POLYOLEFIN BLENDS FOR LID STOCK FABRICATION

Technical Field

This invention generally relates to peelable seals used in packaging applications. More particularly, the invention relates to peelable seals having desirable properties made from polybutylene and other polyolefinic materials. Background Art Peelable seals are well known in the art. These peelable seals include those made by blending polybutylene with incompatible polymers and using this blend as a seal layer. During peeling, cohesive failure occurs due to the incompatibility of the blend components. It is known that after blending, polymer pairs are not usually completely compatible. They are considered as qualitatively incompatible, semi-compatible, or compatible depending on whether two distinct or immiscible phase remain, or partial mixing of the polymers occur at the molecular level, or a single thermodynamically stable phase is formed. In most instances true miscibility is rarely attained, and it is sufficient if the polymers blend achieve the intended purpose.

Due to the incompatibility of the blend components used in the manufacture of peelable seals, controlled failure generally occurs within the sealant layer. This failure is largely induced by the weak intermolecular forces of the dissimilar materials, relative to the adhesive force at the interface of seal layer and the heat-sealed substrate. This failure is typically referred to as cohesive failure, and it generally results in a clean uniform separation.

However, it is also the case that cohesive failure sometimes result in residue of stringy materials left on the peeling surface. The stringy deposit is usually caused by either improper mixing/blending of polymer components, or

by the tensile property of the prefabricated film which competes with the sealing force during the peeling action. In spite of its origin the presence of the stringy materials is undesirable to end-users of the sealed products for inter alia hygienic, aesthetic, and health reasons.

In view of the wide and growing use of peelable seals in rigid packaging applications inclusive of food, medical devices, and pharmaceutical it is desirable to discover and to utilize polymer blends which are miscible or substantially miscible and/or to utilize techniques that avoids the formation of deposits of stringy materials as a consequence of cohesive failure. Disclosure of the Invention

It is a general object of the invention to provide for easy-opening peelable seals.

It is also an object of the invention to provide for easy-opening peelable seals which have desirable properties, including the non-formation or minimal formation of stringy deposits during cohesive failure. Accordingly, it is now provided a peelable seal made from a blend comprising polybutylene, high density polyethylene, low density polyethylene, and a mineral filler. The individual polymers are present in the blend in an amount within the range of from 5 to 70 wt%, but preferably from 10-35 wt%. The blend, as a polymer melt can be directly coated onto a suitable substrate. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

Polybutylene is often blended with other polymeric materials to form a partially miscible blend for easy- opening packaging applications. Typically films are made of such blends. Such films are either sealed onto itself, or onto other plastic containers to provide the sealing integrity of the containers. One drawback of this method is that the film has mechanical integrity such as tensile property which contributes to the formation of stringy deposits during peeling.

It is expected that a well-dispersed polymer blend having greater compatibility will avoid or minimize the formation of stringy deposits during cohesive failure. The blend of the present invention comprising polybutylene, high density polyethylene, low density polyethylene, mineral filler, and the process of coating the blend onto a suitable substrate is a novel and useful means of solving the problem of formation of stringy deposits during cohesive failure. The components of the blend, and the processes of the invention are more fully disclosed in subsequent portions of this specification.

The poly(1-butene) component of the blends of the invention is a semicrystalline 1-butene polymer. This polymer is suitably a homopolymer containing substantially only 1-butene moieties or is a copolymer having a major proportion of units derived from 1-butene and a minor proportion of units derived from a second α-olefin of up to 14 carbon atoms inclusive, e.g. ethylene, propylene, 1- hexene, 4-methyl-l-pentene, 1-octene or 1-tetradecene, or mixtures thereof. The poly(1-butene) blend component usefully contains up to about 30 mole% of such second α- olefins. When the poly(1-butene) is copolymeric, proportions of the second α-olefin range from about 0.1 mole% to about 20 mole%. The degree of crystallinity of the semicrystalline poly(1-butene) as measured by an X-ray diffraction method is from about 10% to about 60%, but preferably is from about 35% to about 60%. The crystallization temperature of the poly(1-butene) as measured by a differential scanning calorimeter is typically from about 30°C to about 90°C and the limiting viscosity number of the polymer, as determined by a conventional capillary viscosity measuring device in decalin at 135°C, is from about 0.8 dl/g to about 8 dl/g, more often from about 1 dl/g to about 6 dl/g. The poly(l- butene) has a melt index of from 1-40 gm/10 mins. and preferably of from 3-20 gm/10 mins. Such poly(1-butene) polymers, both homopolymeric and copolymeric are

commercially available, and can be obtained from Shell Chemical Company, Houston, Texas.

High density polyethylene (HDPE) , with an essentially linear structure can be produced in several ways, including radical polymerization of ethylene at extremely high pressure, stereoregular polymerization using a reduced transition metal catalyst, and with supported metal oxide catalyst. HDPE is most commonly manufactured by either a slurry process or gas phase process. Typically high density polyethylene is a highly crystalline polymer, containing less than one side chain per 200 carbon atoms in the main chain. Melting point is above 130°C, about 20 to 25°C higher than low density polyethylene, and density is in the range of from 0.94 to 0.97 gm/cc. A typical example of high density polyethylene used in this invention is Quantum Petrothene LS 6180-00, which has 22 melt index, and a density of 0.962 gm/cc.

Most of the differences in properties between branched and linear polyethylene can be attributed to the higher crystallinity of the later polymer. Linear polyethylene, or HDPE, is stiffer than the branched materials, and has a higher crystalline melting point and greater tensile strength and hardness.

Low density polyethylene which is useful in the practice of this invention is a thermoplastic obtained through the high-pressure free radical polymerization of ethylene. Conventional low density polyethylene is manufactured by one of two processes, tubular or autoclave. In both processes, high purity ethylene and an initiator are introduced into the reactor at high pressures and temperatures. The initiator may be either oxygen or an organic peroxide.

Unlike the linear structure obtained in other polyethylene processes, the low density polyethylene, with density normally of from 0.89 to less than 0.94 gm/cc, has a branched structure resulting from the high pressure process. The branching gives conventional low density

polyethylene its distinctive properties of clarity, flexibility, and ease of processability.

Any low density polyethylene that has a density of 0.94 gm/cc or less, and melt index of 2 to 15 can be used in the formulation. A typical example of low density polyethylene used in the formulations is Chevron Poly-eth 1019, which has 14.5 melt index and a density of 0.92 gm/cc. All mineral fillers are useful in the practice of this invention, and are present in the blend in an amount of from 1-10 wt%. The preferred mineral filler is talc having a particle size of from about 0.5-7 microns, but preferably of less than 2 microns. The designation talc covers a wide range of natural products. For reporting purposes, the United States Bureau of Mines considers talc, soapstone, and pyrophyllite as one group. The mineral talc is a hydrated magnesium silicate. Compositions will vary depending on the locality from which the talc is mined. Commercially available talc often contains calcite, dolomite and other inorganic components. The presence and the relative amounts of those various contaminants of talc are also often indicative of the area from which it is mined.

There are several forms of ore from which talc products can be made. The commercial grades of talc used for plastic applications are fine ground products consisting of thin platelets. Due to the platy nature of this special form of talc, it is considered to be a reinforcing filler to distinguish it from the other particular mineral fillers.

Plastics filled with a platy talc always exhibit a higher stiffness and creep resistance, both at ambient and elevated temperatures. However, in order to maximize these enhanced properties, it is essential that proper melt compounding techniques be used to incorporate talc into the polymer. Proper compounding of the fine talc particles requires all the special melt compounding actions: smearing, folding, stretching, wiping, compression, and shearing, to fully wet the talc particles with molten polymer and to

achieve a high degree of dispersion resulting in a homogeneous composite.

The purpose of adding talc to the polymer compound is to improve the die cutting of the lid stock from the web, and to eliminate stringing during peeling. A typical example of talc used in the formulations is Microtuff F talc, available from the Minerals, Pigments and Metals Division of Pfizer Inc.

The heat sealing layer can be made with a number of conventional molten polymer processing techniques. Blow film and cast film processes are a few examples. In these processes, plastic films having certain mechanical integrity, such tensile strength and elasticity modulus, were made. Often times, due to the nature of the processing technique used, film properties in the machine direction are higher than these in the transverse direction. The high and unbalanced mechanical properties of these films are considered not suitable for cohesive failure susceptible peelable films. This is because during peeling, the tensile property of the film competes against the adhesive force between the sealing layers so that instead of a clean, cohesive peeling, stringing of the film results rendering the product unacceptable.

In extrusion coating, a continuous curtain of molten polymer mixture extruded from a slot die is applied to a moving web of suitable substrate such as paper, board, film, or foil. The thin gap between a nip of a rubber roll and a chill roll spreads and squeezes the molten polymer to form a thin layer of coating on the surface of substrates. The invention is further illustrated by the following non-limiting example. Example

Twenty weight percent (20 wt%) of Shell polybutylene PB0300, 50% wt. of Quantum Petrothene LDPE NA 205-000, (3 MI, 0.924 in density), 25% of Quantum Petrothene HDPE LS 6180-00, and 5% Pfizer Microtuff F talc were mixed and tumbled together for 30 minutes before being fed into

a twin-screw extruder for melt compounding. The extruder temperature profile was set at the range of 200°C to 230°C. The resulting blend had a density of 0.925 gm/cc and 10 MI, as polybutylene particles in less than 1 micron size, and the talc particles, were uniformly dispersed in the polyethylene mixture matrix.

The polymer blend was used for making lid stock web using co-extrusion coating process in which Dow Primacore 3440, ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer was used as the tie layer to bond the polymer blend onto a pre-selected coating substrate. The coating substrate used include aluminum foil, paper, and a high temperature polymeric films, such as polyester. The co-extrusion coating temperature ranged from 300°C to 320°C, and the coating thickness was about 10 to 15 micron for each coating layer.

The co-extruded web was then die cut into lid stock, which was used to heat seal polypropylene or polyethylene containers. The lid stocks were then heat- sealed onto the flange area of cups, trays, and containers made from polypropylene or polyethylene in order to complete the sealing of the packaging. The sealed containers were tested to ensure that they are hand-peelable by hand peeling some of the containers. The peeling resulted in a stringy- free cohesive failure of the lid stock from the containers. The peel strength of this lid stock was measured to be about 450 to 1200 gm/15mm, depending upon the sealing conditions.

While this invention has been described in detail for the purpose of illustration, it is not to be construed as limited thereby but is intended to cover all changes and modifications within the spirit and scope thereof.