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With China Plastic Machinery
EPE pearl cotton is a new type of environmentally friendly packaging material with a non-cross-linked closed-cell structure and countless independent bubbles formed by physical foaming of low-density polyethylene resin. Pearl cotton has the advantages of light weight, environmental protection, excellent chemical properties, ability to meet the needs of different packaging and smooth material surface. However, EPE pearl cotton also has disadvantages such as easy deformation, high cost and great production safety hazards.
The United States is the first country to use EPE pearl cotton packaging materials. In the late 1980s, EPE pearl cotton entered the Chinese market, and then entered the markets of Germany, Italy and other countries. In the early 1990s, pearl cotton developed rapidly to South Korea and Japan. As of the end of 2007, countries around the world are using EPE pearl cotton as packaging materials in large quantities.
EPE pearl cotton can be divided into strip and mesh pearl cotton according to its structure, low-density and high-density pearl cotton according to density, and can be used for packaging items, heat insulation, filling materials, and moisture-proof according to its use. The production process of EPE pearl cotton mainly includes foaming, compounding, cutting and other processes. After the semi-finished product comes out, it needs to undergo the next step of forming processing, such as oil pressing, hot sticking, beer making, etc.
EPE pearl cotton can be used in industrial, commercial and agricultural fields, such as anti-static packaging in the electronics industry, packaging and transportation of fragile goods and packaging and transportation of fruits. The development trend of pearl cotton is to manufacture environmentally friendly pearl cotton products with shorter degradation time; combine pearl cotton with other materials, such as developing high-performance insulation products; improve and upgrade the formula of materials to achieve pearl cotton function improvement, such as flame retardant and other functions; pearl cotton products can be customized according to customer needs. However, pearl cotton is difficult to recycle due to the immature recycling and reuse process; some new alternative materials have emerged, such as foamed polyolefin EPO and other competitive products with similar performance, and these alternative materials may compete with the market share of pearl cotton.
In 1941, DuPont in the United States first proposed to use nitrogen foaming to make polystyrene foam.
In the 1950s, polyethylene foam began to be industrialized as cable insulation.
In 1958, Dow Chemical Company in the United States adopted the method of directly injecting physical foaming agent dichlorotetrafluoroethane into the barrel of the extruder to produce non-cross-linked high-foam polyethylene.
In the early 1960s, the British Foaming Rubber and Plastic Company first began the industrial production of molded cross-linked polyethylene foam.
In the early 1970s, the Baden Aniline Caustic Soda Plant in West Germany used foamed or partially foamed round foam particles, heated and fused or bonded with adhesives, to form foam blocks, and then cut into thin slices. In 1973, Japan's Kanebashi Company used another expandable bead molding method to produce polyethylene foam. In addition, people have long used the leaching method to dissolve soluble solids or liquids, or oriented the mixture of components with different rheological properties through the orientation method to produce polyethylene foam.
Freon will destroy the atmospheric ozone layer and affect the living environment of human beings. Therefore, in 1987, the United Nations passed a resolution to restrict its use. In 1994, China's foam plastics industry formulated the "CFC Substitute Strategic Plan". China mainly develops a new process for producing high foam polyethylene (EPE) using butane as a foaming agent.
The United States is the first country to use EPE pearl cotton.
In the late 1980s, EPE pearl cotton packaging materials entered the Chinese market, ahead of countries such as Germany and Italy.
In the early 1990s, EPE pearl cotton quickly developed to South Korea, Japan and other countries.
As of the end of 2007, countries around the world are using EPE pearl cotton as packaging materials.
EPE pearl cotton, commonly known as polyethylene foam cotton, is a non-cross-linked closed-cell structure, and is formed by low-density polyethylene resin through physical foaming to produce countless independent bubbles. This material can provide good cushioning and heat insulation performance (this performance is due to its special small hole structure), as well as certain waterproofness and chemical corrosion resistance, so it is widely used in packaging, sound insulation, cushioning and other fields.
Low-density polyethylene is polymerized under high pressure of 100~300MPa using oxygen or organic peroxide as a catalyst, and is also called high-pressure polyethylene.
LDPE (low-density polyethylene) molecules are composed of methylene, which is not completely linear, but has long and short branches, and its molecular chain is similar to a dendritic structure.
Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is non-toxic, tasteless, and odorless, with a density of 0.910~0.940g/cm3. Compared with high-density polyethylene (HDPE), LDPE does have lower crystallinity (55%~65%) and softening point (90~100буC). It has excellent softness, extensibility, transparency, cold resistance (can withstand -70буC) and processability. It has good chemical stability and can withstand acid, alkali and salt aqueous solutions. LDPE has good electrical insulation and air permeability, low water absorption, and is easy to burn. However, LDPE is flammable and has a burning dripping phenomenon. The maximum operating temperature can reach nearly 100буC, the minimum operating temperature is -100~-70буC, and the heat deformation temperature is only 38~50буC, which limits its scope of use.
Low-density polyethylene is widely used in various industrial sectors and daily necessities due to its excellent comprehensive performance and good hygiene. Among them, low-density polyethylene film accounts for half of its total output. Cross-linked low-density polyethylene can improve its heat resistance, stress cracking resistance and strength, and is often used to manufacture high-frequency and submarine cable sheathing materials.
Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) has excellent electrical insulation properties and high-frequency performance, and is suitable for manufacturing the insulation layer of high-frequency cables and submarine cables. LDPE has excellent transparency, is easy to process and has extremely low surface tension, but requires pre-treatment to obtain good adhesion. It is suitable for food packaging, industrial product packaging, chemical packaging, agricultural film and architectural film, etc., such as as a raw material for the production of antistatic EPE pearl cotton.
Strip pearl cotton is a pearl cotton product with a strip structure. The advantage of strip pearl cotton is that it meets the needs of the product; the disadvantage is that the sheet or strip pearl cotton cannot be combed in time and is easy to be messy. The production process of pearl cotton cutting into blocks or strips mostly relies on manual work, and the work efficiency is low; the characteristic is the strip structure.
Net pearl cotton is a pearl cotton product with a mesh structure. The advantages are strong pressure resistance, good softness and environmental protection; the disadvantages are that the mesh structure is easy to deform, and the mesh structure cannot be used to pack fragile products on the entire surface, and the anti-collision ability is limited; the characteristic is the mesh structure, which is mainly used to pack fruits and provide protective materials for fruit transportation.
The density of EPE pearl cotton is generally 24~28kg/m3, that is, low-density pearl cotton. It has the advantages of being flexible, light and elastic, and can absorb and disperse external impact force by bending, thereby achieving a buffering effect.
High-density pearl cotton has a higher density and is more pressure-resistant. It is often used in products that require stronger protective performance. Compared with ordinary electric pearl cotton, high-density pearl cotton has higher hardness and load-bearing capacity, so it is not easy to compress and deform, and has better shockproof positioning effect; the characteristic is high density.
Packaging pearl cotton is widely used in home appliances, toys, furniture and other fields by providing cushioning and anti-extrusion protection to ensure that the products are not damaged during transportation and storage.
Filling pearl cotton is mainly used for filling materials, which plays a role of shockproof and anti-extrusion.
Insulation pearl cotton has excellent thermal insulation performance and is often used in building insulation and other fields.
Padding pearl cotton is used for furniture protection, floor padding, etc., and plays a shock-absorbing and buffering role.
Moisture-proof pearl cotton has a moisture-proof effect and is suitable for moisture-proof products such as wooden floor moisture-proof mats.
Medical pearl cotton has good sealing performance and strong antibacterial properties, and is suitable for medical antibacterial products such as medical masks.
Extrusion method: The extrusion molding of thermoplastics is to add granular or powdered plastics into the hopper and convey them forward through the rotating extruder. During the transportation process, the plastic continuously receives the heat generated by external heating and the shear friction between the screw and the material, and gradually melts into a viscous flow state. Under the action of the extrusion system, the molten plastic passes through an extrusion die mouth with a specific shape and a series of auxiliary devices (forming, cooling, traction, cutting, etc.) to form a plastic profile. The extrusion method is a plastic molding method with wide application, high production efficiency, low cost, simple equipment structure, strong adaptability, and convenient manufacturing and maintenance.
Melt cutting method: The melt cutting method is to directly cut the pearl cotton strips into sheets by tools such as hot knives in the extrusion stage without solidification. This method is relatively fast and suitable for the production of pearl cotton with large output.
Deep processing method: The deep processing method is applied in the deep processing stage of pearl cotton. By optimizing cutting and layout, the pearl cotton is used to the greatest extent to avoid waste. The production process is to calculate the cutting width according to the required size, calculate the size to layout the pearl cotton, and place the pearl cotton after layout inside the processor so that the layout marks on the surface of the pearl cotton are aligned with the cutter inside the processor. Finally, start the processor and process the pearl cotton according to the layout marks.
Printing method: The printing method is applied in the printing stage of pearl cotton. By selecting suitable carriers, preheating, pasting printing plates, placing printing rollers and supporting printing sheets, the printing of pearl cotton is realized.
The production process of pearl cotton is: raw materials-foaming-compounding-cutting-oil pressure-lamination/hot lamination-packaging. The production process of EPE pearl cotton mainly includes foaming, compounding, cutting and other processes. After the semi-finished product comes out, it needs to be processed in the next step, such as oil pressure, hot sticking, beer making, etc.
The raw materials of EPE pearl cotton mainly use low-density LDPE resin, which is foamed by adding some auxiliary materials. The main auxiliary materials are: foaming agent (butane), nucleating agent (talcum powder), anti-shrinkage (monoglyceride). Other auxiliary materials are: red masterbatch, white masterbatch, black masterbatch, antistatic agent, etc. EPE pearl cotton has two types of weighted materials and ordinary materials. The main formula is as follows: The ratio of recycled materials to raw materials is determined according to the inventory of recycled materials. The highest ratio is 1:1, and it is usually used at 3:1 (except for special requirements of customer products). The amount of talcum powder and butane gas used is proportional to the density and thickness of the product.
The additives of EPE pearl cotton include foaming agent, nucleating agent, stabilizer, colorant and antistatic agent. EPE pearl cotton needs to pay attention to the waves generated during foaming and extrusion. Antistatic EPE can be produced by adding antistatic agent during the production process, and the color can be adjusted by adding toner. The commonly used colors are red and white. For easy distinction, white is generally not antistatic EPE pearl cotton, and colored is antistatic EPE pearl cotton.
Compound refers to the compounding of thin coils into thick sheets. After the compounding is completed, the sheet needs to be placed for about 4 hours to allow the flammable liquefied gas to evaporate. When choosing a composite coil, you must first confirm whether the coil has reached the compounding period. The storage time of the coil is 15-20 days in winter and 7-15 days in summer. After the coil is foamed, there is a large amount of butane inside, and it must wait for the butane to evaporate before compounding. If the compounding period is not fully reached and forced compounding is carried out, it will cause problems such as blistering, delamination, scorching and fire, which will not only affect the quality, but also increase the loss. Only when the foaming gas in the coil is completely volatilized can the physical properties of the coil tend to be stable.
Cutting means cutting the composite sheet into smaller sheets to facilitate hydraulic operation, or directly cutting into semi-finished products, which are then sent to the subsequent process for lamination. The cutting machine is a relatively simple device.
Hydraulic refers to the process of using a hydraulic press to punch a sheet into a semi-finished product according to the shape of a knife die. In this process, there are two types of punching: positioning punching and non-positioning punching. Positioning punching causes the edge to be curved, while non-positioning punching does not produce a curvature on the edge.
Place the pasted surface on a high-temperature plate, melt the part that contacts the high-temperature plate, and then quickly paste it. The thickness loss of this method is 5 mm, because the pasted surface will be burned off by the hot plate during hot laminating. The characteristics of the hot laminating method are fast speed but low precision.
Apply the melted adhesive to the pasted surface and then paste it. This method will cause a thickness loss of 1.5 mm. This process is characterized by high precision, but slow speed, requiring the use of hot melt adhesive, and producing glue threads during the operation.
The finished product is packaged in PE plastic bags for easy later recycling.
EPE pearl cotton has excellent chemical and physical properties, can resist the erosion of many compounds, and has good weather resistance.
Compared with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with a rigid texture and not easy to break, EPE pearl cotton is soft and easy to deform.
The production process of EPE pearl cotton has high labor costs, low material utilization, high logistics and warehousing costs, and high production costs; and low production efficiency, quality control is relatively difficult.
The production process of EPE pearl cotton requires butane as a physical foaming agent, and the production site has great safety hazards during the production and storage processes.
EPE can be used to package fragile items. Due to its heat preservation and cushioning properties, EPE is widely used in the packaging and transportation of fragile items. Pearl cotton is widely used in high-end and fragile gift packaging such as electronic appliances, instruments, computers, glass, ceramics, and home appliances.
Pearl cotton has a unique bubble structure to prevent moisture and can be used as moisture-proof materials in buildings, such as moisture-proof floors.
Pearl cotton can meet the needs of anti-static by adding an appropriate amount of additives, and can be used as an anti-static material for electronic products.
Pearl cotton has a soft surface, high tensile strength, resistance to multiple impacts, good buffering performance, excellent shock absorption and impact resistance, and can be used for commodity packaging, such as gift packaging, wine bottle packaging, etc.
Pearl cotton is light, soft on the surface, has excellent shock absorption and impact resistance, and can be used to make soft furniture such as mattresses and cushions.
EPP has a unique bubble structure to keep warm, which can be used for greenhouse insulation and optimize the crop growth environment.
EPP has a unique bubble structure to resist oxidation, which can be used for fruit packaging and storage to maintain the freshness and quality of the fruit.
The Standardization Administration of China (SAC) has issued a series of national standards applicable to EPP, such as GB/T6348 (EPP insulation products) and GB/T6349 (EPP packaging).
The Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) has issued A9512-Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Boards for Thermal Insulation, which specifies the thermal insulation performance of EPP boards.
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has published the standard C578-Standard Specification for Rigid, Cellular Polystyrene Thermal Insulation, which covers the performance requirements and test methods of polystyrene foam insulation materials.
The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) has published the standard EN13163-Thermal Insulation Products for Buildings - Factory-Made Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Products, which specifies the performance requirements, test methods and marking of factory-made pearl cotton products for construction in Europe.
The standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO): ISO1043-2-Plastics - Symbols and Abbreviated Terms - Part 2: Fillers and Reinforcing Materials contains the symbols and abbreviations of plastic materials, including filling materials such as pearl cotton.
EPE can be customized according to customer needs. Environmental protection is one of the advantages of EPE, and manufacturers will continue to use this advantage to manufacture environmentally friendly products with shorter degradation time. Use EPE in combination with other materials to develop innovative products, such as high-performance thermal insulation products. By improving and upgrading the formula of materials, the functions of EPE can be improved, such as flame retardant.
Recycling issues: Although EPE is a recyclable material, in actual operation, due to the immature process of recycling and reuse, there are certain recycling difficulties and management challenges.
Competition of alternative materials: With the development of technology, some new alternative materials have emerged, such as foamed polyolefin EPO, which has similar performance. These alternative materials may compete with the market share of EPE.
Three-dimensional curled fibers are a kind of down-like fibers made by composite spinning or asymmetric cooling. It has high fluffiness, fine and ultra-fine three-dimensional curly fibers, and has good softness. As a filling material, the three-dimensional curly hollow fiber has excellent warmth retention and can be used in various ski jackets, bedding, etc. The polymer used to make the three-dimensional curly hollow fiber can be a modified polymer or a combination of polymers.
Surfactant Molecular distilled monoglyceride has the effects of emulsification, dispersion, stabilization, foaming, defoaming, and anti-starch aging, and is widely used in food, cosmetics, medicine, and fine chemical industries. The preparation of molecular distilled monoglyceride includes three parts: monoglyceride synthesis, separation and purification of monoglyceride using molecular distillation technology, and product spray condensation packaging. The synthesis of monoglyceride mainly uses two processes: esterification and alcoholysis.
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