The Dow Chemical Company

Dow Global Technolgoies LLC

Dow Deutschland Inc.

Chau Van Vo

Andrew N Paquet

Mehmet Demirors

William Jack Kruper, Jr

Kyung W Suh

Zenon Lysenko

Duane R Romer

Bruce Bell

William Gerald Stobby

Jerry L Hahnfeld

Myron J Maurer

John Gordon-Duffy

Deborah L Kocsis

Inken Beulich

Georges Eschenlauer

David R Arrowsmith

Jeffrey John Mason

Tomas I Binder

Steven B Swartzmiller

Duane B Priddy, Sr

Daniel D Imeokparia

Lawrence S Hood

William C Pike

Gavin D Vogel

Gary C Welsh

Charles A Berglund

Felix Achille

Kenji Matsue

John D Duffy

Peter Hendrikus Vollenberg

Jozef Julius Sleeckx

Itsuki Nakatani

George A Mackey

Masayuki Wakabayashi

Marisa Calhoun

Simon P Lee

Sylvie Boukami

Marisa L Calhoun

David Arrowsmith

William Kruyper

John Duffy

David J Frankowski

David Richard Arrowsmith

Bruce M Bell

William J Kruyper

Extruded polymer foams are prepared using brominated fatty acids, an ester, amide or ester-amide of a brominated fatty acid, a glyceride of one or more brominated fatty acids, or a polymerized brominated fatty acid as an FR additive. The brominated FR additives unexpectedly are stable at the extrusion temperatures, and provide excellent flame retardancy to the foams.

Extruded polymer foams containing brominated fatty acid-based flame retardant additives

Cushions for dynamic impact applications include anisotropic cellular polymers made in an extrusion, expanded bead or reactive foaming process. The anisotropic behavior represented by C/C, C/Cand C/C, wherein C, Cand Crepresent the compressive strength of the cellular polymer in each of three orthogonal directions E, V and H, respectively, as measured by compressing a 25-50 mm thick sample of the cellular polymer at a strain rate of 0.08 sto 25% strain, Crepresents the sum of C, Cand C, and at least one of C/C, C/Cand C/Chas a value of at least 0.40, up to about 0.80. The cellular polymer also preferably has density of 1.75 to 2.35 pounds/cubic foot and a compressive stress in the direction of maximum compressive strength of 290-600 kPa at 25% strain when used for headliner countermeasure applications. The cushions are useful in automotive applications such as automotive headliners, door panels, knee bolsters, pillars, headrests, seat backs, load floors or instrument panels.

Impact-absorbing members for dynamic impact applications

Polymer foam containing styrene-acrylonitrile and containing one or more infrared attenuating agents achieves surprisingly high dimensional integrity at elevated temperatures.

Styrene acrylonitrile copolymer foam with infrared attenuating agents

The invention is an energy absorbing member comprising, an amorphous thermoplastic cellular polymer in contact with a structural element, wherein at least about 50% of the cells of the amorphous cellular polymer are closed cells and the closed cells have a gas pressure that is about 0.5 atmosphere to about 1.4 atmospheres at ambient temperature.

Foams for vehicular energy absorbance

Prepare a multimodal polymeric foam from a foamable composition containing a polymer, an absorbent clay, and a blowing agent composition containing water and carbon dioxide and that contains less than 0.2 parts by weight of bentonite based on 100 parts by weight of polymer.

Multimodal polymeric foam containing an absorbent clay

Extruded, substantially closed-polystyrene foams that exhibit improved fire resistance yet contain lower levels of brominated fire retardant are disclosed. Methods of preparing the foams, comprising extruding the polystyrene with a novel fire retardant formulation comprising a mixture of a) a phosphate compound, preferably TPP; b) less than about 2.5 percent HBCD based on 100 percent polystyrene; and optionally c) a flow promoter such as dimethyldiphenylbutane, the extrusion process using a blowing agent which is preferably selected from carbon dioxide, mixtures of two or more of carbon dioxide, water, alcohol, ether and hydrocarbons, or a mixture of hydrofluorocarbons, alcohols, and hydrocarbons, are also disclosed. Use of the phosphate compound in the fire retardant formulation allows a reduction in the amount of brominated compound required and a reduction in the foaming temperature, resulting in lower density foams.

Fire resistant styrene polymer foams with reduced brominated fire retardant

The present invention concerns foamed products having a plurality of coalesced extruded layers or layers of coalesced strands of a foamed thermoplastic composition having a low density.

Multilayer foams

This invention provides a thermoplastic polymer foam having a density of up to 800 kg/m,. The foam is made from a hydrogenated vinyl aromatic polymer that contains pendant cycloaliphatic groups. This polymer is conveniently made by hydrogenating a poly(vinyl aromatic) polymer such as polystyrene or a polystyrene-butadiene block copolymer. A suitable blowing agent is a mixture comprising (a) one or more fluorine-containing carbon compounds and (b) carbon dioxide, nitrogen, an alcohol having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a linear or cyclic hydrocarbon having from 1 to 6 carbon atoms, a ketone, an alkyl ether, an alkyl halide, water or a mixture thereof.

Hydrogenated vinyl aromatic polymer foams

The present invention relates to foamed products. More particularly, the present invention relates to foamed products comprising a plurality of coalesced extruded strands or profiles or layers of a foamed thermoplastic composition having a low density.

Method of forming low density strand foams

Monovinyl aromatic polymer compositions with high melt strength, good flow and good heat properties which are suitable for fast injection molding, blow molding and thermoforming applications, comprising non-linear monovinyl aromatic polymers and copolymers having comb-type structures with 3 branches, star type structures with 4 to 6 branches, and/or dendritic structures in which the branches themselves have attached branched units. These compositions possess inherent melt strength and can be blow molded or thermoformed without sagging or molded into articles in shorter cycle times using less material than linear monovinyl aromatic polymers and copolymers with the same flow and heat distortion temperatures. Also disclosed is a process for making high molecular weight branched monovinyl aromatic polymers, for example, Mw between 75,000 and 500,000, at high rates, comprising polymerizing pure styrene monomer or styrene monomer and polymerizable comonomer via a continuous free radial polymerization process using a peroxide initiator, for example, n-butyl tert-butyl peroxy fumarate, selected from a new class of vinyl peroxide initiators that contain both a copolymerizable double bond and an organic peroxide moiety.

Non-linear styrenic polymer compositions and articles prepared therefrom

Non-linear styrenic polymer-based foams

Disclosed is an extruded, linear, bimodal monovinyl aromatic polymer foam having a weight average molecular weight of from about 100,000 to about 200,000, greater than 5 percent by weight of its polymer chains having a weight average molecular weight of 500,000 to 1,000,000, and less than 5 percent by weight of its polymer chains having a weight average molecular weight of greater than 1,000,000. Use of the polymer enables process pressure drop to be significantly reduced and allows the formation of a foam of lower density and larger cross-section. Further disclosed is a process for making the extruded foam.

Extruded foams having a monovinyl aromatic polymer with a broad

A process for making a closed-cell, alkenyl aromatic polymer foam structure having enlarged cell size. An alkenyl aromatic polymer material is heated to form a melt polymer material. An amount of a non-waxy cell size enlarging agent is incorporated into the melt polymer material. The enlarging agent is present in an amount sufficient to enlarge the stabilized cell size of the formed foam structure by 20 percent or more over a corresponding foam structure made without the enlarging agent. Further, the enlarging agent is incorporated in a quantity such that the formed foam structure has physical properties substantially the same degree as the corresponding foam structure. A blowing agent is incorporated into the melt polymer material at an elevated pressure to form a foamable gel. The foamable gel is expanded in a zone of lower pressure to form the foam structure. Further, disclosed is a foam structure corresponding to the above.

Method of forming thermoplastic foams using cell size enlarging agents

Disclosed is a foamable styrenic polymer gel capable of forming a closed-cell foam structure, comprising: a) a flowable melt of a styrenic polymer material comprising greater than 50 percent by weight styrenic monomeric units and about 0.1 to about 40 percent by weight of oxygen-containing monomeric units based upon the total weight of the styrenic polymer material; and b) a blowing agent comprising about 5 weight percent or more carbon dioxide based upon the total weight of the blowing agent. Further disclosed is a process for making the foam structure. The oxygen-containing comonomer content in the styrenic polymer material enables process operating pressures to be significantly reduced when using carbon dioxide as a blowing agent compared to a styrenic polymer material without comonomer content. The foam structure formed is of low density and of good quality.

Foamable styrenic polymer gel having a carbon dioxide blowing agent and

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Souffelweyersheim, France

Chau Van Vo