Process for producing polyolefin resin compositions containing inorganic fillers

Abstract: A polyolefin resin composition for molding is produced by pulverizing and surface-treating an inorganic filler together with a surface treatment agent in a dry or semi-dry pulverizing means, mixing the thus-treated inorganic filler with a specified amount of a polyolefin resin and granulating the resultant mixture, and thereafter mixing the thus-­ obtained granular mixture with an additonal granular or pelletized polyolefin resin at a specified ratio. The ratio by weight is in the range 1/99 to 80/20 of the granular mixture to the additional resin.

Description: This invention relates to an improved process for the production of a polyolefin resin composition which contains an inorganic filler. Articles molded from polyolefin resin compositions, which contain an inorganic filler, have good stiffness and heat resistance and have been widely used in various industrial parts. In many instances, such compositions are each produced by mixing inorganic filler, various stabilizers such as antioxidant and heat stabilizer, and optionally a pigment with a polyolefin resin and then melting, kneading and pelletizing the resultant mixture by means of a single-screw or twin-screw extruder. In general, the polyolefin resin employed is often in the form of powder in view of the dispersion of the inorganic filler. Use of such polyolefin powder is however accompanied by problems such as an increased production cost due to the need for its separate production from a polyolefin production line, reduced efficiency upon production of a polyolefin resin composition containing an inorganic filler, deterioration of the working environment, and the like. When a pelletized polyolefin resin such as thermoplastic elastomer is added, the resin tends to separate from powder materials in the hopper of an extruder so that a homogeneous composition may not be obtained. There is an outstanding demand for a solution to this problem. So long as the inorganic filler is in a powder form, problems similar to those mentioned above (i.e., reduced efficiency, deterioration of the working environment, and separation of pelletized resin from powder materials in a hopper) still remain even when a pelletized polyolefin resin is used. As a solution for these problems, a pelletized inorganic filler may be used successfully. As a method of producing such a pelletized inorganic filler, it has generally been known to perform granulation by using an agitated granulator such as Henschel mixer. For example, reference may be had to Chapter 9 of "Zoryu Binran (Handbook of Granulation)" (published May 30, 1975 by The OHM SHA K.K.), where numerous illustrative examples led by calcium carbonate are described. On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 220319/1984 discloses that a mixture composed of 100 parts by weight of a thermoplastic resin and 60 parts by weight or more of fine solid powder, which does not melt practically at the melting point of the resin, is vigorously agitated in a high-speed rotary mixer while being heated at a temperature of at least the melting point of the resin, and the resulting mixture is cooled and solidified into a resin compound upon formation of porous agglomerated granules of the thermoplastic resin coated with the fine solid powder and partially fused together. An attempt may be made to blend an inorganic-filler-containing polyolefin resin, which has been granulated by such a method as described above, with an additional supply of pelletized polyolefin resin free of any inorganic filler and then to pelletize the resultant resin mixture subsequent to re-melting mixing and kneading in an extruder. The dispersibility of the inorganic filler is however low depending on its type. The resulting molded article often has different stiffness and impact strength from one point to another and its external appearance is frequently poor, so that the molded article may not be fit for use. For the molding of the above pellets, it is thus indispensable to use an extruder having extremely good kneadability dispersability. Under the circumstances, the productivity decreases and the production cost becomes high. An object of this invention is to provide an improved process for the production of a polyolefin resin composition containing an inorganic filler in a very well dispersed state, which composition can provide a molded article having physical properties such as stiffness and impact resistance. Other objects of this invention will become apparent from the following description. According to the present invention, there is provided a process for the production of a polyolefin resin composition containing an inorganic filler, which comprises (i) mixing a polyolefin resin and the inorganic filler, which has been pulverized together with a surface treatment agent in an amount of 0.01 - 5 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the filler, by a dry or semi-dry fluid-bed jet pulverizer, in an amount of 300 - 900 parts by weight of filler per 100 parts by weight of the polyolefin resin; (ii) granulating the resultant mixture by an agitated granulating means; and (iii) mixing the thus-granulated polyolefin resin [hereinafter called "resin (a)"] with an additional polyolefin resin which is granular or pellet-like [hereinafter called "resin (b)"] at an (a)/(b) weight ratio in a range of from 1/99 to 80/20. The invention will now be explained in more detail in the following description, which is given by way of example only. In the present invention, the polyolefin resins used for the resins (a) and (b) may be either same or different. Illustrative examples of the polyolefin resins include homopolymers of α-olefins such as ethylene, propylene, 1-butene and 4-methylpentene, copolymers of two or more of the α-olefins, and mixtures of these polymers and copolymers. The following polyolefin resins may be mentioned as typical examples of the polyolefin resins: polyethylene, polypropylene, polybutene, poly-4-methylpentene-1, and ethylene-propylene copolymers. As specific examples of the inorganic filler useful in the practice of this invention, may be mentioned calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, calcium hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, aluminum hydroxide, calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, calcium silicate, magnesium silicate, calcium sulfate, barium sulfate, calcium sulfite, talc, mica, clay, dolomite, and glass. The proportion of the inorganic filler in the resin (a) is 300 - 900 parts by weight, preferably, 325 - 500 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the polyolefin resin. If the proportion of the inorganic filler is smaller than 300 parts by weight, the proportion of the polyolefin resin is too much. When the polyolefin resin has melted in a granulator, the resultant mixture becomes a single mass as a whole and its handling is very difficult. It is thus not preferable to use the inorganic filler in such a small proportion. On the other hand, any proportion greater than 900 parts by weight will result in an excessively small proportion of the polyolefin resin so that the inorganic filler can no longer be granulated succesfully. The grain size of the resin (a) may preferably be about 0.3 - 7 mm, while the preferred grain size of the resin (b) may range from 0.1 to 10 mm approximately. If grain sizes outside the above range are employed, there is a tendency towards separation into portions having different grain sizes when the resins (a) and (b) are mixed and pelletized again. It is thus preferable not to use any grain sizes outside the above ranges. No particular limitation is imposed on the surface treatment agent to be used in the practice of this invention, so long as it can improve the compatibility of the inorganic filler with the polyolefin resins. The surface treatment agent may thus be chosen from a wide variety of surface treatment agents which have been used for the above-mentioned purpose. Illustrative examples include silane coupling agents such as γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and vinyl-tris(β-methoxyethoxy)silane; titanium base coupling agents such as isopropyl triisostearictitanate; various surface active agents such as polyoxyethylene alkyl ether and N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl) aliphatic amine; organosilicon-containing polymers such as silicone oils, polyether-modified silicone oils, alcohol-modified silicone oils, amino-modified silicone oils, trimethylmethoxysilane, methyltriethoxysilane, dimethylpolysiloxysilazane and hexamethyldisilazane; higher alcohols such as polyethylene glycol; modified vegetable oils such as epoxylated linseed oil and epoxylated soybean oil. Regarding the relative proportions of the inorganic filler and surface treatment agent, it is preferable to use the surface treatment agent in an amount of about 0.01 - about 5 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the inorganic filler. Any amounts smaller than 0.01 part by weight are too small to exhibit effects of the surface treatment, so that the dispersion of the inorganic filler is poor in the resulting resin composition and the resin composition can only provide molded articles of reduced stiffness and impact resistance and impaired external appearance. If the amount of the surface treatment agent is greater than 5 parts by weight, more time is required upon heating at the time of agitation and granulation so that productivity is lowered. In addition, an article produced from the final composition may be reduced in stiffness, heat resistance and the like and moreover, the production cost becomes higher. It is therefore preferable not to use the surface treatment agent in any proportions outside the above range. The surface treatment of such an inorganic filler may be performed by mixing the inorganic filler and surface treatment agent in advance, or by feeding them separately to a pulverizer and then effecting the surface treatment concurrently with the pulverization. Here, as the above-mentioned pulverizer, any pulverizer may be employed so long as it can perform both rough pulverization and fine pulverization in either dry or semi-dry fashion. As illustrative, nonexhaustive examples of such a pulverizer, may be mentioned the micron mill, jet stream pulverizer, ball mill, micronizer, turbomill and atomizer. In view of the efficiency and time of pulverization and the efficiency of work, a jet stream pulverizer (for examples, micronizer-type, reductionizer-type, impact-type, countercurrent-type or fluid-bed type) is preferred. Among these, a fluid-bed type jet stream pulverizer permitting a still more homogeneous treatment is particularly preferred. The polyolefin resin of the resin (b) is preferred to have a grain size of 0.1 - 10 mm. If any grain size outside the above range is used, the separation of the resin (b) from the resin (a) and vice versa takes place in the hopper of an extruder upon re-pelletization, so that articles to be molded from the resulting composition will not be equal to each other in stiffness and impact resistance and their external appearance will become poor. Hence, any grain sizes outside the above range are not preferred. The mixing weight ratio of the resin (a) to the resin (b) ranges from 1/99 to 80/20. Any ratio smaller than 1/99 cannot fully exhibit the effects of the addition of the inorganic filler, and any ratio greater than 80/20 results in a composition which can only provide molded articles of reduced impact resistance and external appearance. Therefore, any ratios outside the above range are not preferred. In the present invention, various additives such as antioxidant, lubricant, ultraviolet absorbent, ultraviolet stabilizer, heat stabilizer, antistatic agent, nucleating agent, and organic and inorganic pigments may be added either singly or in combination. As illustrative examples of these various additives, may be mentioned those added routinely to polyolefin resins. They may be used in extents which do not impair substantially the advantageous effects of the present invention. Resins other than polyolefin resins usable in the present invention may also be used in combination as needed. Examples of such other resins include thermoplastic elastomers such as ethylene-propylene copolymer rubbers (EPR), ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer rubbers (EPDM, examples of the diene may include ethylidene norbornene, dicyclopentaidene and 1,4-hexadiene). It is particularly preferable that the resin composition of the invention includes 40% or less of EPR or EPDM on the basis of the weight of the polyolefin resins, since impact resistance of an article molded from the resulting resin composition is considerably improved. These additives may be added to the resin (a) and/or the resin (b), previously. As an alternative, they may also be added upon mixing the resin (a) with the resin (b). Here, in order to facilitate the dispersion and mixing of such additives, it is preferable to use liquid additives. They may also be added upon performing the melting, mixing and kneading in an extruder. The mixing of the individual components may be achieved by melting, mixing, kneading and pelletizing them by means of a single-screw or twin-screw extruder or the like after mixing them beforehand in a tumbler mixer, Henschel mixer or the like or feeding the resin (a) through a vent of the extruder by way of a fixed-rate feeder. These pellets can then be molded into a desired product by a suitable molding or forming method such as extrusion molding, injection molding, rotation molding or compression molding. In the resin composition produced in accordance with the process of this invention, the inorganic filler has been dispersed very well at the time of the repelletization. Articles well balanced in physical properties such as stiffness and impact resistance can be obtained by molding the resin composition. Since the resin composition has good properties, it is suited for the molding of various industrial parts. Certain Examples of the present invention will hereinafter be described along with some Comparative Examples so as to specifically describe advantageous effects of the present invention. In the following Examples and Comparative Examples, melt flow indexes (MI), flexural moduli of elasticity, Izod impact strengths, Du Pont impact strengths and heat distortion temperatures were measured in accordance with ASTM D-1238, ASTM D-790, ASTM D-256, JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) K-6718 and ASTM D648 respectively. Inorganic fillers employed in the Examples and Comparative Examples will be shown in Table 1. The following procedures were employed to treat the surfaces of the inorganic fillers. (1) Raw materials: [Talc] Average particle size: about 10 µm. The particle size was normal distribution. [Mica] Average particle size: about 15 µm. The particle size was normal distribution. [Calcium carbonate] Heavy calcium carbonate whose average particle size was about 15 µm. (2) Pulverizer and pulverizing conditions: Pulverizer: Fluid-bed counter jet mill (Model 400AFG; manufactured by Alpine GmbH, W. Germany). Pulverizing conditions: Air flow: 1620 m³/hr. Pulverizing pressure: 5.9 bar (6 kg/cm²)(compressed air was used). Revolution number of classifier: 4000 rpm. (3) Surface treatment agents and amounts added: See Table 1. (4) Treatment method: One of the raw materials described above in (1) and its corresponding surface treatment referred to in (3) were fed separately to the pulverizer described in (2), whereby the former was pulverized and at the same time, surface-treated with the latter. Examples 1 - 3: Charged in an agitated granulating Henschel mixer [Model: FM-300A (trade name); manufactured by Mitsui Miike Engineering Corporation] were 420 parts by weight of the inorganic filler A, 100 parts by weight of a crystalline ethylene-propylene block copolymer having an ethylene content of 12.8 wt.% and a MI of 42 g/10 min, 0.17 part by weight of calcium stearate, 0.17 part by weight of pentaerythrytyltetrakis-[3-(3,5-di-t-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl) propionate] and 0.08 part by weight of tris(2,4-di-t-butylphenyl) phosphite. The mixer was rotated at about 600 rpm under a nitrogen seal and 5 minutes later, the rotation of the mixture was speeded up to about 1200 rpm and continued at that speed of revolution. About 40 minutes later, the temperature in the tank reached 185°C. When the load current of a mixer started swinging widely due to gelation, a discharge valve was opened to transfer the contents to a cooling Henschel mixer [Model: 500C/K, trade name; manufactured by Mitsui Miike Engineering Corporation] and then the transferred contents were cooled in the cooling Henschel mixer at 300 rpm. After cooling, the thus-granulated composition was taken out of the cooling Henschel mixer and sifted, so that 205 parts by weight of a granular polypropylene resin having a grain size of 2 - 5 mm and containing the inorganic filler were obtained. (Content of the inorganic filler: 80.6 wt.%) (A-1). Various resins (a) shown in Table 2 were obtained in the same manner. On the other hand, 0.1 part by weight of calcium stearate, 0.1 part by weight of pentaerythrytyltetrakis[3-(3,5-di-t-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl) propionate] and 0.05 part by weight of tris(2,4-di-t-butylphenyl) phosphite were mixed with 100 parts by weight of a crystalline ethylene-propylene block copolymer powder (PP Powder-A) having an ethylene content of 6.8 wt.%, a MI of 8.0 g/10 min and a grain size distribution consisting of 3 wt.% of 3 mm and up, 17 wt.% of 1 mm (inclusive) - 3 mm (exclusive), 17 wt.% of 0.5 mm (inclusive) - 1 mm (exclusive), 57 wt.% of 0.1 mm (inclusive) - 0.5 mm (exclusive) and 6 wt.% of smaller than 0.1 mm. The resultant mixture was pelletized at 210°C to obtain a pelletized polypropylene resin having an average grain size of 2.5 mm (PP Pellet-A). Using this pelletized polypropylene resin and the aforementioned granular resin composition (A-1), they were blended at a ratio shown in Table 3. The resulting blend was then pelletized at 210°C by means of a single-screw extruder whose diameter was 40 mm. The pellets were molded into predetermined test pieces by an injection molding machine to measure various physical properties. In addition, the dispersibility of the filler was determined by the following method. In the above procedure, 1.0 part by weight of fine powder of an organic pigment composed principally of phthalocyanin blue was added to obtain colored pellets. The pellets were molded at 230°C into a plate of 80 × 160 × 2 mm by an injection molding machine whose mold was equipped with a pin gate. The surface conditions of the plate were visually observed to be determined in accordance with the following standard. ○: Free of flash and segregation due to poor dispersion of the filler. Δ: Some flash and segregation due to poor dispersion of the filler. X: Substantial flash and segregation due to poor dispersion of the filler. Results will be shown in Table 3. Referential Examples 1 - 3: The test of Example 1 was repeated in the same manner except that in place of the pelletized polypropylene resin and granular inorganic filler, PP Powder-A and Inorganic Filler A were used in their corresponding proportions to be given in Table 3. Results will also be shown in Table 3. Examples 4 - 11 and Comparative Examples 1 - 3: The test of Example 1 was repeated in the same manner except that the resin (a) was replaced separately by A-2 - A-12 given in Table 2. Results will be shown in Table 4. Comparative Example 4: The test of Example 2 was repeated in the same manner except that the pelletized polypropylene resin and Inorganic Filler A were used in their respective proportions to be given in Table 4. Results will also be shown in Table 4. Example 12: The test of Example 3 was repeated in the same manner except for the additional incorporation of 10 parts by weight of a pelletized ethylene-propylene copolymer rubber (EPR) having an ethylene content of 75 wt.% and Mooney viscosity of 28. Results will be shown in Table 5. Comparative Example 5: The test of Referential Example 3 was repeated in the same manner except for the additional incorporation of 10 parts by weight of EPR. Results will also be given in Table 5. In the test, separation between the powder portion and the pellet portion was observed in the hopper of the extruder.

Claims: A process for the production of a polyolefin resin composition containing an inorganic filler, which comprises (i) mixing a polyolefin resin and the inorganic filler, which has been pulverized together with a surface treatment agent in an amount of 0.01 - 5 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the filler, by a dry or semi-dry fluid-bed jet pulverizer, in an amount of 300 - 900 parts by weight of filler per 100 parts by weight of the polyolefin resin; (ii) granulating the resultant mixture by an agitated granulating means; and (iii) mixing the thus-granulated polyolefin resin (a) with an additional polyolefin resin (b) which is granular or pellet-like at a weight ratio of (a) to (b) in a range of from 1/99 to 80/20. The process according to claim 1, wherein the granulated polyolefin resin (a) has a grain size in a range of 0.3 - 7 mm. The process according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the granular or pellet-like polyolefin resin (b) has a grain size in a range of 0.1 - 10 mm. The process according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein 325 - 500 parts by weight of the inorganic filler is mixed per 100 parts by weight of the first-mentioned polyolefin resin. The process according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the polyolefin resin composition further contains 40% or less of an ethylene-propylene copolymer rubber or an ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer rubber on the basis of the weight of the polyolefin resin. The process according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the inorganic filler is selected from oxides of calcium and magnesium, hydroxides of calcium, magnesium and aluminium, carbonates of calcium and magnesium, silicates of calcium and magnesium, sulphates of calcium and barium, calcium sulphite, talc, mica, clay, dolomite and glass.

Inventors: ABE MASARU, HOSHINO MINORU, KAWAI YOICHI, SEKIGUCHI KATSUMI, ABE, MASARU, HOSHINO, MINORU, KAWAI, YOICHI, SEKIGUCHI, KATSUMI
Applicants: MITSUI TOATSU CHEMICALS, MITSUI TOATSU CHEMICALS, INC.
Application year: 1988
Main classification: C08J3
IPC codes: B29K103, B29B11, C08K3, B29K23, C08J3, B29B9, C08L23