The spitting problem of PVC plastisols on the knife coating is well-known but still remains to be elucidated.
Effects of plastisol compositions on the spitting together with the correlations between viscosities of the plastisols and the spitting were studied.
Simplified plastisols which consist of PVC resin (s) and a plasticizer were prepared at solid volume fraction (PVC fraction) of 0.505-0.613. Viscosities at the shears from 1 sec
-1 to 10
3 sec
-1 were measured with Rotovisco double cylinder, cone-and-plate systems and Brookfield type viscometers. The spitting behavior was observed with a miniature knife coating tester under accelerated conditions. Four kinds of PVC resins and seven kinds of plasticizers were employed to examine the effect of plastisol composition on the spitting and plastisol viscosities. Also, the coating velocity was varied.
To avoid unfavorable spitting, low viscosity of the plastisols and low solid volume fraction are desirable in general. Care must be taken when low viscosity plasticizers such as DOA, DBS are formulated, because the spitting is liable to develop in spite of their low viscosity properties. At higher coating velocities, the plastisol viscosities should be reduced roughly inversely proportional to coating velocity.
It was found that the rheological dilatancy was not essential to the spitting problem.
Vicosities at about 10 sec
-1 and Casson K
1 values estimated from viscosities at 1-10 sec
-1 have closer relation to spitting behavior than the viscosities at shear rate (about 10
3 sec
-1) calculated from coating velocity and clearance.
These results suggest that the spitting problem is related to the transition of particle flow pattern form stable layer to unstable dilatant in plastisol.
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