Injection-Moulding Compounding of PP Polymer Nanocomposites

Abstract

The objective of this study is a comparison of different compounding techniques and their influence on Young's modulus. Both conventional processing of polymer nanocomposites and processing in the unique Injection Moulding Compounder (PNC-IMC) were evaluated. Additionally, the effects of nanofillers on the thermal conductivity of polymer nanocomposites were investigated at various pressures.In comparison to conventional compounding process, in which the compound must be pelletized and fed into the injection moulding machine for the second plasticizing process, injection-moulding compounding combines these two processing steps. The material compounding and the subsequent injection moulding are done directly with only one plasticizing process, with the use of a heated melt line and a melt accumulator. In this study, both of these techniques were used for the production of polymer nanocomposites. This paper shows the different effects of processing techniques, screw speed, counter-pressure and different extruder length on Young's modulus and demonstrates that, for the improvements, a compromise between shear energy input and residence time is essential. The increase of thermal conductivity by using nanofillers in comparison to the virgin polypropylene is shown. The investigated increase in thermal conductivity should be extremely appealing for the industry in terms of cycle time reduction in the injection moulding process.These first results give an excellent overview of both the possibilities and the limitations of the innovative concept of the PNC-IMC. Further studies on the detailed understanding of the exfoliation and intercalation of layered silicates in polymer melt will be done.

Investigation on the Thermal Degradation Kinetics of Polypropylene/Organically Modified Montmorillonite Nanocomposites with Different Levels of Compatibilizer

“…Nonetheless, the melt intercalation method was deemed more appropriate for synthesizing polypropylene/OMMT nanocomposites . The synthesis was carried out using Injection Molding Compounder (IMC) model K1998 Krauss Maffei, Germany …”

“…[11] The synthesis was carried out using Injection Molding Compounder (IMC) model K1998 Krauss Maffei, Germany. [22] The polypropylene and PP-MA were fed upstream through the main hopper of the IMC, which has a screw diameter (D) of 27 mm and extruder length 44 D. The nanofiller OMMT was fed downstream and all the three constituents of the composite were fed separately in controlled gravimetric dosage units. [4] The processing conditions inside the IMC were kept constant throughout the process.…”

Trends in the multifunctional performance of polyolefin/clay nanocomposite injection moldings

“…However, for polymers of low polarity, such as polyolefins, the improvements are not very significant due to the low compatibility between the clay and the polyolefins [9]. Other studies also refer to the improvement of the thermal conductivity by varying the processing pressure, and that this increase in the thermal conductivity should be very interesting for the industry in terms of cycle time reduction in the injection-molding process [86]. Other studies also refer to the improvement of the thermal conductivity by varying the processing pressure, and that this increase in the thermal conductivity should be very interesting for the industry in terms of cycle time reduction in the injection-molding process [86].…”

“…In comparison to the conventional compounding process, where the compound has to be pelletized and fed into the injection-molding machine for the second plasticizing process, a so-called injection-molding compounder (PNC-IMC) was recently developed by Battisti and Friesenbichler [86]. The technique combined the two processing steps of conventional compounding process: pelletizing and feeding into the injection-molding machine (Figure 6.10).…”

Investigation on the effects of the processing parameters and the number of passes on the flexural properties of polymer nanocomposite fabricated through FSP method

“…Few of these methods have serious shortcomings such as solution blending technique is inapplicable for polymer materials which are insoluble in solvents [13]. On the other hand, melt mixing does not yield the same level of dispersion relatively and is uneconomical [14,15]. FSP is a novel technique for the fabrication of PNCs.…”