General Electric Company

Gregory R Prince

Chen-Youn Sue

Robert E Koch

John E Pace

Stephen Michael Campbell

A method is provided for continuous mass polymerization of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene type thermoplastics. The method involves charging a liquid feed comprising a vinylidene aromatic monomer, an unsaturated vinyl nitrile monomer and a synthetic butadiene polymer dissolved therein into a grafting reactor to prereact the liquid mass to form grafted rubber continuous phase polymeric product. The product from the grafting reactor is then charged to a phase inversion reactor where free rigid copolymer in monomer is the only continuous phase, and where dispersed particles of grafted rubber with occluded rigid copolymer and monomer are immediately formed from the product of the grafting reactor. The second polymerization product, which is coming out from the phase inversion reactor, is then charged to a finishing reactor wherein the material is further polymerized to form a third polymerization product which then can be devolatilized to provide a final thermoplastic composition. The process of the present invention provides unique capacity and flexibility in controlling and adjusting rubber grafting and rubber particle morphology. Process conditions can be controlled to produce a high gloss or a low gloss resin product.

Grafting, phase-inversion and cross-linking controlled multi-stage bulk

A bulk process is provided for making maleimide copolymers. The process involves reacting a monomer mixture comprising a maleimide monomer compound, a vinyl aromatic compound and a vinyl cyanide compound in a continuous stirred tank reactor, and then further reacting the material in a plug flow reactor to obtain a desired conversion level, and then devolatizing the product. The process provides enhanced oligomer control and enhanced levels of glass transition temperature and other properties. The maleimide copolymer obtained by the process may be further blended with impact modifiers to produce thermoplastic compositions which are useful for making molded articles such as automotive parts for under the hood applications, such as distributor caps.

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Sandyville, WV, United States of America

Gregory R Prince