Influence of low density polyethylene quality on extrusion coating processability

In order to obtain explicit information about the influence of different low density polyethylene (LDPE) quality parameters on extrusion coating processability, a test run was made with an autoclave reactor and the products were investigated. All the grades manufactured had melt indices (MI), densities, molecular weight distributions (MWD), and degrees of long chain branching(LCB) typical of commercial extrusion coating grades. The processability characteristics studied were maximum line speed and neck-in. The influence of MI, density, and extrusion melt temperature were systematically investigated. It was found that the maximum line speed rose with increasing MI, density, and extrusion melt temperature, and that an increasing extrusion melt temperature led to a growing difference between the maximum line speed at a constant coating thickness and the maximum line speed at a constant screw speed. Neck-in was found to increase with increasing MI, increasing density, and increasing coating thickness. These effects were more pronounced at higher extrusion melt temperatures. When using the extrusion temperature needed to achieve a certain line speed for each grade, the influence of MI on neck-in was practically non-existent.