Expandable, shelf stable polymer bead
OwnerJames Arthur AUGER, Syed Mahmood AHMED +2inventors
InventorsJames Arthur AUGER, Syed Mahmood AHMED, Abdul Rahim Ahamed ARAFATH, Ali Khalid AL-KHORAYEF
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Abstract
The invention relates to an expandable bead comprising a) a polyolefin selected from polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and mixtures thereof and b) thermoplastic microspheres encapsulating a blowing agent.
Claims18
A process for making an article comprising providing a plurality of expandable beads which comprises a polyolefin selected from polyethylene, polypropylene, and mixtures thereof and thermoplastic microspheres encapsulating a blowing agent, and molding the expandable beads.
A process for the production of an expandable bead comprising the steps of:
- (a) feeding one or more polyolefins, into melt mixing device;
- wherein the polyolefin is selected from polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and mixtures thereof;
- (b) heating said one or more polyolefins to melt;
- (c) introducing microspheres into said melt mixing device to form a mixture with the one or more polyolefins within the melt mixing device;
- (d) supplying said mixture to a heated die comprising a plurality of holes grouped into pods on the face of said die;
- (e) extruding said mixture through said holes into an underwater pelletizer which may optionally utilize a pressurized fluid system;
- (f) cutting said mixture to form beads;
- (g) removing said beads from the water;
- and
- (h) drying said beads,
- wherein an aspect ratio, defined as quotient of a largest diameter D1 of the bead to a smallest diameter D2 of the bead, is in the range from ≥1.0 to ≤1.40, wherein the smallest diameter D2 of the bead is in the range from ≥0.5 to ≤2.5 mm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.