Synergistic effect of self‐assembling nucleating agent and crystallization promoter on polypropylene random copolymer pipes via rotation extrusion

In this study, high hoop tensile strength and toughness polypropylene random copolymer (PPR) pipes were successfully prepared through rotation extrusion and synergistic effect of self‐assembling nucleating agent (TMB‐5) and crystallization promoter (isotactic polypropylene, iPP). The result indicated low temperature toughness of PPR pipes could be improved by incorporating TMB‐5 and iPP, as the result of highly improved PPR crystallization capability and abundant β‐form crystal production. Both molecular chains and anisotropic crystallites deviated off the axial direction due to the hoop stress generated by rotation extrusion, leading to increased hoop orientation and pronouncing enhancement in hoop strength. Accordingly, the hoop tensile strength and impact strength of the modified PPR pipe reached 28.9MPa and 5.7kJ/m², increased by 126% and 43% compared to the convention‐extruded PPR pipe. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 56:866–873, 2016. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Joint effects of rotational extrusion and TiO2 on performance and antimicrobial properties of extruded polypropylene copolymer pipes

In this study, effects of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and rotation extrusion on structures and properties of polypropylene random copolymer (PPR) pipes were investigated. The experimental results showed that with the presence of TiO₂, not only the antibacterial ability of PPR pipe was improved significantly but also the toughness was enhanced since a large number of PP chains were promoted to crystallize into β‐form crystals. Furthermore, when rotation extrusion was introduced into the process of PPR pipe, the drag hoop flow caused by mandrel and die rotation was superposed on the axial flow, so the polymer melts in the annulus underwent a helical flow and its flow direction deviated from the axis to drive the molecular orientation off the axial direction, bringing out the increased hoop strength. As a result, PPR pipe with excellent performance was prepared under the combined effect of rotation extrusion and TiO₂. The antibacterial activity was 99.2%, the hoop tensile strength reached 27.5 MPa, 67.7% higher than that of the convention‐extruded PPR pipe with TiO₂, and the impact strength was 10.9 kJ/m², increased by 81.6% compared to that of the rotation‐extruded pure PPR pipe. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42410.     

Effect of annular expansion pipe extruder head on mechanical properties of pipes

With polymer pipes being used more commonly, performance requirements are increasing. Studies on the enhancement of mechanical properties of polymer pipes are particularly important. In this study, a self-designed annular expansion pipe extruder head was used to enhance the mechanical properties of HDPE pipes. Different morphologies of the HDPE pipes were produced under different processing conditions. When the extrusion angle was 30° (P30), the best mechanical properties were obtained. The hoop tensile strength and axial tensile strength were 14.5% and 41.0% higher, respectively, compared with the specimen without expansion (P0). This improvement of mechanical properties can be attributed to several reasons. First, the processing parameters of P30 reached the threshold shear rate and strain for shish-kebab formation, as shown by scanning electron microscopy. Second, P30 has the highest orientation parameter and crystallinity of 0.679 and 67.27%, respectively, from 2D wide-angle diffraction (WAXD). Polarized FTIR shows the same trend as 2D-WAXD. Third, the outer bamboo-like self-reinforced structure is formed inside the pipe at 30° expansion angle while the core layer has a well-formed crystal structure; the special structure improves the overall performance of HDPE pipe. This method can be utilized in large-scale industrial production.     

High-density polyethylene pipe with high resistance to slow crack growth prepared via rotation extrusion

Slow crack growth (SCG) is one failure principal mode in polyethylene (PE) pressure pipe applications. In the conventional extrusion process, the molecular chains in the plastic pipes are oriented along the axial direction, which are disadvantageous to their resistance to SCG. In order to change the orientation direction of molecules in the plastic pipe, a new rotation extrusion processing system was designed to extrude high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes, and a thorough research was done on the effect of the rotation speed on its microstructure and resistance to SCG during the rotation extrusion. The experimental results showed that when the die rotated during the extrusion process of PE pipes, the hoop stress exerted on the polymer melt could make the molecular orientation deviate from the axial direction, and therefore the consequent multi-axial orientation of molecular chains could be obtained. As a result, the PE pipe with better resistance to SCG was prepared. Compared to the PE pipe produced by the conventional extrusion, the crack initiation time of the PE pipe manufactured by the novel method increased from 27 to 57 h.     

Effect of the inner wall cooling rate on the structure and properties of a polyethylene pipe extruded at a high rotation speed

A novel rotation extrusion processing system was self‐designed to prepare high‐performance polyethylene (PE) pipes. In this study, during the extrusion of the PE pipes at a high mandrel rotation speed, compressed air, as a cooling medium, was introduced through their interior to achieve the quick cooling of the inner wall and the effects of the inner wall cooling rate on the microstructure and mechanical properties of the obtained PE pipes were investigated. The experimental results showed that in contrast to conventional extrusion, the molecular orientation deviated from the axial direction under a high mandrel rotation speed and was fixed by the inner wall cooling; with increasing cooling rate, the orientation degree also increased. On the other hand, cooling promoted the augmentation of spherulites. So when the cooling rate reached a certain high point, the effect of cooling on the formation of spherulites was stronger than that on the fixation of the orientation. A much higher cooling rate decreased the orientation degree, which was closely related to the performance of the PE pipe. As a result, there was an optimal cooling rate of the inner wall during the rotation extrusion for better performance of the PE pipe. When the cooling rate was 1.5°C/s, the hoop strength of the PE pipe produced by the novel extrusion method increased from the original 24.1 MPa up to 37.1 MPa without a decrease in the axial strength, and the pipe's crack initiation time increased from 27 to 70 h. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

A coextrusion process for the manufacture of short-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic pipe

The advantageous use of short-fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (SFRTP) resins in the manufacture of pipe requires that the fiber orientation be controlled and that the surface finish not be adversely affected by the presence of the fibers. It is proposed here that a coextrusion process be combined with the use of a Specially designed, expanding channel die to achieve these objectives. Conventional pipe dies tend to promote the axial orientation of fibers, which has an undesirable effect on the hoop properties of pipe. The use of an expanding channel die promotes fiber orientation in the hoop direction. However, even in this case, there is still a strong component of the shear field near the wall of the die, and in this region, axial orientation still predominates, The use of a three-layer, coextrusion process in which unreinforced resin is used for both the inner and outer layers makes it possible to minimize the shear effects on the fiber orientation in the middle SFRTP layer. At the same time, it provides a smooth, fiber-free pipe surface. A theoretical analysis of this process is presented. The analysis shows that the presence of unreinforced surface layers increases the level and uniformity of fiber orientation. The results of an experimental study of fiber orientation in the middle SFRTP layer are found to be in qualitative agreement with the predictions of the theory.     

Morphology and property of polyethylene pipe extruded at the low mandrel rotation

During the rotation extrusion of polyethylene (PE) pipes, with the rotating mandrel, compressed air as a cooling medium was introduced through their interior to achieve the quick cooling of the inner wall. The experimental results showed that the hoop stress exerted by mandrel rotation could promote the molecular orientation in the hoop direction; moreover, the introduction of compressed air could quicken its inner wall's cooling rate so as to slow down the relaxation of the oriented molecule and to reserve the orientation structure. Therefore, the hoop orientation degree increased with the increasing inner wall's cooling rate. As a result, the performance of the PE pipe was greatly enhanced. The hoop tensile strength of the PE pipe produced by the novel extrusion method increased from original 24.1 MPa up to 35 MPa; the pipe's crack initiation time increased from 27 to 60 h and the crack growth rate slowed down. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 50:1743–1750, 2010. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Effect of rotation extrusion and molecular weight on ductile failure of polyethylene pipes under hydrostatic pressure

ABSTRACT

In this study, two kinds of polyethylene (PE) with different molecular weight were processed into the pipes via rotation extrusion and the failure behaviours under hydrostatic pressure as well as molecular relaxation were investigated. The experimental results showed that the high molecular weight PE exhibited slower relaxation behaviour with higher relaxation activation energy to facilitate the formation of shish-kebab under flow field, while for the low molecular weight one, the stretching molecules easily relaxed back coil state and spherulites were prone to form. Therefore, the low molecular weight PE pipes via convention and rotation extrusions had similar isotropic spherulite morphology and short failure times. In the case of high molecular weight PE, during the convention extrusion, polymer melts flowed along the axial direction to induce the alignment of shish-kebab accordingly, which went against to the hoop stress in hydrostatic pressure. With the rotation of mandrel and die, the direction deviated from the axis so that PE pipe exhibited better resistance to the hoop stress. The failure time was 182?h, 264% longer than the convention-extruded one. Accordingly, a new strategy to prepare high hydrostatic pressure PE pipe under cooperative effects of rotation extrusion and long molecular relaxation time was proposed.     

Continuously enhanced hoop strength of rotation-extruded polypropylene pipe via self-assembly β nucleating agent with different aspect ratio

Self-assembling β nucleating agents (TMB-5) and self-designed rotation extrusion device were applied to optimize and control over hoop strength of polypropylene (PP) pipes. By adjusting final heating temperature, TMB-5 efficiently self-assembled into fibrous morphology with controllable aspect ratio, and acted as an oriented template to direct the epitaxial crystallization of PP, into β-crystals with various lamellae-stacking patterns. The obtained structural information clearly demonstrated that enlarging the aspect ratio of TMB-5 could increase the ordering index and packing intensity of lamellae, moreover, impose them transforming from random arrangement to axial-orientation and then to orthogonal orientation. Among them, the anisotropic ones were further guided to align off the axial-direction of PP pipes via rotation extrusion, where the hoop drag flow caused by the mandrel rotation was superposed on the axial flow. As a result, the hoop tensile strength was enhanced monotonously from 21.3 MPa to 30 MPa for the rotation extruded PP pipes with increasing the aspect ratio of TMB-5.     

气膜润滑剪切机头及其在短纤维增强胶管中的应用

气膜润滑是挤出时在胶料和口型壁之间形成一层很薄的空气膜，不仅可以降低流动阻力，提高挤出量，同时也可降低挤出膨胀。在短纤维增强胶管挤出中可以通过内芯旋转使短纤维沿周向取向以提高爆破强度，但也因内芯旋转使挤出物扭转造成挤出不稳定。利用气膜润滑技术设计制造的气膜润滑剪切机头，成功地解决了由于内芯旋转而产生的挤出扭转造成的挤出不稳定现象。通过流场分析计算，从理论上预测了利用气膜润滑消除物料旋转的可行性。介绍了用气膜润滑剪切机头制造短纤维增强胶管的实验结果。     

Control of rotation extrusion over shish‐kebab crystal alignment in polyethylene pipe and its effect on the pipe's crack resistance

A self‐designed rotation extrusion system was adopted to extrude polyethylene (PE) pipe. The experimental results showed that when the mandrel and die rotated in the same directions during the PE pipe extrusion, apart from the axial stress, all polymer melts in PE pipes were also subjected to the hoop stress so that the formed shish‐kebab crystal in the whole pipe deviated from the axial direction greatly, which was further fixed by the double cooling on both inner and outer walls. As a result, the PE pipe with better resistance to slow crack growth was prepared. As compared to the PE pipe produced by the convention extrusion, the crack initiation time of the PE pipe manufactured by the novel method increased from 27 to 174 h, by 544%. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

The Effect of Rotational Extrusion on the Structure and Properties of HDPE Pipes

High density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes were prepared using a novel rotational extrusion processing system. The experimental results showed that the hoop stress exerted by either mandrel rotation or die rotation could have the macromolecular chains oriented in hoop direction and alter the crystallization behavior of HDPE during rotational extrusion, resulting in forming transcrystals with larger crystalline size, thicker lamellae, higher Tm. Therefore, the mechanical properties of HDPE pipes were greatly improved in hoop direction, which was attributed to the changes of the crystalline morphology and the molecular orientation under the action of the hoop stress field.     

A mandrel-rotating die to produce high-hoop-strength HDPE pipe by self-reinforcement

This article provides a method to obtain high-hoop-strength high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe by mandrel-rotating extrusion. With properly selected processing temperature, pressure, and mandrel-rotating speed, the hoop strength of 90 Mpa has been got. Differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray scattering found the great strength enhancement was owning to high degree of macromolecular orientation in circumferential direction and the shish-kebab structure. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 69: 323–328, 1998     

Flow induced fiber orientation in an expanding channel tubing dies

In the application of plastic pipes for fluid transport and for the protection of underground electrical cables, it is desirable to improve mechanical properties, particularly in the hoop direction. The use of orientable reinforcing particles such as chopped glass fibers could make possible such an improvement if the orientation of the fibers could be controlled. While conventional pipe extrusion dies tend to promote axial fiber orientation, the use of an expanding channel die has been proposed to produce a preferential hoop orientation of fibers. In this paper, a theoretical model of the flow of a fiber suspension through an expanding channel die that predicts the fiber orientation distribution at the die exit is described. The effects of Theological properties and die geometry on the final fiber orientation distribution are predicted. The results of an experimental study of fiber orientation in pipe extruded using an expanding channel die are shown to be in agreement with the theoretical predictions.     

Effect of vibration extrusion on the structure and properties of high‐density polyethylene pipes

BACKGROUND: The axial strength of a plastic pipe is much higher than its circumferential strength due to the macromolecular orientation during extrusion. In this work, a custom‐made electromagnetic dynamic plasticating extruder was adopted to extrude high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes. A vibration force field was introduced into the whole plasticating and extrusion process by axial vibration of the screw. The aim of superimposing a vibration force field was to change the crystalline structure of HDPE and improve the molecular orientation in the circumferential direction to obtain high‐circumferential‐strength pipes. RESULTS: Through vibration extrusion, the circumferential strength of HDPE pipes increased significantly, and biaxial self‐reinforcement pipes could be obtained. The maximum increase of bursting pressure and tensile yield strength was 34.2 and 5.3%, respectively. According to differential scanning calorimetry and wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction measurements, the HDPE pipes prepared by vibration extrusion had higher crystallinity, higher melting temperature, larger crystal sizes and more perfect crystals. CONCLUSION: Vibration extrusion can effectively enhance the mechanical properties of HDPE pipes, especially the circumferential strength. The improvement of mechanical properties of HDPE pipes obtained by vibration extrusion can be attributed to the higher degree of crystallinity and the improvement of the molecular orientation and of the crystalline morphology. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

单向拉伸流场中挤出双向自增强透明HDPE管材

采用普通的工业用挤出设备，通过对加工参数的特殊控制，在单向拉伸流场中制得透明双向增强高密度聚乙烯管材，其轴向拉伸强度比普通高密度聚乙烯管材提高了3．2倍，周向拉伸强度提高了1．4倍。利用SEM，DSC等测试手段对管材的微观结构进行了表征，揭示了管材双向自增强的原因是形成了串晶互锁结构，管材透明的原因是晶粒尺寸比可见光的波长小。     

聚丙烯/玻纤缠绕复合管的制备与应用

以聚丙烯管为内衬，表面经处理后，缠绕浸胶玻纤，形成独特的聚丙烯／玻纤缠绕复合管。该复合管材的轴向拉伸强度、轴向压缩强度和界面剪切强度分别大于130MPa、150MPa及8MPa。实际使用表明，该复合管具有良好的耐化学药品性、耐热性，力学强度高，密度小，而且施工简便，使用寿命长，可代替不锈钢等金属管。     

复合应力场下挤出HDPE增强管材性能的研究

用自行研制的能产生先剪切后拉伸的复合应力场挤出成型装置，挤出高密度聚乙烯（HDPE）管材，对管材周向、轴向力学性能进行了初步的研究。与一般牌号为DGDA6098的HDPE比，在HDPE中添加高相对分子质量高密度聚乙烯（HMWHDPE）后，发现HMWHDPE能够诱导HDPE沿应力场方向产生大分子取向和结晶。利用差示扫描量热仪（DSC）和扫描电镜（SEM）检测手段对试样的凝聚态结构进行分析，证实了复合应力场下制备的自增强管材双向力学性能都提高了。     

Annular expansion for enhanced orientation and mechanical properties of extruded amorphous PPESK/PES pipes

With the discovery of deeper oil fields, conventional metal pumping pipes have been proven to be ineffective in meeting the requirements for deep well oil production due to their high weights and limited corrosion resistance. Therefore, in this study, a composite of Poly(phthalazinone ether sulfone ketone) (PPESK) and polyethersulfone (PES) was used to fabricate nonmetal pipes. To enhance the mechanical properties of the PPESK/PES pipes, a self-designed annular expansion pipe extruder head was used. The circumferential burst stress and axial tensile strength of the PPESK/PES pipes subjected to 30° expansion were 73.0% and 48.9% higher than those of the unexpanded sample, respectively. When annular expansion was integrated into the extrusion of PPESK/PES/carbon fiber pipes, the axial tensile strength and circumferential burst stress were 45.9% and 88.8% higher than those of the unexpanded sample, respectively. Results of polarized infrared testing and metallographic microscopic examinations demonstrated that molecular chains present a regular orientation at a certain angle to the extrusion direction, under the effect of annular expansion extrusion. These findings highlight the efficiency of annular expansion in promoting the large-scale production of pipes.     

Failure and stress analysis of internal pressurized composite pipes joined with sleeves

Failure and stress analyses were carried out for composite pipes adhesively joined with sleeves subjected to internal pressure. In the study, the composite pipes and sleeves were E glass fiber/epoxy with different fiber orientation angles. Circular pieces cut from four layered composite pipes with different orientation angle were used as sleeves. Composite pipes with different orientation angle were bonded using DP410 and DP490 type adhesives. The codes of a numerical model were generated via ANSYS software package for the numerical analyses, and the numerical results were verified using experimental results. The problems were analyzed by using a calculation method based on finite elements method (FEM). The finite element analyses (FEA) were carried out to predict the failure internal pressure. Radial, tangential, axial and shear stress values were obtained via numerical analyses for composite pipes and adhesive layers in the thickness direction. In addition, Von–Mises stress distributions that develop on the adhesive were obtained as well. The effects of orientation angle, sleeve length and adhesive type on strength of composite pipe and bonded zone were examined. The results showed that the adhesive type has higher effect on the strength of bonded composite pipes when compared with orientation angle and sleeve length. In addition, increase in sleeve length increased the failure internal pressure.