The Use of Ethylene/Styrene Interpolymers in Crosslinked Foams for the Footwear Industry

Abstract

Ethylene/Styrene Interpolymers (ESI) currently under development by The Dow Chemical Company can be effectively crosslinked using current commercial equipment to produce extruded sheets, bun foams, and injection molded foams (IMF) for footwear parts providing properties that enhance and/or outperform current foams of crosslinked ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers (EVA).

Crosslinked EVA foams with density ranging from 0.12 to 0.35 g/cc are becoming increasingly popular in many athletic, ladies high heel, and casual shoes for the fabrication of insoles, midsoles, and unisoles, where light weight, comfort, aesthetics, low cost, and performance are the key. ESIs can be blended with EVA or used pure to give light weight, softer foams with better compression set while maintaining or improving on resiliency, heat shrinkage, and split tear.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

1. Timmers, F.J. (December 30, 1997). The Dow Chemical Company. US Patent 5,703,187.

2. Cheung, Y.W. and Guest, M.J. (1996). In: SPE ANTEC Proceedings, 1634-1634.

3. Karjala, T.P. , Cheung, Y.W. and Guest, M.J. (1997). In: SPE ANTEC Proceedings, 1086-1086.

4. Mudrich, S.F. , Cheung, Y.W. and Guest, M.J. (1997). In: SPE ANTEC Proceedings, 1783-1783.

5. Chen, H. , Guest, M.J. , Chum, S. , Hiltner, A. and Baer, E. (1998). J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 70: 109-109.

6. Chang, A. , et al. (1998). In: SPE ANTEC Proceedings, 1803-1803.

7. Cheung, Y.W. , Guest, M.J. and Chum, P.S. (1998). In: SPE ANTEC Proceedings, 1798-1798.

8. Diehl, C.F. , Guest, M.J. , Chaudhary, B.I. , Cheung, Y.W. , Van Volkenburgh, W.R. and Walther, B.W. (1999). In: SPE ANTEC Proceedings.

9. Park, C.P. and Clingerman, G.P. (1997). Plast. Eng., 53: 97-97.

10.

10. Karjala, T.P. , Walther, B.W. , Hill, A.S. and Wevers, R. (1999) In: SPE ANTEC Proceedings.

11.

11. Guest, M.J. , Cheung, Y.W. , Betso, S.R. and Karjala, T.P. (1999). In: SPE ANTEC Proceedings.

12.

12. Oriani, S.R. and Karande, S.V. (August 29, 2000). The Dow Chemical Company US Patent 6,111,020.

13.

13. Karande, S.V. and Chaudhary, B.I. (1998). FOAMPLAS’98. In: Proceedings of Second Worldwide Conference on Foamed Thermoplastics Markets and Technology, 1-1.

14.

14. Chaudhary, B.I. and Barry, R.P. (May 1999). FOAMPLAS’99. In: Proceedings of Third Worldwide Conference on Foamed Thermoplastic Markets and Technology.

15.

15. Chaudhary, B.I. and Barry, R.P. (November 1999). Journal of Cellular Plastics, 35: 531-531.

16.

16. McKay, F.J., Timmers, E.R., Feig, T.H., Ho and Karande, S.V. (February 9, 1999). The Dow Chemical Company, US Patent 5,869,591.

17.

17. McKay, F.J., Timmers, E.R., Feig, T.H., Ho and Karande, S.V. (November 2, 1999). The Dow Company. US Patent 5,977,271.