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Foaming of thermoplastic polyolefins (TPO) and thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) is gaining interest because of the lightweight and high performance to weight ratio of foamed automotive parts. Since foaming will occur mainly in the PP matrix in these PP-based automotive materials, understanding of the thermophysical properties of PP/gas mixtures is critically important. This paper will present a proposed methodology for measuring the swelling of polymer/gas mixtures. The preliminary experimental measurement of PP/N2 swelling at elevated temperatures and pressures will be discussed.

This paper demonstrates the effects of nano-clay on the microcellular foam processing of nylon. First, Nylon 6 nanocomposites with 1 wt% clay were prepared by a twin screw extruder. The nanocomposite structures were characterized by XRD and TEM. Nylon and its nanocomposites were foamed in extrusion using CO2. The cell morphologies of nylon and its nanocomposite foams were investigated. It appeared that the nano-clay not only enhanced cell nucleation, but also suppressed cell deterioration in the microcellular foaming of nylon.

Determination of the solubility of a blowing agent, i.e. supercritical CO2 or N2, in polypropylene (PP) is crucial for achieving high-quality PP and thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) foams. A magnetic suspension balance (MSB) was employed in the experiments to measure the apparent solubility, while the swollen volume predicted by the Sanchez-Lacombe (SL) equation of state (EOS) and Simha-Somcynsky (SS) EOS was used to account for the buoyancy effect. The gas solubilities for both linear and branched PP were calculated and the effects of branching on the swollen volume and gas solubility were discussed.