×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Help with plastic choice for invention

Help with plastic choice for invention

Help with plastic choice for invention

(OP)
Hi everybody.

An invention I am working on requires a flexible, highly gas permeable plastic that can be molded into very thin layers, about 90 microns.  Unfortunately, I have no idea where to start when it comes to plastic polymers. The plastic I have in mind would allow all the normal constituents of air - nitrogen, oxygen, argon, C02 etc - to very easily pass through the material.  I know that one problem with plastic piping is the fact that many plastics are permeable to gases; I want to take advantage of this property and maximize the permeability, so I thought this forum may be a good place to start doing research. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.      

RE: Help with plastic choice for invention

I think you will find that 90 micrometers will be impossible to produce via molding.  Plastic film at this thickness is produced by blown film extrusion.

RE: Help with plastic choice for invention

If you want flexibility and high permeability then you need elastomers (rubbers) not plastics. You can easily mold them thin, for example silicone sealant from Lowes or similar would be a good place to start. Polyurethanes and other types of elastomer would work well too.

Chris DeArmitt - PhD FRSC CChem
Plastic & Additives Webinars
Instant Downloads & Inexpensive
www.plastictraining.com

RE: Help with plastic choice for invention

If you're going to start with silicone sealant, be sure to get the more expensive pure unfilled silicone, not the cheaper stuff that's (perfectly adequate for caulking but) filled with other materials.

 

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: Help with plastic choice for invention

Dialysis film?

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

RE: Help with plastic choice for invention

Akzo Nobel make a product called Accurel. It was originally developed for dialysis, but the major application is water purification and desalination.

As the OP gives no quantitative requirements it is very difficult to advise. Very easy is a very vague statment. The lack of a list of what cannot pass through is a problem. I guess there are some things otherwise a woven fabric or seive would work.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &
http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm
for site rules
 

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources