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Advanced structural foam molding using a continuous polymer/gas melt flow stream
Author(s) -
Xu Xiang,
Park Chul B.,
Lee John W. S.,
Zhu Xindong
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.28248
Subject(s) - materials science , molding (decorative) , polymer , void (composites) , composite material , blowing agent , matrix (chemical analysis) , melt flow index , flow (mathematics) , copolymer , polyurethane , mechanics , physics
This article introduces a patented advanced structural foam molding technology. By the implementation of a means of continuing the polymer matrix melt flow stream, the processing conditions are made consistent, and the injected gas is thus uniformly dispersed throughout the polymer matrix. Compared with its predecessors targeted at similar applications, this new technology generates single‐phase polymer/blowing agent solutions and is therefore capable of producing parts with smaller cell sizes, more uniform cell size distributions, higher void fractions, and similar geometric accuracy. Fine‐celled parts (>10 6 cells/cm 3 ) with high void fractions (>30%) were successfully produced in this research with an advanced structural foam molding machine that was built in house. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008