Overview
ABSTRACT
The development of new polymeric materials often requires mixing various polymers or mixing a polymer with inorganic fillers or fibers. These mixing operations differ from those encountered in other areas of chemical engineering because the very high viscosity of molten polymers prevents turbulence, the main mixing mechanism for low viscosity systems. This article introduces some basic concepts that govern the operations of mixing and allow their effectiveness to be quantified. These help explain how various mixing processes work.
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Read the articleAUTHORS
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Jean-François AGASSANT: Professor - MINES ParisTech, PSL Research University, CEMEF (Centre de Mise en Forme des Matériaux), UMR CNRS 7635, Sophia Antipolis, France
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Francis PINSOLLE: ENSEM engineer (Ecole nationale supérieure d'électricité et de mécanique de Nancy) - Master of Science from Philadelphia University - IAE (Aix-en-Provence Institute of Business Administration)
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Bruno VERGNES: Research Director - MINES ParisTech, PSL Research University, CEMEF (Centre de Mise en Forme des Matériaux), UMR CNRS 7635, Sophia Antipolis, France
INTRODUCTION
Mixing several polymers together, or blending a polymer with mineral fillers, reinforcing fibers or chemical reagents, makes it possible to obtain new properties (thermal and/or electrical conductivity, barrier properties, flame retardancy, etc.) or improve existing ones (particularly mechanical properties).
Mixing polymers and fillers usually involves two quite different operations:
reduce the size of the entities to be dispersed, i.e. break up the mineral fillers or nodules of the minority polymer phase: this is known as dispersive mixing;
then distribute these entities as homogeneously as possible within the polymer matrix: this is known as distributive mixing.
To perform these operations, it is necessary to create complex flows within the tooling, inducing high levels of stress without degrading the polymer matrix. The corresponding processes can be either discontinuous (internal mixers) or continuous (extruders).
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KEYWORDS
distribution | polymer | dispersion | filler | fiber
Mixing operations in polymer transformation processes
Different blending concepts
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