Quantification of Processing Flows
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Introduction
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| Polymeric materials have become ubiquitous in the modern economy
because they are relatively easy to process. Continuous improvement
in product quality demands materials and manufacturing methods
that are more reliable, economical and flexible. However, frequently
processors work blind, they have limited ability to visualize
their processes operations and extract meaningful data. This
compromises their ability to develop new manufacturing operations.
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Objective
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| Our goal is to provide the polymers industry with unprecedented
measurement tools that allows them to monitor, understand and
control their processes. We further use these tools to develop
new models of fundamental processing operations. We seek to
disseminate our work by maintaining close collaborations with
industrial partners, which range in size from start-ups to Fortune
50 companies.
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NIST Role
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| Develop instruments which provide new windows
into the processing of polymeric materials. |
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| In-line dielectric spectroscopy |
Total Internal Reflection |
In-situ Fluorescence |
Extrusion Visualization |
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Highlights
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Dielectric monitoring of nanocomposites*
Micro-confined Polymer Blends*
Controlling Extrusion Instabilities*
In-situ measurements of resin temperature
Discovery of “vorticity alignment.”
*See
accompanying poster
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Customers and Impact
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| The impact of our work stems from our development and use
of leading edge measurement technologies for polymers, blends,
nanocomposites and emulsions.
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 “Our
experiments with NIST using their Extrusion Visualization Facility
have resulted in breakthrough in our abilities to conceptualize
and understand how fluoropolymers reduce sharkskin.”
-3M Company
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“Critical mysteries regarding the fluoropolymers have
been solved thanks to NIST’s elegant measurement techniques.
The insights that we have gained through our collaboration yield
new understanding that we now use to further our product development.”
-DuPont Dow Elastomers
“There are two examples in which NIST generated leading-edge
technology targeted to the needs of industry, and we picked
up on this technology, used it, and moved it into the marketplace
…In addition, they have provided entirely new measurement
technologies for us to commercialize, also intended for polymers,
which benefit the industry at large as well as ourselves.
-Chemical Electrophysics Company
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NIST Contributors:
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Anthony Bur
Kalman Migler
Jai Pathak
Steve Roth
Jack Douglas |
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Collaborators:
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Claude Lavallee 3M
Steve Oriani Dupont Dow
Michael McBrearty CEP
Hubert Lobo DataPoint Labs
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