High Modulus Polyethylene Obtained with Injection Moulding

(Abstract)

There have been substantial efforts to produce high modulus materials based on polyethylene using techniques such as compression moulding, solid state extrusion, various drawing procedures, flow controlled crystallization etc. In our laboratory a commercial processing technique, i.e. injection moulding, has been employed to produce specimens of linear high molecular weight polyethylene containing, even though to a lesser degree, high modulus structure of a similar kind as obtained with the above methods. The injection moulding machine is designed to operate with injection pressures up to 500 MPa, to be compared with the normally used range of 150–200 MPa.