Thermoplastic Plastomer: A New Polymer for Room-Temperature Plastic Forming
Takashi Ohtomo, Toshiyuki Kohono, Takashi Inoue, Takashi Kuriyama
Yamagata University, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering
Japan

Keywords: reactive blend, PET, plastic forming

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By a reactive blending of PET with other polymers, we prepared a new polymer material: thermoplastic plastomer (TPP). Styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer and PP/EPDM blend by dynamic vulcanization are the thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) which can be fabricated into end-use parts by conventional melt-processing for thermoplastics and the melt-processed materials behave like a vulcanized rubber. TPP can be processed by the melt-processing like TPE and the fabricated material behaves as a plastomer. Then, various plastic forming techniques for metals can be applied. For example, at room temperature, TPP sheet (e.g., 1 mm thick) can be bended at bend angle 90° (or 180° ) and the sheet remains as bended (nice shape retention). The sheet can be thinned to 0.2 mm thick by deep drawing at room temperature. The TPP shows excellent properties as an engineering plastics; HDT=122 C, non-break for impact test, flex. modulus=1.9 GPa, flex. strength=64MPa, tensile strength=48 MPa, elongation at break=300%.