Strain history of the melt in film blowing

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Abstract
Techniques have been developed for measuring the strain and thermal histories of fluid elements as they move from the die lips to the freeze line. Motion pictures were analyzed to determine the rates of extension in the machine and transverse directions. A radiation pyrometer was used to measure the temperature of the film. These techniques were used to study the film blowing of polyethylene; a 2.5‐in. diameter die was used, and blow‐up ratios in the range of 1.8 to 3.4 were employed. Film thickness ranged from 2 to 4 mils. The maximum measured extensional strain rates in both the transverse and machine direction were in the range of 0.15 to 0.6 sec−1. Standard shrinkage and impact tests were performed on the finished films, and an attempt was made to correlate the results with several simple empirical norms of the strain history. No correlation could be discerned. The results of this study are inconsistent with some popular ideas about the origin of orientation in blow films, but they are consistent with some recently published data on the influence of deformation on orientation in melt‐drawn capillary extrudate.