Tubular Film Blowing

Tubular film blowing has long been used to produce biaxially oriented films using such thermoplastic polymers as low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP). Here, LDPE refers to a polymer that is synthesized by free-radical polymerization under high pressure (Fawcett et al. 1937). The discovery of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) in the 1980s via the Unipol process (Beret et al. 1986; Jones et al. 1985), which uses a low-pressure gas-phase process, has led to additions to the family of tubular blown films during the past two decades. The discovery of metallocene catalysts (Stevens and Neithamer 1991; Welborn and Ewen 1994) in the 1990s further increased the number of LLDPEs that have been used to produce tubular blown films during the last decade. To distinguish LLDPE from LDPE, LLDPE is sometimes referred to as low-pressure low-density polyethylene (LP-LDPE) and LDPE is referred to as high-pressure low-density polyethylene (HP-LDPE) (see Chapter 6 of Volume 1). In this chapter, however, we use the terminologies LDPE and LLDPE. As described in Chapter 6 of Volume 1, LDPE has a high degree of long-chain branching, while LLDPE has short-chain branching with little or no longchain branching. However, the metallocene catalysts apparently allow one to produce LLDPEs having a wide range of side chains, including a certain degree of long-chain branching. The details of the synthetic procedures for producing such a variety of LLDPEs are closely guarded industrial secrets. Biaxially oriented film can be strong and tough in all directions in the plane of the film. As in fiber spinning, the polymer melt exiting from the die flows under a mechanical tension in the direction of flow. However, in the film blowing process, the tube of molten polymer is extended in both the transverse and the axial (machine) directions. Therefore, rheologically speaking, the film blowing process may be treated from the point of view of biaxial elongational flow, whereas the fiber spinning process may be treated from the point of view of uniaxial elongational flow.