Saudi Basic Industries Corporation

Other

Dow Global Technolgoies LLC

Arterius Limited

Glen Peter Thompson

Ian MacMillan Ward

Phil Caton-Rose

Philip D Coates

Kevin Louis Nichols

Zahir Bashir

Brett M Birchmeier

Anthony Paul Unwin

Rajen M Patel

Martin H Tusim

Kadem Al-Lamee

Adrian Kelly

Vijay Wani

Kevin L Nichols

Ian M Ward

Bioresorbable polymeric tubes suitable for use in a stent have been produced by a using a die drawing technique, comprising: &#x2014;deforming an orientable, thermoplastic polymer tubing () in the solid phase by drawing it over a mandrel () and/or through a die (), where the mandrel () has a lead end and an exit end and the die () has an entry side and an exit side, wherein a drawing mechanism applies a drawing tension to the tubing () from the exit end of the mandrel () and/or the exit side of the die (), said tension being insufficient to cause tensile failure of the tubing but sufficient to deform the tubing, thereby drawing the tubing over the mandrel () and/or through the die () in the solid phase to induce uniaxial or biaxial orientation of the polymer; and &#x2014;collecting the deformed tubing from the exit end of the mandrel () and/or the exit side of the die ().

Method of producing a tube for use in the formation of a stent, and such tube

The invention relates to a process for making an opaque and glossy film from a thermoplastic polyester composition, comprising the steps of a) extruding the polyester composition through a slot die, and quenching to form a substantially amorphous film having a crystallinity of at most 5%; b) rapidly heating the amorphous film to a drawing temperature in the range from Tto (T+50)&#xb0; C. while applying a draw ratio in the range of from &#x3bb;to &#x3bb;in longitudinal direction, and a drawing rate of at least 1 m/min to form an oriented film showing stress-whitening, wherein &#x3bb;is the draw ratio at which a transfer from a transparent product to a stress-whitened product occurs and &#x3bb;is the draw ratio at which failure of the stress whitened film occurs; and c) heat-setting the oriented stress-whitened film; the thermoplastic polyester composition substantially consisting of at least one crystallizable polyester derived from at least one aliphatic diol and at least one aromatic dicarboxylic acid. With this process it is possible to make a unitary, glossy, opaque film from a polyester composition that does not contain void-forming additives like high amounts of fine pigment particles or dispersed non-miscible polymer particles. The film obtained also has very good mechanical properties. It is a further advantage that the process can be performed continuously on conventional extrusion and stretching equipment used for making transparent film from polyesters. The invention also relates to an opaque polyester film obtainable by said process.

Process for making opaque polyester film

The invention relates to a Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container (FIBC) having a body made of flexible woven fabric, and integral handling devices, wherein the fabric is woven from opaque oriented polyethylene terephthalate (PET) strips having a density of from 500 to 1300 kg/mand a tensile strength of at least 250 MPa. Advantages of said FIBC include directly printability with the usual type of inks, giving excellent contrast and good adhesion, without pre-treatment like a corona- or flame-treatment. The FIBC based on the PET fabric also shows higher gloss; better UV resistance; better mechanical properties, like high tensile strength and creep resistance; favorable abrasion resistance; and higher temperature resistance than a conventional big bag based on polypropylene strips. The invention further relates to such a FIBC based on stress-whitened PET tapes obtained by a special drawing process.

Flexible intermediate bulk container

An oriented polymer composition containing thirty to 95 weight-percent inert inorganic filler and a continuous phase of at least one orientable polymer contains void spaces due to cavitation and has a density of less than 0.8 grams per cubic centimeter, a flexural modulus of 1.4 gigapascals or more, cross section dimensions all greater than 1.5 millimeters, a delamination force value of 44.5 Newtons (ten pounds force) or more and little or no blowing agent.

Low density oriented polymer composition with inert inorganic filler

An inventive solid state drawing die has shaping walls that define a shaping channel and that, in the course of solid state drawing, direct polymer composition along a drawing path. Each cross section of the drawing path (and, hence, polymer composition in the drawing path) is non-circular, substantially proportional to one another, contains a centroid that lies on a substantially straight line parallel to the drawing direction and all cross sectional dimensions are 1.5 millimeters or more.

Substantially proportional drawing die for polymer compositions

Growing community of inventors

Bradford, United Kingdom

Glen Peter Thompson