Reactor polychloroprene

A recent patent ( ) describes reactors used for continuous polychloroprene production which have some interesting features and claims. These reactors are shown in Figures 4 and 5. They include the following features ... 

During 1973, at a chloroprene polymerization plant in the United States, airborne concentrations of chloroprene were found to range from 14 to 1420 ppm [50-5140 mg/m ] in the make-up area, from 130 to 6760 ppm [470-24 470 mg/m in the reactor area, from 6 to 440 ppm [22-1660 mg/m ] in the monomer recovery area and from 113 to 252 ppm [409-912 mg/ni l in the latex area (Infante et al., 1977). Concentrations in the air inside a Russian polychloroprene rubber plant were 14.5-53.4 mg/m (Mnatsakayan et al., 1972). In a Russian chloroprene latex manufacturing facility, chloroprene concentrations varied from 1 to 8 mg/m (Volkova et al., 1976). 

Since the 1940s continuous polymerization processes have been developed for a variety of products and with different reactor configurations. Latex products manufactured in continuous systems include polychloroprene and other synthetic elastomers, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers, components for engineering plastics and coating formulations. 

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