Morphological and mechanical property studies of polymer extrudates obtained by the rotational extrusion process

Abstract

The orientation of the reinforcing fibers in glass fiber filled polypropylene tubular extrudates has been controlled effectively by the superposition of the linear flow in a melt extruder with torsional flow generated by rotating the capillary portion of the extrusion die of the extruder. The so produced extrudates have mechanical properties which can be balanced along the hoop and extrusion direction by adjusting the extrusion rate and the rotational speed of the die for example, the breaking load of 75N along the hoop direction increases by ∼40% when the capillary of the die was rotated at 80 rpm. At the same time the Young's modulus in the extrusion direction decreased from 1100 MPa under conventional extrusion conditions to 800 MPa. Copyright © 1989 Society of Plastics Engineers