Tensilized polypropylene

BiaxiaHy oriented films have excellent tensile strength properties and good tear and impact properties. They are especially well regarded for their brilliance and clarity. Essentially all poly(ethylene terephthalate) film is biaxiaHy oriented, and more than 80% of polypropylene film is biaxiaHy oriented. Polystyrene film is oriented, and a lesser amount of polyethylene, polyamide, poly(vinyl chloride), and other polymers are so processed. Some of the specialty films, like polyimides (qv), are also oriented. 

Extmsion of polyethylene and some polypropylenes is usually through a circular die into a tubular form, which is cut and collapsed into flat film. Extmsion through a linear slot onto chilled rollers is called casting and is often used for polypropylene, polyester, and other resins. Cast, as well as some blown, films may be further heated and stretched in the machine or in transverse directions to orient the polymer within the film and improve physical properties such as tensile strength, stiffness, and low temperature resistance. 

Polyester. This fiber has several performance advantages versus polypropylene, although it is less economical. Polyester can produce higher tensile strength and modulus fabrics that are dimensionally stable at higher temperatures than polypropylene. This is of importance in selected appHcations such as roofing. Polyester fabrics are easily dyed and printed with conventional equipment which is of extreme importance in apparel and face fabrics although of lesser importance in most spunbonded appHcations (see Fibers, polyester). 

Antioxidants may be assessed in a variety of ways. For screening and for fundamental studies the induction period and rate of oxidation of petroleum fractions with and without antioxidants present provide useful model systems. Since the effect of oxidation differs from polymer to polymer it is important to evaluate the efficacy of the antioxidant with respect to some property seriously affected by oxidation. Thus for polyethylene it is common to study changes in flow properties and in power factor in polypropylene, flow properties and tendency to embrittlement in natural rubber vulcanisates, changes in tensile strength and tear strength. 

Table 11.4 Effect of percentage stretch on tensile properties of polypropylene film ...

Isotactic polypropylenes produced by metallocene catalysis are now being produced by a number of different manufacturers and because different systems are used there is some variation in properties. Typically however such materials have similar density, hardness and tensile strength to conventional homopolymers but differ in having... 

An underground polypropylene storage tank is a sphere of diameter 1.4 m. If it is to be designed to resist an external pressure of 20 kN/m for at least 3 years, estimate a suitable value for the wall thickness. Tensile creep data may be used and the density of the polypropylene is 904 kg/m. ... 

A rod of polypropylene, 10 mm in diameter, is clamped between two rigid fixed supports so that there is no stress in the rod at 20°C. If the assembly is then heated quickly to 60°C estimate the initial force on the supports and the force after 1 year. The tensile creep curves should be used and the effect of temperature may be allowed for by making a 56% shift in the creep curves at short times and a 40% shift at long times. The coefficient of thermal expansion for polypropylene is 1.35 x 10 °C in this temperature range. 

When a pipe fitting is tightened up to a 12 mm diameter polypropylene pipe at 20°C the diameter of the pipe is reduced by 0.05 mm. Calculate the stress in the wall of the pipe after 1 year and if the inside diameter of the pipe is 9 mm, comment on whether or not you would expect the pipe to leak after this time. State the minimum temperature at which the fitting could be used. Use the tensile creep curves and take the coefficient of thermal expansion of the polypropylene to be 9.0 X 10- °C . 

In a small polypropylene component a tensile stress of 5.6 MN/m is applied for 1000 seconds and removed for 500 seconds. Estimate how many of these stress cycles could be permitted before the component reached a limiting strain of 1%. What is the equivalent modulus of the material at his number of cycles The creep curves in Fig. 2.5 may be used. 

From this relatively simple test, therefore, it is possible to obtain complete flow data on the material as shown in Fig. 5.3. Note that shear rates similar to those experienced in processing equipment can be achieved. Variations in melt temperature and hypostatic pressure also have an effect on the shear and tensile viscosities of the melt. An increase in temperature causes a decrease in viscosity and an increase in hydrostatic pressure causes an increase in viscosity. Topically, for low density polyethlyene an increase in temperature of 40°C causes a vertical shift of the viscosity curve by a factor of about 3. Since the plastic will be subjected to a temperature rise when it is forced through the die, it is usually worthwhile to check (by means of Equation 5.64) whether or not this is signiflcant. Fig. 5.2 shows the effect of temperature on the viscosity of polypropylene. 

Figure 6 Tensile strength versus percent polypropylene in SBR ionomer/PP blends.

Mechanical strength becomes an important criterion, because wound cells (spiral-type construction), in which a layer of separator material is spirally wound between each two electrodes, are manufactured automatically at very high speed. Melt-blown polypropylene fleeces, with their excellent tensile properties, offer an interesting option. Frequently two layers of the same or different materials are used, to gain increased protection against shorts for button cells the use of three layers, even, is not unusual. Nevertheless the total thickness of the separation does not exceed 0.2 - 0.3 mm. For higher-temperature applications (up to about 60 °C) polypropylene fleeces are preferred since they offer a better chemical stability, though at lower electrolyte absorption [ 114"]. 

Only very recently the production of melt-blown polypropylene fleeces with considerably thinner fiber diameter became possible [100], thus making it possible — a low-cost hydrophilization provided — to achieve attractive properties with regard to small pore size and excellent tensile performance for use in highly automated assembly processes. 

FIGURE 11.18 Tensile stress-strain responses of polypropylene/styrene-butadiene rubber (PP-SBR) blends at several ratios (where LL is linear low molecular weight LH is linear high molecular weight BL is branched low molecular weight and BH is branched high molecular weight). (From Cook, R.F., Koester, K.J., Macosko, C.W., and Ajbani, M., Polym. Eng. Sci., 45, 1487, 2005.)... 

FIGURE 38.4 Tensile strength of polypropylene-maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (PP-MA-g-PP)-ruhher powder composite as a function of ruhher powder content. (Reprinted from Shanmugharaj, A.M., Kim, J.K., and Ryu, S.H., Polymer Test., 24, 739, 2005. With permission.)... 

The equilibrium shear modulus of two similar polyurethane elastomers is shown to depend on both the concentration of elastically active chains, vc, and topological interactions between such chains (trapped entanglements). The elastomers were carefully prepared in different ways from the same amounts of toluene-2,4-diisocyanate, a polypropylene oxide) (PPO) triol, a dihydroxy-terminated PPO, and a monohydroxy PPO in small amount. Provided the network junctions do not fluctuate significantly, the modulus of both elastomers can be expressed as c( 1 + ve/vc)RT, the average value of vth>c being 0.61. The quantity vc equals TeG ax/RT, where TeG ax is the contribution of the topological interactions to the modulus. Both vc and Te were calculated from the sol fraction and the initial formulation. Discussed briefly is the dependence of the ultimate tensile properties on extension rate. 

The mass fraction crystallinity of molded PHB samples is typically around 60%. As shown in Table 3, PHB resembles isotactic polypropylene (iPP) with respect to melting temperature (175-180°C), Young s modulus (3.5-4 GPa) and the tensile strength (40 MPa). In addition, the crystallinity of iPP is approximately 65% [18]. Accordingly, the fracture behavior of PHB may be anticipated to be tough at room temperature. Molded PHB samples do indeed show ductile behavior, but over a period of several days at ambient conditions, they slowly become more brittle [82, 85, 86]. Consequently, the elongation to break of the ultimate PHB (3-8%) is markedly lower than that of iPP (400%). 

The isotactic polypropylene is an essentially linear, highly crystalline polymer. The density of polypropylene is 0.905. It has high tensile strength, stiffness and hardness due to its high crystalline character. 

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