Dry resin made from an emulsion polymerized thermoplastic latex

Abstract

A process for finishing latex to form a dry resin and the resulting product. The process includes coagulating a latex of a thermoplastic polymer at a temperature at or just above the agglomeration temperature of the resin, dewatering the resin slurry to form a resin cake, drying the resin cake using extrusion technology to form a resin melt and solidifying the resin melt to form the resin. Preferred processes of the invention also include finishing the resin, such as by pelletizing and/or grinding it. More preferred processes of the invention include collecting and neutralizing the aqueous liquid byproducts from the dewatering and drying steps of the process. One embodiment of the invention includes utilizing water to solidify the resin melt, pelletizing the resin and drying the pellets. Most preferred processes of the invention include recycling any aqueous liquid byproducts of the solidifying and/or pellet drying steps, and recycling dried resin that is outside of the specification back into the resin cake drying step. Dried resins of the invention can have a moisture of not greater than 1.0% by weight and a residuals concentration of not greater than 500 ppm.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.