Cast films melt casting

Film. Nylon film can be pioduced as eithei tnbulai oi cast film. In tubular film, melt is extmded through a screen pack and a tubular die, and a... 

Transmission Ex-solution, cast film, melt, mulls, KBr discs 1.2.1.1, 7.2.3... 

The equipment for the slit-film fiber process is shown in Figure 15 (29). An olefin film is cast, and as in melt spinning, the morphology and composition of the film determine the processing characteristics. Fibers may be produced by cutting or slitting the film, or by chemomechanical fibrillation. 

Some cast (unoriented) polypropylene film is produced. Its clarity and heat sealabiUty make it ideal for textile packaging and overwrap. The use of copolymers with ethylene improves low temperature impact, which is the primary problem with unoriented PP film. Orientation improves the clarity and stiffness of polypropylene film, and dramatically increases low temperature impact strength. BOPP film, however, is not readily heat-sealed and so is coextmded or coated with resins with lower melting points than the polypropylene shrinkage temperature. These layers may also provide improved barrier properties. 

The basic methods for forming film or sheeting materials may be classified as follows melt extmsion, calendering, solution casting, and chemical regeneration. Of special note is the use of biaxial orientation as part of the critical manufacturing steps for many film and sheet products. 

Melt Extrusion. By far the most important method for producing film and sheeting materials reties on one or another of the various melt extmsion techniques (5). The main variations of melt extmsion are the slot (or flat) die-cast film process, the blown films process, and the flat die sheeting-stack process. These may be combined with one or more steps such as coextmsion wherein multilayer film or sheet is formed, biaxial orientation, and in-line coating (6). 

Solution Casting. The production of unsupported film and sheet by solution casting has generally passed from favor and is used only for special polymers not amenable to melt processes. The use of solvents was generally very hazardous because of their flammabiUty or toxic nature. The cost of recovery and disposal of solvents became prohibitive for many lower price film appHcations. The nature of the drying operations leads to problems with solvent migration and retention that are not problems with melt-processed polymers. 

Goextrusions. In coextmsion, two or more thermoplastic resin melts are extruded simultaneously from the same die. Coextmsion permits an intimate layering in precisely the quantities required to function. Incompatible plastic materials are bonded with thermoplastic adhesive layers. Coextmded films may be made by extmsion-blowing or slot-casting of two, three, or more layers, eg, AB or ABA. Slot-casting is capable of combining up to 11 layers. 

Many polymers, including polyethylene, polypropylene, and nylons, do not dissolve in suitable casting solvents. In the laboratory, membranes can be made from such polymers by melt pressing, in which the polymer is sandwiched at high pressure between two heated plates. A pressure of 13.8—34.5 MPa (2000—5000 psi) is appHed for 0.5 to 5 minutes, at a plate temperature just above the melting point of the polymer. Melt forming is commonly used to make dense films for packaging appHcations, either by extmsion as a sheet from a die or as blown film. 

Extmsion technology is used to produce spunbond, meltblown, and porous-film nonwovens. Fabrics produced by these systems are referred to individually as spunbonded, meltblown, and textured- or apertured-film nonwovens, or genericaHy as polymer-laid nonwovens. These fabrics are produced with machinery associated with such polymer extmsion methods as melt-spinning, film casting, and extmsion coating. In polymer-laid systems, fiber stmctures are simultaneously formed and manipulated. 

One of the requirements of this process is that the melt maintain good contact with the chill roU, ie, air must not pass between the film and the roU. Otherwise, air insulates the plastic and causes it to cool at a rate different from the rest of the plastic and this spoils the appearance of an otherwise satisfactory product. The melt should not emit volatiles, which condense on the chill roU, reduce heat transfer, and mar the film s appearance. The cast film process allows the use of a higher melt temperature than is characteristic of the blown film process. The higher temperature imparts better optical properties. 

The first five of these techniques involve deformation and this has to be followed by some setting operation which stabilises the new shape. In the case of polymer melt deformation this can be affected by cooling of thermoplastics and cross-linking of thermosetting plastics and similtir comments can apply to deformation in the rubbery state. Solution-cast film and fibre requires solvent evaporation (with also perhaps some chemical coagulation process). Latex suspensions can simply be dried as with emulsion paints or subjected to some... 

The most common method to measure the compatibility of resins with other substances is to dissolve both materials in a mutually compatible solvent, and to cast a film on a glass slide. After solvent evaporation, a compatible system gives a clear film, while incompatibility results in an opaque film. A more accurate procedure is to melt the resin and the substance under a phase microscope, and compatibility is observed on the film after cooling. 

The pumping pressure required on the melts entering the different designed die heads differs to meet their melt flow patterns within the die cavities. The pressure usually varies as follows (1) blown and lay-flat films at 13.8-41.3 MPa (2000-6000 psi) (2) cast film, sheet, and pipe at 3.5-27.6 MPa (500-4000 psi) (3) wire coating at 10.3-55.1 MPa (1500-8000 psi), and (4) monofilament at 6.9-20.7 MPa (1000-3000 psi). 

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