The design and performance of a new miniature mixer for specialty polymer blends and nanocomposites

Breuer, O.; Sundararaj, Uttandaraman; Toogood, Roger

doi:10.1002/pen.20078

Cited by 43 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…These characteristics allowed the APAM to have both good dispersive and distributive mixing qualities, and the current results agreed with earlier experimental results found with this mixer. 15 The MiniMAX molder shows much simpler flow patterns and produced less uniform distributions, and this also agreed with previous findings. Axial rotor movement in the MiniMAX molder provided a small amount of axial movement, but the mixing was still insufficient, and it was difficult to consistently repeat the axial motion.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…16,24 -26 The APAM rotor had a length of 25 mm and an alternating diameter around its asymmetric configuration. 15 The smallest gap between the rotor and the 13 mm diameter cup was 0.250 mm, and this was where maximum shear rates occurred. The cup had an inner diameter of 13 mm and a height of 25 mm.…”

Section: Mixersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This correlated with the experimental results reported previously. 15 Flow visualization was also conducted on the Mini-MAX molder, and the results are shown in Figure 7. The red dye particles were initially at the bottom of the cup.…”

Section: Flow Visualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Flow visualization has been performed on processing equipment with glass or Plexiglas windows. [11][12][13][14] In an earlier article, 15 we introduced a new miniature mixer called the Alberta polymer asymmetric minimixer (APAM). The design consists of a rotor with a unique, asymmetric shape spinning within a heated cup.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Simulation and visualization of flow in a new miniature mixer for multiphase polymer systems

Breuer¹,

Chen²,

Lin³

et al. 2005

J of Applied Polymer Sci

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A newly designed mixer, the Alberta polymer asymmetric minimixer (APAM), was compared to the MiniMAX molder with flow simulation and flow visualization techniques to evaluate the performance of the mixers. The APAM has a unique, asymmetric design consisting of a varying clearance between the rotor blade tips and the cup wall, which enables the material to be squeezed, stretched, and kneaded in high-shear and converging zones. Flow simulation showed that substantial folding and axial movement occurred in this mixer and that the pressure and velocity profiles exhibited high values at the rotor tip with the smallest rotor tip/cup clearance. In contrast, the MiniMAX molder had very simple flow patterns, which were insufficient to induce good dispersive and distributive mixing. These results concurred with those from an earlier work that studied the structure of blends and nanocomposites processed in the APAM compared to other polymer processing equipment.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Mixersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Flow Visualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Simulation and visualization of flow in a new miniature mixer for multiphase polymer systems

Breuer¹,

Chen²,

Lin³

et al. 2005

J of Applied Polymer Sci

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…NF2 and N3F2 have average initial particle size of 8 and 30 μm, respectively (agglomerate dimensions), which are composed of platelets with typical dimensions of 100-500 nm × 1 nm (nanoclay). The PET nanocomposites with 0.3% of nanoparticles (and also neat PET for comparision purposes) were prepared via mechanical blending in a tumbler mixer and subsequent melt blending in a special asymmetric minimixer [64]. Compression molded plates were then prepared and rectangular tensile specimens were cut from them in a hydraulic press.…”

Section: Materials and Sample Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

X‐Ray Scattering Studies on Multiphasic Polymer Systems

Denchev¹,

Viana²

2011

Handbook of Multiphase Polymer Systems

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At present, multiphase and multicomponent materials such as polymer alloys, blends, and composites consume over 80 wt% of all commercially-produced resins. The increase of this particular segment of the plastics industry is about three times faster than of the industry as a whole. The reason is that the modification by blending may improve significantly the resins' mechanical performance and processability, being at the same time cost effective. Those few resins that are used without adding of other components are most frequently semicrystalline, i.e. they already have a multiphase structure that makes other modification less urgent [1].Recently, a large window has opened for new structural applications of the multicomponent polymer systems with the advent of nanoscale filled polymer composites. Changing the type, size, shape, volume fraction, interface, and degree of dispersion or aggregation of the nanofillers enables a great amount of unique combinations of properties with high potential for successful commercial development [2].In technical literature the terms 'phase' and 'component' are often used interchangeably.In thermodynamics, however, a clear distinction is made. Thus, a phase is defined as a chemically and physically uniform quantity of matter that can be separated mechanically from a nonhomogeneous mixture. Hence, multiphasic polymer systems would comprise at least two different phases, e.g. semicrystalline single polymers featuring amorphous and crystalline phases or polymorphic polymers containing different concomitant crystalline phases. Many polymer systems with industrial importance such as blends, colloidal polymers, polymer composites/ filled polymers, etc. comprise two or more chemically distinct components, each one of them being able to contain various phases as well. These components may have different sizes, with microscopic to nanoscopic blocks being present.

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Effects of microcompounding process parameters on the properties of ABS/polyamide‐6 blends based nanocomposites

Ozkoc

Bayram

Quaedflieg

2007

J of Applied Polymer Sci

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Melt intercalation method was applied to produce acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene/polyamide-6 (ABS/ PA6) blends based organoclay nanocomposites using a conical twin-screw microcompounder. The blend was compatibilized using a maleated olefinic copolymer. The effects of microcompounding conditions such as screw speed, screw rotation-mode (co-or counter-), and material parameters such as blend composition and clay loading level on the morphology of the blends, dispersibility of nanoparticles, and mechanical properties were investigated. Furthermore, corotating screws were modified to achieve elongational flow which is efficient for obtaining dispersive mixing. The morphology was examined by SEM analysis after preferential extraction of the minor phase. Subsequently, the SEM micrographs were quantitatively analyzed using image analyzer software. The morphology of the blends indicated that processing with counter-rotation at a given screw speed yielded coarser morphology than that of processed with corotation. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that highest level of exfoliation is observed with increasing PA6 content, at 200 rpm of screw speed and in corotation mode. Also, the effects of screw speed, screw rotation mode, and screw modification were discussed in terms of XRD responses of the nanocomposites. The aspect ratio of the clay particles which were measured by performing image analysis on TEM micrographs exhibited a variation with processing conditions and they are in accordance with the modulus of the nanocomposites.

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The design and performance of a new miniature mixer for specialty polymer blends and nanocomposites

Cited by 43 publications

References 28 publications

Simulation and visualization of flow in a new miniature mixer for multiphase polymer systems

Simulation and visualization of flow in a new miniature mixer for multiphase polymer systems

X‐Ray Scattering Studies on Multiphasic Polymer Systems

Effects of microcompounding process parameters on the properties of ABS/polyamide‐6 blends based nanocomposites

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