A Study on Cell Morphology in Microcellular Foaming Process of Thermoplastic Elastomer

In the present study the effect of processing parameters on the foam morphology of batch processed ABS/TPU foams as a Thermoplastic Elastomer blends is reported. A microcellular plastic is a foamed polymer with a cell density greater than ۱۰۹ cells/cm۳ and fully grown cells smaller than ۱۰ µm. The microcellular ABS/TPU foam structures are developed by first saturating a polymer sample with a volatile blowing agent followed by rapidly decreasing the solubility of the blowing agent in the polymer. The microstructure of the foamed samples was controlled by carefully altering the processing parameters; saturation pressure, foaming temperature, and foaming time. Foam morphologies were characterized in term of cell density and average cell size. The resulting density and the foam morphology can be related to the pressure level duringthe saturation process. Results also show that the size of the generated cells mainly depends on the foaming temperature.