Abstract
Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a polyhydroxyl polymer with many excellent properties and wide uses. However, its applications are based on and limited in wet process due to its very close melting point and decomposition temperature. In this paper, based on the thermal processing technology of PVA developed in the State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering through molecular complexation and plasticisation and by cooperating with the Polymer IRC Bradford site, small scale injection moulding of modified PVA has been realised on the FANUC 5t injection moulding machine. The effect of the modifier content on the melt behaviour, melt crystallisation behaviour and rheological properties of PVA, and the effect of processing conditions on mechanical properties of PVA injection samples were studied. The transparent PVA injection samples with uniform structure and 42 MPa tensile strength were obtained with proper modifier content and at optimum processing conditions. This is a convenient way to produce high performance PVA three-dimensional products.
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