Polymer Processing Additives to Enlarge the Process Window for Polyolefins Extrusion, 2003 European PLACE Conference Proceedings

Fluoropolymer based polymer processing additives (PPA) are frequently used in the plastics industry for the processing of polyethylene and polypropylene.

The use of PPA is not anymore limited to blown film extrusion exclusively: nowadays fluoropolymers are widely used in film production, pipe extrusion, blow molding, wire and cable production, coextrusion, fiber spinning... using LLDPE, MDPE, HDPE, and PP. Recently this list is even extended to non-polyolefins.

Besides for the problem solving of phenomena as melt fracture and die build-up, PPAs are widely used to optimise the process conditions in a wide range of applications without having to make compromises on the properties of the final products.

The objective of this paper is to give some insight to the mechanism of fluoropolymer-based polymer processing additives (PPA), the benefits that PPA users will experience. This paper explores technical experiments showing how Dynamar™ PPAs will improve the various aspects of polyethylene extrusion, which results in a broader processing window for the plastic converter and a higher productivity.