| Abstract: | In this article, we investigate the effect of weld lines on the tensile mechanical properties of unmodified and copolymer modified high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polystyrene (PS) blends. The homopolymers were melt blended in the proportion of 20 wt% HDPE and 80 wt% PS using a twin screw extruder at a temperature of 200°C. The results show that the mechanical properties are generally lower when weld lines are present. The decrease of the mechanical properties is much more pronounced for the blends. The addition of small amounts of a commercial styrene/butadiene copolymer significantly improves the strength and the elongation at break of this blend. An optimum copolymer concentration was observed at 3 wt%. This value coincides with the interphase saturation concentration of the copolymer obtained from the analysis of the DMTA (dynamic mechanical and thermal) properties of the blends. The copolymer was also found to induce important changes in the morphology of the blend. The interdiffusion of the polymer fronts in the weld region was also improved by the presence of the copolymer. It is believed that these two aspects contribute to the enhanced properties obtained with copolymer modified blends in presence of weld lines. An important effect of the injection temperature on the tensile strength and the elongation at break of welded samples with copolymer modified blends was observed. The effect of mold temperature on these properties was less important mainly at low injection temperatures. Only a slight effect of these two parameters was observed for the tensile modulus in the range of mold and injection temperatures considered in this study. |
