed. The resulting constitutive model is suitable to describe the deformation of polymer coils and demonstrates excellent data fitting capability to realistic rheological data for both shear and extension.
Freddy Arce, Diego Pedrazzoli, Ica Manas-Zloczower, May 2016
This research is concerned with creating an antibacterial wound dressing material by introducing naturally-derived chitosan into thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) matrix. Chitosan is a promising filler to improve the antibacterial properties of wound dressing materials including TPU. A combination of chitosan with cellulose nano-crystals (CNCs) can help meeting the mechanical design requirements of wound dressing applications. TPU nanocomposites modified with CNCs were prepared by using an optimized solution casting method. Morphological analysis carried out through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that CNCs are well distributed within the matrix up to a filler amount of 2wt%. Thermal analyses indicated that the incorporation of nanofillers leads to significant changes in the glass transition temperature and melting behavior characteristic of the hard segments. Rheological analyses performed on molten TPU incorporating CNCs indicated that the presence of the filler favors shear-thinning behavior. TPU films containing a combination of CNCs and chitosan were made through a solvent exchange method and solution casting. Current investigations are focused on the characterization of the mechanical properties, water absorption behavior and water-responsive mechanically adaptive properties of the hybrid TPU-CNC-chitosan composites.
Conventional polyamides with high relative viscosity called “high RV polyamides” or “high RV nylons” are prepared typically by a few large nylon-6 producers with solid state polymerization (SSP) process, which is time consuming and energy intensive and hence expensive. Such polyamides are linear molecules as are high RV polyamides produced by compounding with chain extenders with ?-? functional groups. However ZeMac® alternating copolymers of ethylene and maleic anhydride, which are unique with hundreds of pendant functional groups, can be compounded with low RV polyamides to form high RV polyamides which have a branched structure, confirmed by shear thinning rheology. The paper will cover this and performance and cost advantages of such branched polyamides over conventional SSP and linear polyamides for several high performance applications.
The novel ‘viscosity-cure’ shift factor is used to model the rheological and stress relaxation behavior of epoxy resin during the curing process.
Beta-form polypropylene can be produced through the introduction of a branching molecular architecture and by conducting crystallization under shear and rapid cooling conditions.
Guixiang Lu, Yanhui Qi, Qian Zhang, Wei Cao , Changyu Shen, March 2016
A new approach, which combines the eXtended Pom-Pom finite element model and an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian technique, is used to simulate stress levels at different points in a molded part.
Vimal Katiyar , Amit Kumar, Umesh Bhardwaj, Prodyut Dhar, February 2016
Cellulose nanocrystals are used to fabricate novel biodegradable nanocomposites that exhibit reduced oxygen permeability, as well as improved tensile and rheological characteristics.
Emilia Garofalo , Loredana Incarnato, Luciano Di Maio, Paola Scarfato, February 2016
An in-depth study of polylactide nanocomposite molecular characteristics demonstrates that selecting appropriate organoclays for each polylactide grade is a key issue.
A new approach, based on angle measurements in simple unidirectional tests, reduces the time, samples, and costs required for determination of material parameters such as textile permeability.
A new approach makes it possible to estimate all ASTM-standard flow rates and flow-rate ratios from a single run of small-amplitude oscillatory shear testing.
Time-temperature superposition principles successfully forecast behavior under long-term loading.
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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How to reference articles from the SPE Library:
Any article that is cited in another manuscript or other work is required to use the correct reference style. Below is an example of the reference style for SPE articles:
Brown, H. L. and Jones, D. H. 2016, May.
"Insert title of paper here in quotes,"
ANTEC 2016 - Indianapolis, Indiana, USA May 23-25, 2016. [On-line].
Society of Plastics Engineers, ISBN: 123-0-1234567-8-9, pp. 000-000.
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Note: if there are more than three authors you may use the first author's name and et al. EG Brown, H. L. et al.
