Journal of Textile Research ›› 2023, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (12): 1-9.doi: 10.13475/j.fzxb.20220705301

• Fiber Materials •     Next Articles

Fabrication and properties of metallocene polyethylene spunbond filament based on Polyflow simulation

LIU Ya1(), ZHAO Chen1, ZHUANG Xupin1, ZHAO Yixia1, CHENG Bowen2   

  1. 1. School of Textile Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, China
    2. Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China
  • Received:2022-12-15 Revised:2023-09-16 Online:2023-12-15 Published:2024-01-22

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Abstract:

Objective Spunbond products are widely used in the fields of sanitary materials, packaging, and agriculture. Currently, spunbond products on the market are mainly made from polypropylene (PP) and polyester (PET). Although these materials have high strength, their softness is not good enough to meet the requirements of high softness applications. The metallocene polyethylene (mPE) is used to form membrane for its excellent softness. Because of its poor spinnability, mPE is rarely used in spunbond technology. As such, it is important to study the spinning properties of mPE to modify the performance of traditional spunbond products.
Method The thermal and rheological properties of mPE were analyzed first. According to data available, the flow velocity distribution and extrusion state of mPE melt were simulated by Polyflow numerical simulation method during the preparation of mPE spunbond filament. The velocity distribution and extrusion expansion trend of mPE melt were analyzed under different extrusion temperature. According to the simulation results, the parameters of spinning experiment were guided, and the spunbond filaments of mPE with different mechanical drafting multiples were achieved. In order to characterize the mechanical properties of mPE fiber, numbers of common fibers were used for comparison.
Results The thermos-gravimetric analysis result showed that the thermal decomposition temperature of mPE was 405 ℃ (Fig. 1 (a)), and the differential scanning calorimetry result showed the melting range of mPE was 93.9-130.1 ℃ (Fig. 1(b)). According to the thermal properties, the simulation temperature of rheological test was preliminarily set in the range of 220-280 ℃. The melt flow velocity of mPE increased with the increase of melting temperature (Fig. 5) but decreased rapidly after extruding from the spinneret orifice (Fig. 6) in the simulation experiments. The extrusion swell phenomenon of mPE was quite evident after melt extrusion, the lower the extrusion temperature was, the higher the die swell ratio was, and the maximum was 1.52 at the temperature of 230 ℃. The results of Polyflow simulation were used to guide and optimize the parameters of the spunbond process. Finally, the mPE spunbond filaments with different mechanical drafting multiples were successfully prepared at the spinning temperature of 240 ℃. The performance of series mPE filaments were characterized. The results showed that the diameter of mPE filament decreased with the increase of drafting multiple, and the minimum diameter of mPE filament was 64.2 μm with the drafting multiple of 6 times, the variation reached 61.5% compared with the drafting multiple of 1 time (Fig. 8). Because of the rapid cooling of the trickle flow, the amorphous part disentangled and carried out preferred orientation along with mechanical drafting, more molecular chains in the polymer participated in crystallization, the crystallinity of mPE filament increased with the increase of drawing multiple (Fig. 9). The maximum of the crystallinity was 50.1% with the drafting multiple of 6 times. As the trickle flow further oriented and crystallized with the increase of the drafting multiple, the breaking strength of mPE filament increased and the fracture elongation decreased with the increase of the drawing multiple (Fig. 10). Compared with the common fibers appeared on the market, the mPE filament drawn to 6 times exhibited the best mechanical performance, the breaking strength was 3.44 cN/dtex, and the fracture elongation was 85.69%.
Conclusion Polyflow simulation is used to simulate the flow velocity distribution and extrusion state of the mPE melt in the spunbond process. It proves that the Polyflow simulation results can be used to guide and optimize the process parameters for mPE spinning experiment. The performance test of mPE spunbond filament proves the reliability of the simulation method and the feasibility of mPE application in spunbond technology. The testing results also reveal that mPE filament has excellent mechanical properties, which can be used to form the bi-component spunbond with PP, PET and other raw materials, so as to modify the performance of traditional mono-component spunbond material with softer feeling, which can meet the requirements of high softness for certain applications.

Key words: metallocene polyethylene, rheological property, Polyflow simulation, spinning filament, spinnability

CLC Number: 

  • TS172

Fig. 1

Thermal property curves of mPE material. (a)TG curve; (b)DSC curve"

Fig. 2

Rheological curve of mPE raw material"

Fig. 3

Melt flow model"

Fig. 4

Melt flow channel grid (a) and boundary (b) division model"

Tab. 1

mPE melt simulation parameter setting"

温度/℃ 黏度η/(Pa·s) 入口流量Q/(m3·s-1)
230 256 7.348×10-12
250 142 1.356×10-11
270 125 1.533×10-11

Fig. 5

Simulation on flow rate of mPE melt at different temperatures"

Fig. 6

Axial (a) and radial (b) velocity change of mPE melt"

Tab. 2

Temperature of each area of screw extruder℃"

组别 冷区 1区 2区 3区 4区 5区 机头
A 60 170 190 210 215 220 220
B 60 170 190 210 220 230 230
C 60 180 200 220 230 235 240
D 60 180 220 240 245 250 250
E 60 180 220 240 250 260 260

Fig. 7

Diagram of spinning process"

Fig. 8

Ultra depth of field photo (a) and diameter change trend (b) of mPE filament"

Fig. 9

XRD patterns of mPE filament at different drafting ratios"

Fig. 10

Mechanical properties of mPE filament at different drafting ratios"

Tab. 3

Comparison of mechanical properties"

材料 断裂强度/(cN·dtex-1) 断裂伸长率/%
mPE 3.44 85.69
PE 2.20 31.34
PET 3.17 17.00
蚕丝 3.45 19.82
PP 3.33 58.22
壳聚糖 2.03 8.67
PPS 1.68 28.71
粘胶 1.77 16.07
PBT 2.22 76.03
PTT 2.80 67.32
PLA 3.30 26.79
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