Polymer Engineering and Science, Vol.45, No.9, 1214-1221, 2005
LLDPE-based mono- and multilayer blown films: Effect of processing parameters on properties
In this study we investigated the effect of processing parameters on the end-use properties of mono- and five-layer coextruded polyethylene (PE) blown films using three different linear low-density PE (LLDPE) resins. The three investigated LLDPEs were a conventional Ziegler-Natta gas phase ethylene-butene copolymer, and two solution ethylene-octene resins produced with Ziegler-Natta and single-site catalysts. The octene copolymers were produced using NOVA Chemicals Advanced SCLAIRTECH(TM) process and catalyst technologies. It was found that within the investigated range of processing conditions, tear strength increased in the direction perpendicular to the highest orientation, impact and puncture strength increased with the overall orientation, and the effect of orientation due to shear stresses in the die was negligible because of rapid macromolecular relaxation before crystallization. Finally, it was also shown that due to changes in the size of the crystallites, haze increased with die gap and frost line height (FLH), and decreased as take-up speed (TUS) increased.