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US 7,625,953 B2Granted
Method and plant for the manufacture of polymer particles
AssigneeSulzer Chemtech AG
InventorPhilip Nising
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The method for the manufacture of foamed or foamable polymer particles employs a mixture of a polymer melt and a recycled polymer melt produced from recycled, propellant-containing polymer particles. The associated plant for the manufacture of the foamed or foamable polymer particles is provided with an apparatus for the processing of recycled, propellant-containing polymer particles.
Claims12
A method for the manufacture of foamed or foamable polymer particles comprising the steps of
- melting a mass of recycled propellant-containing foamable polymer particles;
- removing propellant from the melted mass;
- adding a metered amount of additive to the melted mass to form an additive-containing recycled polymer melt;
- forming a polymer melt;
- adding a metered amount of propellant to said polymer melt to form a propellant-containing polymer melt;
- mixing the additive-containing recycled polymer melt and the propellant-containing polymer melt to obtain a homogeneous polymer melt with a homogeneous distribution of propellant and additive;
- thereafter cooling the homogeneous polymer melt;
- and
- granulating the cooled homogeneous polymer melt into a plurality of polymer particles.
6 more elements
A method for the manufacture of foamed or foamable polymer particles comprising the steps of
- melting a mass of recycled propellant-containing polymer particles in a first step in an extruder;
- removing propellant from the melted mass of said first step in a second subsequent step;
- adding a metered amount of additive in a third step subsequent to said second step to the melted mass to form an additive-containing recycled polymer melt;
- melting polymer particles in a melting apparatus to form a polymer melt in a fourth step occurring in parallel to said first step;
- adding a metered amount of propellant in a fifth step subsequent to said fourth step to said polymer melt to form a propellant-containing polymer melt;
- mixing the additive-containing recycled polymer melt and the propellant-containing polymer melt in a sixth step subsequent to said fifth step to obtain a homogeneous polymer melt with a homogeneous distribution of propellant and additive;
- thereafter cooling the homogeneous polymer melt;
- and
- granulating the cooled homogeneous polymer melt into a plurality of polymer particles.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.