Premium
Axial‐feed thermoforming of oriented polypropylene tubes
Author(s) -
Elnagmi Mohamed,
Bruhis Moisei,
Jain Mukesh
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.21316
Subject(s) - thermoforming , materials science , polypropylene , extrusion , composite material , ultimate tensile strength , scanning electron microscope , ductility (earth science) , microstructure , tube (container) , die (integrated circuit) , tensile testing , optical microscope , creep , nanotechnology
The effect of newly developed axial feed thermoforming process (AFTF) on mechanical properties and morphology were investigated to gain a better understanding of structure–properties–process relationship. The starting material for AFTF is an oriented polypropylene tube (OPP) produced in uniaxial direction by using solid state extrusion process. Morphological changes from solid‐state extrusion are briefly reported. A die‐less bulge testing system was designed to bulge OPP tube at a high temperature in biaxial direction. Wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscope, and optical microscopy were used to characterize the microstructure of the extruded and bulged samples of OPP. In addition, tensile tests were carried out at room temperature of samples machined from the extruded and bulged tubes along the axial and hoop directions. The results show that tensile strength increases with draw ratio in extruded samples as well as improvements in ductility were obtained in die‐less bulge tests with an increase in axial feed. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2009. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers