Classifications

• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06B—TREATING TEXTILE MATERIALS USING LIQUIDS, GASES OR VAPOURS
  • D06B19/00—Treatment of textile materials by liquids, gases or vapours, not provided for in groups D06B1/00 - D06B17/00
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06M—TREATMENT, NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE IN CLASS D06, OF FIBRES, THREADS, YARNS, FABRICS, FEATHERS OR FIBROUS GOODS MADE FROM SUCH MATERIALS
  • D06M10/00—Physical treatment of fibres, threads, yarns, fabrics, or fibrous goods made from such materials, e.g. ultrasonic, corona discharge, irradiation, electric currents, or magnetic fields; Physical treatment combined with treatment with chemical compounds or elements
  • D06M10/02—Physical treatment of fibres, threads, yarns, fabrics, or fibrous goods made from such materials, e.g. ultrasonic, corona discharge, irradiation, electric currents, or magnetic fields; Physical treatment combined with treatment with chemical compounds or elements ultrasonic or sonic; Corona discharge
  • D06M10/025—Corona discharge or low temperature plasma
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06M—TREATMENT, NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE IN CLASS D06, OF FIBRES, THREADS, YARNS, FABRICS, FEATHERS OR FIBROUS GOODS MADE FROM SUCH MATERIALS
  • D06M10/00—Physical treatment of fibres, threads, yarns, fabrics, or fibrous goods made from such materials, e.g. ultrasonic, corona discharge, irradiation, electric currents, or magnetic fields; Physical treatment combined with treatment with chemical compounds or elements
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06M—TREATMENT, NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE IN CLASS D06, OF FIBRES, THREADS, YARNS, FABRICS, FEATHERS OR FIBROUS GOODS MADE FROM SUCH MATERIALS
  • D06M2101/00—Chemical constitution of the fibres, threads, yarns, fabrics or fibrous goods made from such materials, to be treated
  • D06M2101/16—Synthetic fibres, other than mineral fibres
  • D06M2101/18—Synthetic fibres consisting of macromolecular compounds obtained by reactions only involving carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bonds
• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D06—TREATMENT OF TEXTILES OR THE LIKE; LAUNDERING; FLEXIBLE MATERIALS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • D06M—TREATMENT, NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE IN CLASS D06, OF FIBRES, THREADS, YARNS, FABRICS, FEATHERS OR FIBROUS GOODS MADE FROM SUCH MATERIALS
  • D06M2200/00—Functionality of the treatment composition and/or properties imparted to the textile material
  • D06M2200/50—Modified hand or grip properties; Softening compositions

Definitions

• the invention relates to articles consisting of highly oriented polyolefins having an ultrahigh molecu­lar weight of more than 600,000 g/mol (weight-average molecular weight), especially filaments, fibers, yarns, fabrics and films, having good wetting and adhesive pro­perties, especially on conventional matrix materials, to a process for the manufacture of these articles and to their use for the manufacture of composites.
• EP-A 0,006,275 has disclosed a process for im­proving the adhesive properties of aromatic polyamide fibers, which process comprises subjecting the fibers to a plasma treatment.
• the disadvantage of this process is that the tensile strength of the fibers is reduced by the plasma treatment.
• EP-A 0,062,491 describes a process for the manu­facture of composite materials, wherein a reinforcing material is embedded in a conventional polymer matrix, which reinforcing material can consist of filaments and fibers of polyolefins having a molecular weight of less than 300,000 and which is subjected to a plasma treatment in order to improve its adhesive properties on the matrix material. In this case again, a reduction in the tensile strength of the plasma-treated reinforcing materials must be accepted.
• the invention achieves this object by subjecting articles consisting of highly oriented polyolefins having an ultrahigh molecular weight of more than 600,000 g/mol (weight-average molecular weight), especially filaments, fibers, yarns, fabrics and films, to a plasma treatment of their surface.
• the tensile strength of the plasma-­treated articles which is very high due to the high degree of orientation and the ultrahigh molecular weight, is not reduced as a result, so that the articles accord­ing to the invention are outstandingly suitable as rein­forcing materials for the manufacture of composites with the use of conventional matrix materials.
• the articles according to the inven­tion consist of polyethylenes, especially linear poly­ethylenes, having an ultrahigh molecular weight of 600,000 to 6,000,000 g/mol and higher.
• the articles according to the invention are es­pecially filaments, fibers, yarns, fabrics and films, which are used above all for the manufacture of compo­site materials in such a way that they are embedded as reinforcing materials, if appropriate together with other conventional reinforcing materials such as glass fibers, graphite fibers and the like, in polymeric matrix mate­rials, for example thermosetting resins such as phenolic resins, epoxy resins, vinyl ester resins, polyester resins, acrylate resins and the like, or polar thermo­plastic matrix materials such as polymethyl (meth)acry­late.
• thermosetting resins such as phenolic resins, epoxy resins, vinyl ester resins, polyester resins, acrylate resins and the like
• polar thermo­plastic matrix materials such as polymethyl (meth)acry­late.
• the high degree of orientation of the articles according to the invention is, in the case of filaments, or fibers, yarns and fabrics manufactured from them, produced in such a way that the filaments are subjected to extensive stretching, especially at a stretching ratio of more than 20 and in particular more than 30, whereas the films can have been uniaxially or biaxially stretched at similar stretching ratios.
• the articles which consist of highly oriented polyolefins and are subjected according to the invention to a plasma treatment are preferably produced by the so-­called gel process which comprises dissolving the parti­cular polyolefin, especially polyethylene, of ultrahigh molecular weight in a solvent, forming the solution at a temperature above the dissolution temperature of the polyolefin to give a filament or tape, cooling the fila­ment or tape to a temperature below the dissolution tem­perature for gelling or solvent removal and then stretch­ing.
• the articles according to the inven­tion consist of polyethylenes, especially linear poly­ethylenes, which can contain minor quantities, preferably at most 5 mol-%, of one or more alkenes which are copoly­merizable therewith, such as propylene, butylene, pentene, hexene, 4-methylpentene, octene and the like.
• the polyethylenes can contain 1 to 10 and especially 2 to 6 methyl or ethyl groups per 1,000 carbon atoms.
• other polyolefins can also be used, for example polypropylene homopolymers and copolymers, and the polyolefins can also contain minor quantities of one or more other polymers, especially 1-alkene polymers.
• the filaments or the products manufactured from them and the films can also be porous and, in this case, they preferably have a den­sity between 0.1 and 0.9 g/cm3 They can be produced by controlling the evaporation of the solvent from the gel filaments or tapes in such a way that pores remain.
• the pre-cleaning can comprise, for example, a solvent treat­ment for removing sizes adhering to the surface and serves for making available a clean surface of the arti­cles to be treated for the plasma treatment.
• the plasma treatment is carried out with inert and/or reactive gases or gas mixtures, the use of reactive gases being preferred.
• Nitrogen and helium may be mentioned as inert gases, and air, oxygen, carbon dioxide and ammonia may be mentioned as reactive gases.
• the plasma treatment is carried out under a pressure from 0.2 to 5 mmHg, especially 1 mmHg, and at an energy density from 5 to 100 kW/m3, especially between 15 and 50 kW/m3, and in particular at room temperature and with a residence time of 5 seconds to 200 seconds.
• a chemical treatment in order to improve the wetting and adhesive properties of the plasma-treated articles, which chemical treatment provides additional active groups on the surface of the articles, for example carboxyl groups, hydroxyl groups or carbonyl groups.
• Such a treatment can be carried out, for example, with unsaturated compounds such as acrylic acid, acrylamides, maleic acid, glycidyl meth­acrylate, hydroxyethyl methacrylate, itaconic acid, vinyl acetate and the like.
• a polymeriza­tionin hibitor is used in this case, such as an iron(III) compound, in order to avoid polymerization of the unsaturated compounds.
• such a chemical treatment can be effected by introducing the plasma-treated articles into a solution of one of the unsaturated compounds mentioned, such as, for example, into an acrylic acid solution, but a chemical aftertreatment can also be effected in the gas phase.
• Chemical processes of this type for improving the adhesive properties of polyolefin are known.
• polyolefin filaments from which fibers, yarns and fabrics can then be manu­factured, are employed for carrying out the process accor­ding to the invention.
• Equipment for the plasma treat­ment of filaments is described in EP-A 0,006,275. This equipment comprises a capillary inlet and outlet or seve­ral such inlets and outlets, through which the filaments are drawn continuously through the equipment, in which they undergo a plasma treatment.
• equipment can also be used, in which the filaments circulate in the interior of the plasma chamber, in which case they can be taken around deflection rollers in any desired number of loops, depending on the desired residence time.
• An 800 dtex yarn consisting of about 400 mono­filaments of a polyethylene of a molecular weight of approximately 1.9 x 106 and having a strength of 2.4 GPa and a modulus of elasticity of 90 GPa is washed in carbon tetrachloride for size removal.
• This yarn is then subjected to a plasma treatment under a pressure of 1 mmHg at 25°C and at an energy den­sity of 30 kW/m3 for a period of 50 seconds by the action of an air plasma.
• a composite specimen of 50% by volume of yarn and 50% by volume of a resin (100 parts of Eurepox 730®, manufactured by Schering, and 20 parts of a curing agent (XE 278)) is produced in a width of 3 mm, a height of 4 mm and a length of 150 mm.
• This specimen is fully cured for 1 1/2 hours at 23°C and 1 hour at 80°C, whereupon specimens of 18 mm length are cut off, and the interlaminar shear strength is determined by ASTM Method D2344 (accelerated bending test) at a bending speed of 2 mm/min.
• an identical composite specimen is prepared using a yarn which has not been sub­jected to a plasma treatment.
• the interlaminar shear strength is 30.6 ⁇ 0.7 MPa in the case of the plasma-treated yarn and 12.9 ⁇ 0.8 MPa in the case of the untreated yarn.
• the corresponding tensile strength values are 2.5 ⁇ 0.15 GPa and 2.4 ⁇ 0.05 GPa respectively.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Textile Engineering (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Plasma & Fusion (AREA)
• Chemical Or Physical Treatment Of Fibers (AREA)
• Treatments Of Macromolecular Shaped Articles (AREA)
• Treatments For Attaching Organic Compounds To Fibrous Goods (AREA)
• Artificial Filaments (AREA)
• Manufacture Of Macromolecular Shaped Articles (AREA)
• Reinforced Plastic Materials (AREA)
• Yarns And Mechanical Finishing Of Yarns Or Ropes (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=6337523

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (7)

Cited By (14)

Families Citing this family (9)

Citations (2)

• 1988
  • 1988-09-30 BR BR8805048A patent/BR8805048A/pt unknown
  • 1988-09-30 ZA ZA887381A patent/ZA887381B/xx unknown
  • 1988-09-30 EP EP88202157A patent/EP0311197A3/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1988-09-30 JP JP63248931A patent/JPH026657A/ja active Pending
  • 1988-10-01 CN CN88107872A patent/CN1035308A/zh active Pending
  • 1988-10-04 KR KR1019880012919A patent/KR910000813B1/ko not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1988-10-04 AU AU23369/88A patent/AU607544B2/en not_active Ceased

Patent Citations (2)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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