Fabrication of highly expanded thermoplastic polyurethane foams using microcellular injection molding and gas‐laden pellets. Issue 11 (11th August 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sun, Xiaofei; Kharbas, Hrishikesh; Turng, Lih‐Sheng
• Is Part Of: Polymer engineering & science. Volume 55:Issue 11(2015:Nov.)
• Page Start: 2643
• Page End: 2652
• Publication Date: 2015-08-11
• Subjects: Polymer engineering -- Periodicals; Polymers -- Periodicals; 668.9
• DOI: 10.1002/pen.24157
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0032-3888

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) is one of the most widely used and versatile thermoplastic materials. TPU foams have been extensively applied in various industries including the furniture, automotive, sportswear, and packaging industries. In this study, two methods of producing highly expanded TPU injection molded foam were investigated: (1) microcellular injection molding (MIM) with N₂ as a blowing agent, and (2) a novel gas‐laden pellet/MIM combined process with N₂ and CO₂ as co‐blowing agents. Two designs of experiments (DOEs) were performed to learn the influences of key processing parameters and to optimize foam quality. By using N₂ and CO₂ as co‐blowing agents, a bulk density as low as 0.20 g/cm³ was successfully achieved with a hysteresis compression loss of 24.4%. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 55:2643–2652, 2015. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers</p> </abstract>