Segments, hard melting

More recentiy, melt-spun biconstituent sheath—core elastic fibers have been commercialized. They normally consist of a hard fiber sheath (polyamide or polyester) along with a segmented polyurethane core polymer (11,12). Kanebo Ltd. in Japan currentiy produces a biconstituent fiber for hosiery end uses called Sideria. 

The melt temperature of a polyurethane is important for processibiUty. Melting should occur well below the decomposition temperature. Below the glass-transition temperature the molecular motion is frozen, and the material is only able to undergo small-scale elastic deformations. For amorphous polyurethane elastomers, the T of the soft segment is ca —50 to —60 " C, whereas for the amorphous hard segment, T is in the 20—100°C range. The T and T of the mote common macrodiols used in the manufacture of TPU are Hsted in Table 2. 

Philips R.A., McKenna J.M., and Cooper S.L., Glass transition and melting behavior of poly(ether-ester) multihlock copol3miers with poly(ethyleneterephthalate) hard segments, J. Polym. Sci. Part B, 32, 791, 1994. 

Poly(ether ester) (PEE) copolymers were consisted of soft segments of polyethers and hard crystalline segments of polyesters. Depending on the polyether/polyester ratio, PEE copolymers exhibit a wide range of mechanical behavior combined with solvent resistance, thermal stability, and ease of melt process ability. 

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