Effect of vibration extrusion on the structure and properties of high‐density polyethylene pipes

AbstractBACKGROUND: The axial strength of a plastic pipe is much higher than its circumferential strength due to the macromolecular orientation during extrusion. In this work, a custom‐made electromagnetic dynamic plasticating extruder was adopted to extrude high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes. A vibration force field was introduced into the whole plasticating and extrusion process by axial vibration of the screw. The aim of superimposing a vibration force field was to change the crystalline structure of HDPE and improve the molecular orientation in the circumferential direction to obtain high‐circumferential‐strength pipes.RESULTS: Through vibration extrusion, the circumferential strength of HDPE pipes increased significantly, and biaxial self‐reinforcement pipes could be obtained. The maximum increase of bursting pressure and tensile yield strength was 34.2 and 5.3%, respectively. According to differential scanning calorimetry and wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction measurements, the HDPE pipes prepared by vibration extrusion had higher crystallinity, higher melting temperature, larger crystal sizes and more perfect crystals.CONCLUSION: Vibration extrusion can effectively enhance the mechanical properties of HDPE pipes, especially the circumferential strength. The improvement of mechanical properties of HDPE pipes obtained by vibration extrusion can be attributed to the higher degree of crystallinity and the improvement of the molecular orientation and of the crystalline morphology. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry