CHE417

Polymer Process Engineering

 Recommended Textbooks
1. Organic Polymers: Advances in Research and Applications. By Tomos Fisher.
Nova Science Publisher
2. Basics of Polymers: Fabrication and Processing Technology. By:
Muralisrinivasan Natamai Subramanian. Published by Momentum Press, 2015
3. Introduction to Polymer Chemistry, 3rd Edition. By: Charles E. Carraher Jr.
Published by CRC Press, Tailor and Francis, 2014
Other methods of making/manufacturing polymer
Polymer Processing
•Because of the properties of polymers, it is possible to mould them and
change their shape using a number of different repetitious manufacturing
processes.
•Polymer processing is influenced by the thermal characteristics of polymer.
They are melt temperature, glass transition temperature, thermal conductivity,
thermal diffusivity, heat capacity, coefficient of linear thermal expansion, and
decomposition temperature.
•Polymer processing techniques are used to meet the requirements or
specification as required by the industries and end-product applications.
•During processing, improved mechanical, thermal, optical, and other
properties are optimized during manufacturing using optimized polymerization
conditions.
• Polymer processing technology helps to convert polymer into long-life
applications for use in areas such as transportation, appliances, electronics,
and construction markets.
• Polymer processing operations are extrusion and injection molding, blow
molding, rotational moulding, thermoforming, calendering, vacuum forming,
and compression moulding.
 Injection/Extrusion Molding
• Injection molding is labor intensive and extrusion is material intensive. Both
these processes involve the following sequence of steps: (a) heating and
melting the polymer, (b) pumping the polymer to the shaping unit, (c)
forming the melt into the required shape and dimensions, and (d) cooling and
solidification.
 Extrusion Molding
• Extrusion is one of the most important polymer processing methods used to
enhance the uniaxial strength and stiffness of polymer materials. It makes
up the material much higher strength along the polymer chain than that
exhibited by the material properties before processing.
• It involves solid conveying, melting, mixing, venting, and homogenizing
and affects the quality of polymer products considerably.
• Single-screw extruder (Figure 7.1) and counter-rotating twin-screw extruder
(Figure 7.2) are used during extrusion of polymeric materials.
• Figure 7.1 Schematic representation of single-screw extruder
 Single-screw extruder
• The screw extrusion process consists of three distinct zones, namely feed,
compression, and metering zone.
• The polymer is either conveyed in the solid state or melted under the action of
conducted heat and shear, and the resulting melt is mixed and pumped.
• The three sections of the screw, feed zone having the constant channel depth in
the section, tapering compression or transition section, and the constant depth
metering section, are normally associated with these three functions although
there is often considerable overlap.
• Melting starts in the feed section of the screw and continues into the metering
section.
• Figure 7.2 Schematic representation of twin-screw extruder
 Twin-screw extruder
• Twin-screw extruder has been extensively used in the polymer industry,
particularly counter-rotating involves in various applications, including
melting, pressurization, and mixing, which leads to different end products
such as pipe, profile, sheet, and flat film.
• Twin-screw extruders are usually operated at a specific throughput; therefore,
portions of the extruder are completely filled, whereas other locations are
partially filled. Filled regions are formed behind restrictive and reverse
pumping elements in extrusion screws.
Extruder
•Extruder represents a very complex machine to process various types of
polymeric materials and viscosities under high temperature and pressure with
very strong shear forces and short residence time in the barrel.
•During extrusion, the extruder treats the material with mixing, kneading,
heating, shearing, and finally through a die appropriately designed to form the
product under expansion and rapid fall in pressure.
•Extruder is used to extrudate polymeric materials with a series of
subprocesses, including motor-drive control systems and barrel heating/cooling
system. Operation and process reflect the input and output of the extrusion
process.
•During extrusion process, each material undergoes a different temporal,
thermal, and/or mechanical history. As a result, its final properties may be
different from those of the materials subjected to extrusion process.
• Single- and twin-screw extruders differ in conveying mechanism. In single-
screw extruder, the process is highly dependent on the frictional and viscous
properties of the material. In this extruder, the frictional and viscous forces
help in the melt conveying.
• Twin-screw extruders are designed to have positive conveying
characteristics. These extruders can be classified according to their
geometrical configuration. The polymeric material may be more or less
trapped in compartments formed by the two screws and barrel due to their
full intermeshing nature of the twin screw.
• Better the intermesh between the screws, the more positive conveying
occurs. In twin-screw extruder, the frictional and viscous forces have a
minimal effect on the conveying behavior.
 Extrusion
• Extrusion is a process that can be compared to squeezing toothpaste out of a
tube. Thermoplastic granules are forced through a heated barrel and the fused
polymer is then squeezed through a die that is the profile of the extruded
component.
• The extrusion is cooled by water or air as it leaves the die and is finally cut to
the required length. The shape of the die can be varied from a simple hole
with a centrally supported core to produce tubes such as pipes, to very
complex sections for curtain tracks or hollow window frames.
• Hence, extrusion consists of processing polymeric materials through an
extruder that heats, softens, and forces the molten plastic through a die to give
the desired shape.
 Extrusion dies
• Extrusion dies are metal channels that impart a specific cross-sectional shape
to a polymer stream.
• The swell of the extrudate as it leaves the extrusion die is an important
phenomenon in polymer melt extrusion.
• Die entrance angle plays an important role in the die pressure in the extrusion
pressure. Die pressure is affected by flow rate of polymer melt, cross section
of the die, die temperature, and material viscosity.
• As the polymeric material is forwarded along the screw channel, heat is
generated by viscous flow and transferred through both the screw and barrel
surfaces. A die at the end of the channel causes a resistance, resulting in an
adverse pressure gradient in the channel. These factors influence the
temperature distribution between the two surfaces.
Applications:
•Extrusion is a suitable plastic forming method for fabricating a variety
of shapes with constant cross section, not only for flat shapes, but also
for structural shapes, such as I-sections, channels, pipes, and tubes.
 Injection Molding
• This process is one of the most common of all plastics manufacturing
processes. The polymer, in granule form, is heated until fused and forced
into a closed mould.
• Because of the viscous (thick, syrupy) nature of the fused polymer, very
high pressures are needed to make it flow, which means that the machine
and mould have to be very strong to withstand the forces involved.
• Injection molding of thermoplastics involves injecting molten resin into a
mold at high pressure and ejecting the cooled part. A better understanding of
the friction conditions during the molding process can lead to improved
injection mold and part designs.
• The polymer material solidifies under homogeneous stress and cooling
conditions in injection molding. The inner structures of the molded article
are inhomogeneous, which influences the product properties.
Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the influences of the structure of polymer
and molding conditions on the inhomogeneous structure of the molded article.
Thus, injection molding is a process with
•high-pressure squeezing of complex and compressible hot melt polymer
fluid,
•hot melt that flows through a very small gate into a cold cavity mold with
high velocity,
•end product having an apparent hierarchical structure, macroscopically as a
skin–core structure,
•higher versatility,
•end product with little or no finishing required
• Injection molding machine (see the Figure) consists of an injection and
plastication unit, mold clamping unit, and hydraulic and control unit. In the
injection unit, the polymer is melted by heating and shearing.
• The polymer is injected under pressure into a mold cavity, which is held by
the mold clamping unit.
• By the application of cooling agent, the polymer melt solidifies into a shape of
the mold cavity.
• Hydraulic unit serves manipulator for the injection unit. Finally, control unit
supervises the process and provides overall control and sequences of the
machine.
• Figure: Injection Mold
 Purpose of injection molding
• T‍he purpose of injection molding is to produce polymer end products with
high efficiency and to shape the products with complicated forms. Scientific
molding is an important initial practice to make proper short shot.
• To start up with any mold, short shot is to be made for the safety of the
machine and mold. Therefore, functional areas such as barrel and heating
zones are important for their individual functions.
Applications:
• This technique is economical and efficient to produce a wide range of
polymer parts for industrial, agricultural, electronic, and household articles.
• In polymers, shear and elongational flow are two primary flow mechanisms.
Shear flow describes the response of the polymer to an imposed shearing
force. Elongation flow is the response of the polymer to an imposed
stretching or pulling force. As the shear rate increases, the rate of increase in
shear stress decreases and this is described as shear thinning.
• Polymer processing includes stress relaxation and normal stress differences.
In process such as injection molding and extrusion, the slow stress relaxation
is responsible for frozen-in stresses.
• During processing and extrudate swelling in extrusion, the normal stress
differences are responsible for flow instabilities. Extrudate swelling is the
significant increase in cross-sectional area when a molten material is
extruded out of a die.