Other

Marshall and Williams Company

Theodore Robert Coburn

James Edward Kilcoyne

A polymeric film and method for making the film. Mixing a structural material with a secondary material to form a unitary mixture prior to processing forms the film. For a printable film, the secondary material is a printable material. The unitary mixture is extruded and heated so as to cause the printable material to bloom to the surface of the mixture. The result is a film that is stiffer and that lays flatter than prior multi-layered films that were prone to curling. The rollers used to stretch the film during this heat-setting stage are preferably very smooth so as to enhance the transverse-direction strength and stiffness of the film. In another embodiment of the invention, the secondary material is a clarity-enhancing material that may be styrene-ethylene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer. The blend combination is a suitable replacement for polyvinyl chloride films in that it is soft, conformable, flexible and clear.

High bi-directional strength monolayer polymeric film and method of fabrication

A monolayer printable polymeric film and method for making the film. The film is formed by mixing a structural material, such as polypropylene or polyethylene, with a printable material, such as vinyl-acetate or methacrylate, to form a unitary mixture prior to processing. The unitary mixture is extruded and heated so as to cause the printable material to bloom to the surface of the unitary mixture. Stretching of the mixture at temperatures greater than permissible for multi-layered films formed of separate structural and printable materials heat sets and relaxes or stress relieves the film that is formed. The result is a monolayer film that is stiffer and that lays much flatter than the prior multi-layered films that were prone to curling. The mixture is preferably heated to 270.degree. F. or greater during the stretching process.

Monolayer polymeric film and method of fabrication

The invention comprises a process and apparatus for applying conductive heat to plastic film tapes in a stabilizing unit containing a plurality of rollers forming sets of rollers. Each roller in the set rotates progressively slower than the preceding adjacent roller. Some rollers have heated surfaces to reheat and heat soften the plastic film. Some rollers have cold surfaces to set the film. The progressively slower rotation of the rollers allows the film to release the stresses imparted to the film during the initial stretching operation. In so doing, the molecules rearrange themselves to provide an increased degree of tensile strength in the tapes. The reheating of the film causes shrinkage. However, the progressively slower rotation of adjacent rollers controls the degree of shrinkage and holds the shrinkage to a minimum.

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Coventry, RI, United States of America

Theodore Robert Coburn