SPINNABILITY OF POLYMER MELTS - A COMPLEX PROBLEM IN BASIC RESEARCH

Melt spinning of polymer melts is a formation process making extremely high demands on the material's continuous deformation ability by high est deformation speeds. The structural conditions of a thermoplastic p olymer which are necessary for spinnability have not been exactly clea red up yet. But this knowledge gap must be closed especially with rega rd to the many efforts to spin fibers with new properties made from mo dified polymers of polymer blends. The article is begun with a pragmat ic definition of the spinnability of a polymer melt. The discussion of a structural rheological model shows a correlation between dynamic rh eological measurement datas of polymer melts and experimental experien ce about their spinnability. Proceeding from a comprehensive descripti on of possible failure cases (fiber beak problems), results of rheolog ical measurement of a number of different polymers, which are spinnabl e well, not as well or not at all, are compared. The article is conclu ded by some comments on open problems which have to be solved by basic research in the near future.