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US 6,103,152 AGranted
Articles that include a polymer foam and method for preparing same
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsMark D. Gehlsen, Bradley S. Momchilovich
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Polymer foam articles having a substantially smooth surface prepared by melt-mixing a polymer composition and a plurality of microspheres, at least one of which is an expandable polymeric microsphere, under process conditions, including temperature and shear rate, selected to form an expandable extrudable composition; and extruding the composition through a die.
Claims45
A method for preparing an article, said method comprising:
- (a) melt mixing a substantially solvent-free polymer composition having a less than 20 wt. % solvent content and a plurality of microspheres, at least one of which is an expandable polymeric microsphere, under process conditions, including temperature and shear rate, selected to form an expandable extrudable composition;
- (b) extruding the expandable extrudable composition through a die to form a foam;
- and
- (c) at least partially expanding one or more expandable polymeric microspheres before the expandable extrudable composition exits the die.
1 more element
A method for preparing an article, said method comprising:
- (a) melt mixing a substantially solvent-free polymer composition and a plurality of expandable polymeric microspheres, under process conditions, including temperature and shear rate, selected so as to cause the expandable polymeric microspheres to break during said mixing step and to form an expandable extrudable composition;
- (b) extruding the expandable extrudable composition through a die to form a foam;
- and
- (c) processing the expandable extrudable composition so as to at least partially and permanently expand a plurality of the expandable polymeric microspheres after said melt mixing step and before the expandable extrudable composition exits the die.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.