1. Scope

1.1 This practice covers a means to separate the unmolten particles, gels, and impurities contaminating a polymer sample. The procedure may be used to remove gels and incompatible materials that may cause imperfections in the final extruded product. Under pressure, most gels will break up or deform and pass through a wire mesh filter, however high molecular weight gels may not break up or deform.

1.2 If desired, materials isolated on a wire mesh filter can subsequently be identified by spectroscopic or other analytical means.

Note 1Although not presented as a quantitative method, the procedure presented in this practice may be used to provide quantitative results at the discretion of the user. The user assumes the responsibility to verify the reproducibility of quantitative results. Detection limit depends on the mesh size of the filter screen, but the procedure is generally applicable to the separation of immiscible contaminants present at concentrations greater than 0.1 %.

1.3 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as the standard.

1.4 This standard does not purport to address the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use. For specific hazards statements, see Section 8.

Note 2There is no equivalent ISO standard.

2. Referenced Documents (purchase separately) The documents listed below are referenced within the subject standard but are not provided as part of the standard.

ASTM Standards

D1238 Test Method for Melt Flow Rates of Thermoplastics by Extrusion Plastometer

D1600 Terminology for Abbreviated Terms Relating to Plastics

D7209 Guide for Waste Reduction, Resource Recovery, and Use of Recycled Polymeric Materials and Products

Keywords

contamination; extruder filtration test; polyolefins; recycled plastics; Contamination--plastics; Contamination separation; Damage assessment--plastics; Delamination--plastics; Extruder filtration test; Fiber-reinforced composites; Polymer matrix composite materials; Polyolefin (PO); Quasi-static indentation force;

ICS Code

ICS Number Code 83.020 (Manufacturing processes in the rubber and plastics industries)

DOI: 10.1520/D6265-98R03

ASTM International is a member of CrossRef.