PROCESS OF PRODUCING HIGH TENACITY, HIGH MODULUS CRYSTALLINE THERMOPLASTIC ARTICLE, AND NOVEL PRODUCT FIBERS

摘要

ABSTRACTPROUDCING HIGH TENACITY, HIGH MODULUS CRYSTALLINETHERMOPLASTIC ARTICLE SUCH AS FIBER OR FILMSolutions of ultrahigh molecular weigh poly-mers such as polyethylene in a relatively non-volatilesolvent are extruded through an aperture at constantconcentration through the aperture and cooled to form afirst gel of indefinite length. The first gels areextracted with a volatile solvent to form a second geland the second gel is dried to form a low porosity xero-gel. The first gel, second gel or xerogel, or acombination, are stretched. Among the products obtain-able are polyethylene fibers of greater than 30 or even40 g/denier tenacity and of modulus greater than 1000 oreven 1600 or 2000 g/denier.