Flow property at capillary extrusion for ethylene–tetrafluoroethylene copolymer

Abstract

Abstract The capillary extrusion property of ethylene–tetrafluoroethylene copolymer (ETFE) is evaluated. It is found that ETFE shows several types of flow instabilities. The shark-skin failure is observed over the first critical shear stress 7.9 × 10 4 Pa. Then, the slip-stick instability is detected at 1.8 × 10 5 Pa, which corresponds to the critical stress of the slippage at the die wall, evaluated by the Mooney method. Moreover, gross wavy melt fracture appears at high out-put rate condition. It is interesting to note that quasi-stable flow region; so-called “super-extrusion”, is observed between slip-stick and wavy melt fracture regions. Because of the steady slippage, ETFE can be extruded at a high out-put rate condition without surface roughness and distortion of extrudates.