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Stress cracking of rigid polyvinyl chloride by plasticizer migration
Author(s) -
Lacatus Emilia,
Summers James W.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of vinyl technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.295
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1548-0585
pISSN - 0193-7197
DOI - 10.1002/vnl.730060407
Subject(s) - plasticizer , polyvinyl chloride , environmental stress cracking , materials science , cracking , composite material , elongation , natural rubber , stress (linguistics) , ultimate tensile strength , stress corrosion cracking , linguistics , philosophy , alloy
Abstract Environmental stress cracking (ESC) (failure caused by crack and craze formation at a stress less than the yield stress) reduces the service life of many plastic products. This paper is concerned with ESC of rigid PVC products which are in contact with a plasticized PVC material. The ESC affect (as measured by elongation to break) is reduced at faster strain rates and by higher plasticizer viscosity, which suggests a mechanism requiring flow of plasticizer into a growing craze. Well fused (gelled) PVC made at a higher melt temperature slowed but did not eliminate environmental stress cracking. Rubber impact modifier added to the rigid PVC had no effect on ESC. Environmental stress cracking can be avoided by using flexible PVC that has a non‐migrating plasticizer or by designing the product so that rigid PVC is not stressed while in contact with plasticized PVC.