1. Introduction Ann Marie Lak, Global Technical Manager of Fibers and Textiles, GE Plastics, and Youssef Fakhreddine, Global Market Industry Manager, introduced their new Ultem flame-retardant materials at International Fiber Magazine. It is reported that California has announced extremely stringent mattress flame-retardant regulations. This will undoubtedly promote the development of fire protection material production research. Gray Color Grounding Fitted Sheet Earthing Bed Sheet,Earth Bed Sheet,Earth Ground Sheet,Earthing Grounding Sheet Shandong EMF New Material Technology Co., Ltd , https://www.earthingsilver.com
GE's Ultem resin material is ideally suited to meet the requirements of the California Technical Bulletin (TB) 603 standard for flame retardant bedding.
2, the overall situation Ultem polyetherimide (PEI) resin is widely used in the need for flame retardant and smoke diffusion materials, help manufacturers such as mattresses, Simmons and other products to prevent the open flame accelerated combustion products.
GE has never produced fiber materials with Ultem resin in the past, but its scientists and technicians are not afraid of hardships, and downstream manufacturers began to evaluate their potential functions for high-energy fabrics and conducted research. The California TB603 standard is about to be implemented to give bedding production. The company issued a warning because the latter used polyurethane foam and polyester flake to make products. The California Standards set forth technical requirements, including the use of high-performance raw materials and different mattress designs to solve this problem.
Another related issue is that halogen flame retardants release toxic fumes. The European Union regulations on the restriction of dangerous goods (RoHS) strictly prohibit the use of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which are often contained in flame retardants. California's standards are expected to be adopted by other regions, such as the National Consumer Safety Council (CPSC) announced the National Standard, requiring manufacturers to ensure that flame-retardant materials meet various market regulatory requirements.
3. Research and development process GE Ultem resin is an unformed high-performance polymer that exhibits outstanding high temperature resistance, strength, high modulus, broad spectrum chemical resistance, inherent resistance to combustion, and low smoke generation; glass ( The transition temperature is 217°C and the Relative Thermal Index (RTI) is 170°C. This polymer maintains its strength integrity at high temperatures.
Ultem resin products have been used for a long time in safety facilities and occasions that require strict flame-retardant standards, such as fireman’s helmets, aircraft and train interior decoration materials, etc. These are all materials that can be used as mattresses and beddings. The key factor.
Ultem resin is an amorphous structure and has high temperature resistance characteristics, and it will be difficult to extract fiber from Ultem resin. Due to the amorphous (non-crystalline) material, the contrasting crystal, it has a high viscosity, making it difficult to pass through the spinneret orifices when spinning, and the spinneret spinnerets are used in the production of textiles and nonwovens. Fine fiber needs. Crystalline materials, such as polyester and polypropylene, not only pass through the small holes when spinning, but also can be spun even more after being extruded. The crystalline polymer is stretched to straighten and align the molecular chains, so that the fiber strength is improved and more stable; on the contrary, stretching an amorphous resin, such as Ultem, etc., the stress generated when the fiber is heated will shrink, thus pulling Extend the trouble. When Ultem resin is extruded, the spinneret aperture must be as small as possible, but this will affect the spinneret assembly run time.
GE's Ultem resin has a relatively high melting temperature of 375-400°C, which is higher than that of conventional spun fiber resin materials. Therefore, there are fewer ready-to-use devices for processing this resin. Increasing the temperature of conventional heating equipment, such as electric heaters and hot oil passages, presents an unsafe condition. GE needs to find collaborators with development and scale production that have corresponding processing equipment and processing capabilities. In early 2003, GE cooperated with a U.S. company. This company specializes in processing thermoplastic polymers, including unusual materials such as Ultem resin, to produce synthetic fibers through a melt spinning process.
4. Optimizing the production process GE and its downstream manufacturers solved some technical problems and successfully spun out the first batch of Ultem fiber products. First, the resin itself must be finished to make it more conformable to the spinning process, especially to adapt Spinning fine fiber micro spinning hole. GE's resin products are mostly used for injection molding production, and its processing components are thicker than those produced by spinning; the sensitivity of the fiber-drawing process has prompted GE to improve the resin's performance and adapt to its processing sensitivity characteristics.
Secondly, downstream processing manufacturers' equipment must meet certain special requirements for adapting Ultem resin, such as 400 °C high temperature, uniform temperature distribution, short residence time (resin material in hot state), and no more than 10 minutes to prevent Degradation, low shear (also preventing degradation), low yield (relative to polyester resin materials, etc.) to accommodate higher viscosity of Ultem resin.
Finally, the process parameters, including temperature, production speed, and pressure, are optimized. The resin is processed in a normal melt extrusion process. The chips are first dried, melted in an extrusion head, passed through a multifilament spinning assembly, drawn, and guided. The coil is wound into a bobbin. GE and processors have mastered the effect of spinning hole size on the final fiber diameter, managing the relationship between melt temperature and melt strength as well as the draw ratio for the best fiber stability. The main performance index of the fiber whose monofilament fiber is 10 denier is:
Density (g/cm3) 1.27 Absorption (?) 0.25
Limiting oxygen index (LOI) 44 Strength (grams/denier) 2.2
Elongation at break (?)40 Modulus (g/den) 30.3
The initial research work was aimed at the upcoming implementation of the California regulations and was dedicated to the production of 10 dpf fibres for mattress padding fabrics. They started to produce coarser fibers for the sake of simplicity and feasibility, and they plan to gradually develop more detailed products for mass production.
With the success of the small-scale Pioneer experiment on 10 denier fiber, GE cooperated faithfully with Restonic Mattress Corp. to use Ultem fiber to make a new pad material that meets the TB 603 standard. Ultem Fiber was made of a nonwoven flame retardant barrier material by Western Nonwovens, placed between the foam core of the mattress and the outer fabric, and became Restonic's Ergo Sleep® mattress - the first to meet California.