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US 10,035,310 B2Granted
Methods, compositions and blends for forming articles having improved environmental stress crack resistance
AssigneeViva Healthcare Packaging Limited
InventorIan Orde Michael Jacobs
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Several processes for the manufacture of thin-walled tubes are described, including: injection molding an article and annealing the article, injection molding a blend of a polymer and a high melt flow polymer, injection molding a blend of a polymer and nanoparticles or nanocomposites. Using nanoparticles to improve ESCR and/or tear resistance of a polymer or blend is also disclosed.
Claims47
A process for the manufacture of flexible thin-walled articles comprising:
- adapting an injection-molded, flexible, thin-walled, polymer-based article to form a base of the article, said adaption resulting in the formation of a distorted region of the article;
- and
- annealing the article in at least one section of the distorted region of the article to obtain a flexible thin-walled article,
- wherein the body of the flexible thin-walled article is 1 mm or thinner, and
- wherein the polymer-based article comprises a polymer-based material having a time to failure less than ten hours when tested according to the following procedure:
- i) a plurality of strips of polymer-based material incorporating any post molding treatment intended for a final article having a cross-sectional dimensions of 0.65 mm in thickness and 10 mm in width are injection molded under high shear, long flow length conditions that would be applied to obtain the injection-molded, flexible, thin-walled, polymer-based article;
- ii) the strips are bent back upon themselves and stapled 3 mm from location of the bend;
- iii) the bent strips are immersed in a solution of a stress crack agent and held at a temperature of 50° C.;
- iv) the bent strips are observed for signs of cracking, any signs of cracking indicating failure;
- and
- v) the time to failure being when 50% of the strips show signs of cracking.
8 more elements
A process for the manufacture of flexible thin-walled articles comprising:
- adapting an injection-molded, flexible, thin-walled, polymer-based article to form a base of the article, said adaption resulting in the formation of a distorted region of the article;
- and
- annealing the article in at least one section of the distorted region of the article to obtain a flexible thin-walled article,
- wherein the article is a tube, and
- wherein the polymer-based article comprises a polymer-based material having a time to failure less than ten hours when tested according to the following procedure:
- i) a plurality of strips of the polymer-based material incorporating any post molding treatment intended for a final article having a cross-sectional dimensions of 0.65 mm in thickness and 10 mm in width are injection molded under high shear, long flow length conditions that would be applied to obtain the injection-molded, flexible, thin-walled, polymer-based article;
- ii) the strips are bent back upon themselves and stapled 3 mm from location of the bend;
- iii) the bent strips are immersed in a solution of a stress crack agent and held at a temperature of 50° C.;
- iv) the strips are observed for signs of cracking, any signs of cracking indicating failure;
- and
- v) the time to failure being when 50% of the strips show signs of cracking.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.