CONVERSION AND COMPOSITION PROFILES IN POLYURETHANE REACTION MOLDING.

Vital to the continued growth of RIM processing is a basic understanding of how the process influences the structure and properties of the polymer formed. Fusion of the skills of polymerization reactor designer and injection molding designer is required. Primary focus in this study is on the polymerization engineering aspects although naturally the two cannot be entirely divorced. More specifically, the authors describe experiments and modeling efforts aimed at elucidating the effects of nonuniform spatial distributions of temperature and conversion during linear polyurethane RIM polymerization on the molecular weight, molecular weight distribution sequence distribution, and ultimately, morphology and mechanical properties of RIM produced polyurethane.