Evaluation of Parameters in Preparation of PVC/PU Blend Foams

The components’ content of foams, based on thermoplastic/thermoset blends, was studied by reaction extrusion method. For this purpose, a co-rotating twin screw extruder was designed and assembled. A high pressure-high temperature vessel was used in which the pressure could be dropped quickly. The foaming was carried out at saturation pressure of 68 bar in 2 s at 170˚C. The results showed that the poly(vinyl chloride)/polyurethane (100/0) sample absorbed up to 8.09 % CO2 gas and produced foams with a cell average of 6 μm and a cell density of 6×109. In the blend ratios of 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, 60/40 and 50/50, up to 4% by weight of CO2 gas was absorbed and no suitable foams were produced. Since the amount of gas diffusivity in the polyurethane was more than that in poly(vinyl chloride), the amount of gas leakage was equally increased by increases in polyurethane content, therefore there was no sufficient absorbed gas available for foam formation. It should be noted that the swelling caused by gas evolution is reduced due to the cross-linking structure which is highly resistant against the volume expansion. During the foaming step, the cross-linking density should be high enough to prevent viscous flow failure but not to the extent to initiate brittle failure in expanding bubbles. Therefore, it can be perceived that the optimum crosslinking density associated with the maximum foam expansion ratio could be achieved when the other processing parameters were fixed.