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- TORAYPEF™ Polyolefin Foam
- Easy to process
Easy to process
TORAYPEF™ can be very easily processed. See below for comments on some general processing methods.
Shearing and cutting
TORAYPEF™ can be easily cut using scissors or a razor. Use an electric-powered saw or virtual cutter designed for cutting plastics or wood to rapidly cut clean surfaces when cutting large volumes of thick samples. A Thomson cutting machine designed for cardboard can be used to punch out sections or bore holes in TORAYPEF™. Machines used on general plastic sheets can be used to slit or make rectangular beads. A heated blade (hot-wire cutting machine) can be used, also, but it is easier to obtain clean-cut surfaces with a rotary blade.
Slicing
A slice machine using a rotary blade can easily slice TORAYPEF™ into the desired thickness down to 1 mm. Using similar methods, a profile cutter can be used to create waveforms on the surface.
Adhesion and heat fusion
TORAYPEF™ can be bonded using heat-welding or an adhesive. TORAYPEF™ can create a strong bond with another TORAYPEF™ surface, a steel plate or an aluminum plate by means of heat fusion. To easily perform heat fusion in a manual operation, use a hot-air gun or a Teflon-coated hot plate. TORAYPEF™ has been treated with electron-beam irradiation, so it has enhanced adhesiveness compared to ordinary non-cross-linked polyethylene foams. However, a sliced surface is porous, so apply adhesive liberally. Table 1 shows examples of adhesives that bond with TORAYPEF™. The SP grade comes with adhesive pre-coated at the factory. The EC grade features corona discharge treatment to improve adhesion.
| Name | Make | Component | Diluent | Usage | Counterpart substrates | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Diabond DC-761D(for summer) DC-6105 (for winter) |
Nogawa Chemical | Chloroprene | Toluene | Apply to both bonding surfaces, dry sufficiently, then paste together bonding surfaces. | Steel plates Aluminum plates Concrete Paper Wood Others |
Works with spray, roll-coating or brushing. All-purpose adhesive with good water-resistance |
| Saivynol EX-6E (for summer) EX-8 (for winter) |
Saiden Chemical Industry | |||||
| Aqueous bonding agent 7 | Sumitomo 3M | Acrylic | Water | Apply to one of the bonding surfaces, place in oven for some time, then paste to counterpart surface. | Concrete Others | Suited for applications where solvents cannot be used. |
| Hi-Bond DA-7663 |
Hitachi Kasei Polymer | Polyester | Toluene | Ask the manufacturer. | Effective with soft PVC sheets |
Extrusion lamination
Extrusion-laminate a polyethylene- or ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer to enhance tear strength or surface-wear strength.
Molding
TORAYPEF™ is a cross-linked, closed-cell polyolefin foam; general molding machines can be used without modification to perform vacuum-molding or press-forming. A sheet that had sagged but is taut again is suited for molding. The moldability of TORAYPEF™ varies by grade, but the PE grade exhibits a thermoforming ratio of about 0.5 using a straight method. The PP grade has a ratio of 0.6-1.0. Shrinkage in a molded product is about 2-3%, so exercise caution when designing the mold. If bridging is seen in the molded product, often changing the direction of the clamps will fix the problem. Besides TORAYPEF™ alone, laminates of TORAYPEF™ with a polyethylene sheet, polypropylene sheet, polyvinyl chloride sheet, an ABS sheet or a nylon knitted fabric can also be molded.
Surface treatment
Most printing methods such as gravure, silk-screen, offset and flexo printing methods can be used to print a sufficiently clear image on TORAYPEF™. Other processes such as embossing, flocking, coating or painting may also be used with TORAYPEF™.
These data are representative examples of measurement values obtained using specific conditions. The values should not be used as a standard.