Measurement and modelling of the film casting process

The Polymer Film Casting Process – An Overview

Cast film extrusion allows producing technical polymer films for packaging and coating applications. Different kinds of defects may be observed. For packaging applications, the challenge is to obtain very thin films in stable conditions at the highest throughput. For coating applications, the challenge is to master the film width reduction (called neck-in) and the induced non-uniform film thickness (called dog-bone defect). Well instrumented experiments point out the influence of the polymer and of the processing conditions on the occurrence of these defects. Numerical models of increasing complexity allow capturing the main experimental features and this makes possible to propose technological solutions to delay or even to suppress defects occurrence.

Cast Film Extrusion

Cast film extrusion is a widely used technique to produce polymer films for packaging or coating applications. The final width of the film may be smaller than the initial die width (necking phenomenon) and therefore is the final film thickness larger than what one could expect. Moreover it is heterogeneous (in terms of showing a larger thickness along the borders, also called dog bone defect). Above a critical draw ratio between the chill roll and the die both width and thickness fluctuations are observed (Draw Resonance Instability). All these phenomena limit the productivity of the process.

This paper provides an overview of the processing and material parameters governing the development of these geometrical defects and instabilities. Numerical models capturing the main experimental features are proposed, allowing to investigate process modifications in order to limit the development of these defects.