The role of PE wax in rubber and plastic processing

PE wax is a kind of lubricant and release agent with good external lubrication, which can be added to rubber and plastic to improve processing efficiency, surface gloss and wear resistance of products.

The mechanism of pe wax action in rubber processing.

The role of PE wax lubricant is to reduce the friction between the contact surface of polymer and processing machinery and between the polymerized molecular chains, the former becomes external lubricant and the latter is called internal lubricant.

Internal lubricant and polymer are compatible, at room temperature compatibility is small, while at high temperature compatibility increases accordingly.

The rate of lubricant incorporation into polymer is related to the compatibility of lubricant and polymer, and the size of compatibility depends on the molecular structure of lubricant and relative polymer polarity.

For PVX, lubricant and plasticizer can be regarded as the same substance, but lubricant polarity is lower and lubricant is less compatible with PVC than plasticizer.

A few lubricant molecules can penetrate between the polymer molecules, weakening the polymer part or even incompatible. In the process, it is easy to extrude from the mixture under pressure and migrate to the surface or outside the interface between the mixture and the processing machinery, the lubricant molecules are oriented and arranged with the polar groups toward the metal surface, forming a lubricant molecular layer through physical adsorption or chemical bonding, due to the mutual gravitational force between the lubricant molecules, making it easier for the polymer molecular chains to slide and rotate with each other during deformation.

The main feature of the lubricant is its low cohesion energy with small compatibility with the polymer, so it can reduce the friction between the polymer and the equipment surface and prevent it from sticking to the mechanical surface.

The viscosity of the lubricant interface film and its lubrication efficiency depend on the melting point and processing temperature of the lubricant. Generally, lubricants with long molecular chains have greater lubrication effect.

Polyethylene wax (PE wax), also known as polymer wax for short. It is widely used because of its excellent cold resistance, heat resistance, chemical resistance and wear resistance. In normal production, this part of the wax can be added directly to the polyolefin processing as an additive, which can increase the gloss and processing performance of the product.