pps proceeding
Symposium: S03 - Rheology and Process Simulation Oral Presentation
Rheology of industrial plastisol formulations
Agassant jean-françois (1)*
(1) MINES ParisTech - France - France
Plastisol formulations are used for flooring applications.In the knife-over–roll coating process the plastisol flows between a substrate driven by a rotating roll and a fixed knife inducing a wide range of shear and elongational rates. Understanding the process requires a careful rheology analysis. A plastisol is a suspension of PVC and mineral fillers particles in a Newtonian plasticizer. The complexity of the formulations and the interaction between components make plastisol a unique kind of suspension.
The rheology of various formulations has been studied using Couette and capillary rheometers. The formulation without filler presents a non-monotonous behaviour: shear thinning at low shear rates, then a Newtonian plateau, then a dilatancy peak followed by a second shear thinning zone at very high shear rates. Substituting a fraction of PVC by filler particles may enhance or decrease the first shear thinning behaviour depending on the size of the filler. The dilatancy peak is significantly reduced. Couette and capillary measurements are consistent for large capillary diameters allowing to cover the wide shear rate range of the process.
Important entrance pressure drops have been observed in capillary experiments. They have been analyzed through a modified Cogswell method pointing out high elongational viscosities. For a capillary diameter of the order of the gap between the knife and the substrate an important flow rate increase is observed suggesting slip at the wall or the appearance of a thin lubricated layer. This has been analyzed using a numerical method accounting for the non-monotonous rheological behavior. These rheological measurements allow a careful analysis of the plastisol coating process.