Patent ID: 6818163
Filing Date: 2004-11-16
Classification: B29C,B82Y,C08J

Abstract:
A process for making an article, the article comprising a nanocomposite polymer, the article selected from the group consisting of a structural foamed polymer, a multilayer polymer film, sheet or tube, a pultrusion structural profile, a compression molded polymer article formed from an extruded fiber reinforced polymer pre-form, a strand foamed polymer article and an article formed by the SCORIM process, comprising the steps of: dispersing a multi-layered silicate material with the polymer so that the polymer has dispersed therein single layers of silicate material, double layers of silicate material, triple layers of silicate material, four layers of silicate material, five layers of silicate material and more than five layers of silicate material, the volume percent of the one, two, three, four and five layers of silicate material being greater than the volume percent of the more than five layers of silicate material to form a nanocomposite polymer; the process characterized by the step of forming the nanocomposite article by flowing the nanocomposite polymer by extrusion, coextrusion, pultrusion or the SCORIM process to align the planes of the one, two, three, four and five layers of silicate material so that more than one half of the planes have the same orientation within thirty degrees as determined by electron microscopy.