Cognis Corporation

Darmesh Chovatia

Rainer Hoefer

Shailesh C Shah

George Roth

Shruti Singhal

John E Nowicki

The invention relates to a process for producing a polymer or copolymer from monomer material comprising an acrylate, methacrylate, or mixture of such monomers, which comprises the steps of: (a) charging into a continuous tube reactor a feedstock comprising said monomer material and a polymerization initiator; (b) maintaining a flow rate of said material through the reactor at a reaction temperature in the reactor and under pressure sufficient to provide a residence time of the feedstock in the reactor during which polymerization will occur, to form a resin product in the reactor, and said resulting resin product comprising unreacted monomer, and (c) devolatilizing said resin product exiting the reactor to remove unreacted monomers, to provide a substantially monomer-free resin product. Further, the invention relates to resin product made by the process. In particular, the invention relates to resin that has a weight average molecular weight of 10,000 or less, and a glass transition temperature of less than 0&deg; C., preferably &minus;20&deg; C. or lower. The resin product of the invention is particularly useful as an additive for coating and casting resin systems.

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Bensalem, PA, United States of America

Darmesh Chovatia