Premium
On the Improvement of the Processability of UHMW‐HDPE by Adding a Liquid Crystalline Polymer and a Fluoroelastomer
Author(s) -
Aiello Roberto,
La Mantia Francesco Paolo
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
macromolecular materials and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1439-2054
pISSN - 1438-7492
DOI - 10.1002/1439-2054(20010301)286:3<176::aid-mame176>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - materials science , extrusion , polyethylene , composite material , polymer , high density polyethylene , viscosity , ultra high molecular weight polyethylene
Ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene possesses many interesting properties but a very bad processability. This material is not usually processed in conventional devices but only by compression moulding and RAM extrusion. Low molecular weight polyethylene can be used to improve the processability. In this work small amounts of a fluoroelastomer and of a liquid crystalline polymer have been used as processing aids to improve the extrudability of this polymer. In fact, the die pressure decreases whereas the output flow rate slightly increases with increasing concentration of the processing aids. Solution viscosity data shows that reduction of the mechanical stress during extrusion decreases the degradation of the polyethylene.