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
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Polymer foam articles 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.
Claims26
A foam article comprising a polymer foam, said polymer foam having at least one of its major surfaces smooth to an Ra value less than about 75 micrometers, as measured by laser triangulation profilometry, said polymer foam being smooth without being bonded to an additional layer,
- said polymer foam comprising a homogeneous distribution of a plurality or thermoplastic expandable polymeric microspheres,
- wherein said plurality of expandable polymeric microspheres are at least partially expanded.
The foam article according to claim i, wherein said polymer foam comprises a matrix comprising a blend of two or more polymers wherein at least one of said polymers in said blend comprises a pressure sensitive adhesive polymer and at least one of said polymers is selected from the group consisting of unsaturated thermoplastic elastomers, acrylate monomer-insoluble saturated thermoplastic elastomers, and non-pressure sensitive adhesive thermoplastic polymers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.