THERMOPLASTIC PROCESSING BEHAVIOUR OF FOAMED POLYOLEFIN SHEETS FOR TANK BUILDING APPLICATIONS

摘要

Chemical foaming of thermoplastics is nowadays a well established technology for more than 30 years in the plastic sheet industry. In general the focus of foaming is weight reduction. As an example PVC-foam has been an excellent sheet material for the signage and printing industry. While compact polyolefin sheet materials are very well known for their different applications in the chemical process industry as well as for thermoforming, an increasing pressure on costs in tank building can be observed. In uncritical applications material efficiency and related material and cost savings are one key to success. In addition life cycle analysis and sustainability and therefore material efficiency are gaining more and more importance in today's applications. To reflect these trends, SIMONA decided to start a new foam product line based on high end Polypropylene and Polyethylene raw materials for tank building. In the presentation besides the processing and applications of these foams a short side step is done to present a twin wall sheet for tank building applications [SIM 2010]. As a combination of both technologies a foamed twin wall sheet is finally presented in diverse applications.