Coextrusion of multilayer articles using protective boundary layers and apparatus therefor

A process for he coextrusion of a multilayer polymeric reflective body comprising the steps of:

• providing at least a first stream and a second stream of heat plastified extrudable thermoplastic polymeric material,
• dividing each of the streams into a plurality of first substreams and a plurality of second substreams, respectively,
• combining the substreams to form a composite stream having said first substreams and second substreams interdigitated,
• forming a manipulated stream by mechanically manipulating said composite stream to provide an increased number of layers,
• providing a third stream of heat plastified thermoplastic polymeric material to the exterior surfaces of said manipulated stream to form protective boundary layers to prevent breakup of the layers of said first and second thermoplastic polymeric materials during layer manipulation and multiplication, said third stream of thermoplastic material having a viscosity which is equal to or less than that of either said first or second streams of thermoplastic material and is supplied at a volumetric flow rate which is from about 1-12.5% of the total volume of said manipulated stream,
• further mechanically manipulating said manipulated stream having said protective boundary layers to provide an increased number of layers, and
• shaping said manipulated stream into a multilayer polymeric reflective body having a sufficient number of alternating layers of said first and second thermoplastic polymeric materials such that at least 30% of light incident on said body is reflected and wherein said first and second polymeric materials differ from each other in refractive index by at least about 0.03 to produce a reflective polymeric body having layers which are generally parallel to one another.

A process for preventing layer breakup in the coextrusion of a multilayer polymeric reflective body comprising the steps of:

• providing at least a first stream and a second stream of heat plastified extrudable thermoplastic polymeric material,
• dividing each of the streams into a plurality of first substreams and a plurality of second substreams, respectively,
• combining the substreams to form a composite stream having said first substreams and second substreams interdigitated,
• forming a manipulated stream by mechanically manipulating said composite stream by flowing portions of said composite stream through a plurality of conduits to provide an increased number of layers while preventing breakup of said layers, the prevention of layer breakup being accomplished by performing at least one of the following steps prior to or during the formation of said manipulated stream:
• a) reducing shear stress at the walls of said plurality of conduits,
• b) reducing shear rate at the walls of said plurality of conduits,
• c) increasing the layer thickness adjacent the walls of said plurality of conduits, and
• shaping the manipulated stream into a multilayer polymeric reflective body having a sufficient number of alternating layers of said first and second thermoplastic polymeric materials such that at least 30% of light incident on said body is reflected and wherein said first and second thermoplastic polymeric materials differ from each other in refractive index by at least about 0.03 to produce a reflective polymeric body, said layers being generally parallel to one another.

An apparatus for preventing layer breakup during coextrusion of a multilayer polymeric body by the generation of interfacial surfaces within a first composite stream which comprises discrete overlapping layers of first and second polymeric materials, of which at least a pair of such discrete overlapping layers define a generally planar layer interface therebetween which lies generally in an x-z plane of an x-y-z coordinate system, where the z-axis is taken as extending in the general direction of flow of said first composite stream, the x-axis extends transversely of said first composite stream and defines a transverse dimension of the layer interface, and the y-axis extends generally perpendicularly away from the planar layer interface in the thickness direction of said pair of discrete overlapping layers, said apparatus comprising:

• means for dividing said first composite stream into a plurality of branch streams along the x-axis, such that said pair of discrete overlapping layers and said generally planar layer interface defined therebetween are distributed among two or more of said branch streams;
• means upstream of said means for dividing said first composite stream for providing a third stream of heat plastified thermoplastic material to the exterior surfaces of said composite stream to form protective boundary layers;
• means communicating with said means for dividing said first composite stream for manipulating and repositioning said branch streams along both the x-axis and the y-axis;
• and
• means for recombining said repositioned branch streams to form a second composite stream having a greater number of discrete overlapping layers of said polymeric material than said first composite stream.