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Lecture Overview
Important characteristics for feedstock
Hygroscopicity
Granule characteristics
Thermal Properties
Thermal Stability
Processing Temperature
Cooling rate
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Hygroscopicity
Sizes and shapes of the feed granules
Thermal properties
Flow properties or rheology
Crystallization tendencies
Orientation and Shrinkage
Hygroscopicity
It will allow a polymer compound to incorporate
moisture with it.
If moisture is at the surface of the granules it can be
removed by low temperature drying.
Removal becomes difficult if the moisture is absorbed
within the mass.
When such raw material is processed, it will turn into
steam and would remain trapped in the viscous
polymer melt.
Bubbles of steam would expand on decompression
and would create voids in the processes polymer.
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Hygroscopicity
These bubbles will flattened into thread like form
during processing and defect would appear on the
surface of final product.
Tolerance level of water or moisture content in a
polymer compound depends upon processing
temperature.
- Higher the temperature, lower is the tolerance
- Lower the temperature, higher could be the tolerance.
Tm of Semi-crystalline Thermoplastics
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Granules Characteristics
During melt-processing, the heat required for melting
the granules can be supplied externally or internally
External supplies includes
- Heating coils
- Or Electrical heating bands situated outside the barrel
Internal heating
- Mechanical working on material that generates frictional
heat
- High frequency heating (Dielectric heating)
Granules Characteristics
Whatever the mean of heating supply, granule sizes
and shapes plays an important role
If feed consists of different sizes of granules
- Then each granule would take different time to get fluxed
- Smaller sizes of granules would melt quicker than the
larger
- Adjusting the processing time would be very difficult.
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Granules Characteristics
If time is fixed according to larger granules
- Larger granules will melt and attain fluidity
- Smaller ones would be of very low viscosity fluid or even
become volatile.
Solution
- Polymers are granulated in a special granulator
- Thin ribbon are extruded and subsequently cooled and cut into
forms called spaghetti -cut
- Conductivity
The amount of heat required is related to thermal
conductivity
- Viscosity
The amount of heat is also related to the melt viscosity of the
specific polymer
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Thermal Stability
An important property that has to be taken into
consideration is the Thermal Stability
- How stable is the compound at elevated temperatures (In
the presence as well as in the absence of oxygen)
- How thermal instability affect the properties
- What are the degeneration products, if any
- Any parts of the machinery or any additive is acting as a
catalyst in degeneration process
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Processing Temperature
We have to reduce the processing temperature, this
could be achieved by
- Addition of Plasticizer
Cooling rates
Thermal properties are also related to the rate of
cooling of a polymer from its processing temperature.
Rate of cooling in amorphous polymers depends upon
- Difference between processing temperature Tp and the
mold temperature Tc which is (Tp-Tc)
- Glass Transition temperature, Tg
- Average specific heat over the temperature range (Tp-Tg)
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arranging themselves
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Summary
Tolerance of moisture content depends upon the
processing temperature.
Average particle size of granules is not good for final
product
Polymers are bad conductor of heat
Suitable processing additives are required to process
polymer under their processing temperature to avoid
degeneration
Cooling rate dictates the type of properties and
structure of end product
- Slow cooling rate= Good mechanical properties, Isotropic
- Fast cooling rate= Bad mechanical properties, Anisotropic