Towards Consistency Control and Design of MF Resins, 1998 Plastic Laminates Symposium Proceedings

During the preparation of MF laminate resins melamine is dissolved in the formalin and successively condensed. Control of this condensation reaction enables command of, amongst others, the storage stability, impregnation behavior of the resin and processing to the laminate. I will discuss in this paper general tools for efficient production of MF resins with improved consistency. Determination of the end of the condensation process by means of measurement of the water tolerance of the resin is simple and remarkably accurate. This measurement is extremely temperature sensitive. Lack of control of the temperature has therefore profound effects on the storage stability of the resin since this property strongly depends on the extent of condensation. The time to condense resins to their final water tolerance values depends dramatically on the precise formulation and processing. I will present illustrative examples and will explain these by means of a fundamental kinetic approach. With these tools MF resins can, in fact, be designed to the specific needs without trial and error arguments.