Reactive polymer processing

This paper addresses some of the general engineering problems in reactive polymer processing: thermal effects on reactor stability and polymer properties due to rapid exothermic polymerization, the formulation of reaction viscosity relationships required in simulations, and the generation of flow and mixing via technology available from both ends of the viscosity spectrum, which is spanned in its entirety when going from monomer to molded polymer. Methods of analysis are discussed and general design concepts are suggested, which can be applied to the construction of innovative future processing equipment.