Standard Oil Company (Indiana)

Donald B Emery

William M Herring

Brian C Connolly

A process for the manufacture of extruded articles by extruding polyamide-imide polymers and copolymers through melt flow channels and extrusion dies at ever increasing shear rates ranging from 0.1 sec.sup.-1 to about 2000 sec.sup.-1. The extruder barrel and melt flow channel temperatures range from about 480.degree. to about 600.degree. F. and the extrusion die temperatures range from about 575.degree. to about 680.degree. F. Also, the addition of polyetherimides and polysulfones is disclosed. Thin films, thin sheets and hollow tubes are disclosed. All these articles are useful in engineering applications requiring high temperature resistant plastics. Useful applications include use in the aerospace and automobile industry.

Process for extruding an article from an amide-imide copolymer and the

The continuous in-line melt flow rate control system (40; 100) is coupled to a mixer/extruder system (10; 97) including a polymer, stabilizer and degradent feeding system (12, 16, 18; 102) supplying mixed materials to the inlet end of an extruder (24; 108) having a die head (26) at the outlet end thereof. The control system (40; 100) is coupled between a rheometer (42; 112) which monitors a slip stream (46; 110) of melt from the extruder (24; 108) and a ratio controller (48; 93) in the feeding system (12, 16, 18; 102). The control system (40; 100) includes a rheometer (42; 112) which monitors the viscosity of the slip stream of melt from the extruder (24; 108) upstream from the die head (26) and converts the monitored viscosity value to a process signal (F) and a controller (44; 84; 101) that compares the process signal (F) with a set point value (A) related to a target melt flow rate and generates a correction signal (B, C, D) when there is a difference between the process signal (F) and the set point value (A). The correction signal (D) is supplied to the degradent ratio controller (48; 93) for adjusting the amount of degradent added to the polymer fed to the extruder (24; 108) in response to the deviation of the process signal (F) from the set point value (A).

Growing community of inventors

Warrenville, IL, United States of America

Donald B Emery