Patent Application
20180036932
This disclosure relates to a method of producing a microporous plastic film.
Microporous plastic films have been broadly used as a substance separation membrane, permselective membrane, separator material of an electrochemical element such as an alkali rechargeable battery, lithium rechargeable battery, fuel cell and capacitor or the like. A separator for a lithium ion battery is a particularly suitable application.
JP 2009-249480 A and JP 2013-530261 A disclose a wet process for producing a microporous film made of plastic like polyolefin. In the wet process, a diluent such as liquid paraffin is added to a polymer, kneaded and dispersed, and then discharged through a die lip onto a cooling drum to be cooled and solidified to form a gel sheet, which is oriented uniaxially or biaxially by a roller or tenter method to improve strength to produce a film having micropores by extracting the diluent.
Particularly by the roller method drawing the sheet in the travelling direction by a plurality of rollers, the lengthwise draw ratio can be changed freely by only changing a roller speed. By the other tenter method, the microporous plastic film can be improved in mechanical properties because polyolefin molecules can be oriented with strong orientation in the drawing direction. As disclosed in JP 2009-249480 A, the roller method applied to the wet process might make the diluent bleed out from a gel sheet surface under a pressure caused by heat or tension while the conveying and drawing are performed in the presence of the diluent between film and roller surface. To draw such a gel sheet, the sheet is sufficiently cooled below the crystallization ending temperature of the polymer and is heated again below the melting point as disclosed in JP 2013-530261 A where it is heated above the crystallization dispersion temperature.
The wet roller method disclosed in JP 2009-249480 A might have a problem that the diluent intervening between the roller and film lubricates to meander or fail a desirable draw ratio because of slip.
According to JP 2009-249480 A, the above-described slip can be prevented when a tension over the lengthwise draw tension is given between the lengthwise drawing machine and the lateral drawing machine (tenter), wherein the tension should preferably be greater than the draw tension by 20%. However, we found that such a great tension over the draw tension drew the sheet downstream of the lateral drawing machine to cause an undesirable slip adversely.
According to JP 2013-530261 A, a predetermined range of contact time, contact angle and contact length between the lengthwise drawing roller and the sheet can prevent the slip and the sheet surface from being damaged. However, we found that even such measures couldn't fully prevent slip when we had an increased draw speed, a decreased draw temperature or an increased draw ratio to improve physical properties and mechanical properties of the microporous plastic film.
Accordingly, it could be helpful to provide a method of producing a microporous plastic film excellent in physical properties and mechanical properties by a high-speed drawing without slip under a high productivity.
We thus provide a method of producing a microporous plastic film comprising: kneading a diluent and a polyolefin resin with an extruder; discharging the polyolefin resin kneaded with the diluent from a die lip in a sheet shape; cooling and solidifying the sheet discharged from the die lip on one or plurality of cooling drums; reheating and drawing the solidified sheet with a plurality of rollers in a sheet conveying direction; cooling the sheet drawn in the sheet conveying direction; gripping both ends of the sheet with clips; introducing the sheet into a tenter; and washing the diluent out to prepare a uniaxially or biaxially oriented microporous plastic film, wherein the method further comprises: driving each of at least two of the rollers by a motor; bringing each surface of two rollers (A) and (B) among the at least two of the rollers each driven by the motor into contact with a surface of the sheet opposite to another surface contacting a first cooling drum defined as a cooling drum which first contacts the sheet discharged from the die lip among the cooling drums; and controlling each rotation speed of the rollers (A) and (B) to draw the sheet substantively between the rollers (A) and (B).
It is preferable that the sheet is nipped with a nip roller substantively along a tangent line to start contacting at least one of the drawing rollers (A) and (B).
It is also preferable that the roller (A) and the roller (B) are adjacent to each other.
It is also preferable that a plurality of pairs of roller (A) and roller (B) are provided in a lengthwise drawing process.
It is also preferable that a cooling roller is provided as a roller most downstream among one or more pairs of roller (A) and roller (B).
“Nip” means pressing a sheet as being interposed with rollers. “Nip roller” means one of the two rollers used to press the sheet interposing therebetween, the one being pressed onto the other one facing to the one by moving to press the sheet interposing therebetween.
We can produce, with high productivity, a microporous plastic film having excellent physical properties and mechanical properties by preventing slip even in wet roller drawing.
Hereinafter, desirable examples of our microporous plastic film will be explained with reference to the figures.
To desirably produce microporous plastic film 11, polyolefin resin is mixed with diluent and heated to melt to prepare polyolefin solution. The diluent decides a structure forming micropores of the microporous plastic film and contributes to improvement of drawability (for example, improvement as reduction of unevenness at a draw ratio for exhibiting a strength) at the time of drawing film.
The diluent is not limited particularly, as far as it can be mixed or dissolved with polyolefin resin. The diluent may be mixed with polyolefin in a melt-kneading state. Alternatively, it may be mixed with solid solvent at room temperature. Such prepared solid diluent may be stearyl alcohol, ceryl alcohol, paraffin wax or the like. It is preferable that the diluent is a liquid at room temperature from the viewpoints of prevention of uneven drawing and coating convenience at a later stage. The liquid diluent may be a fatty series such as nonane, decane, decalin, paraxylene, undecane, dodecane and liquid paraffin; a cyclic fatty series or an aromatic hydrocarbon; a mineral oil fraction having a boiling point of the same range as the compounds thereof; or a phthalate ester such as dibutyl phthalate and dioctylphthalate which are liquids at room temperature. To obtain a gelled sheet stably containing liquid diluent, it is preferable to employ a nonvolatile diluent such as liquid paraffin. For example, it is preferable that the liquid diluent has a viscosity of 20 to 200 cSt at 40° C.
It is preferable that the polyolefin resin of 10 to 50 mass % is mixed with the diluent in total 100 mass % of polyolefin resin and diluent, from a viewpoint of good formability of extruded product. The polyolefin resin solution may be melt-kneaded uniformly by a calendar, mixer or extruder 21 having a screw as shown in
It is preferable that the polyolefin solution in extruder 21 has a predetermined temperature of 140 to 250° C. for polyethylene composition and 190 to 270° C. for polypropylene-containing composition, depending on resin kind. A thermometer is provided inside extruder 21 or in a cylinder section to monitor a temperature indirectly and properly adjust the heater temperature, rotation speed and discharge rate of the cylinder section to control the temperature in a target range.
The polyolefin solution that has been melt-kneaded by extruder 21 is discharged through a slit section of die lip 23 into a sheet while it is measured with gear pump 22 as needed. Such discharged gelled sheet 12 is solidified as contacting first cooling drum 31. Gelled sheet 12 becomes a pillar part with crystal structure made of the polyolefin supporting pores of microporous plastic film 11. Gelled sheet 12 becomes in a gel state since it includes the diluent melt-kneaded in extruder 21. A part of the diluent bleeds out from sheet surface by cooling gelled sheet 12 so that the sheet with wet surface made by the diluent is conveyed on first cooling drum 31.
The thickness of gelled sheet 12 can be adjusted by adjusting the cooling drum speed relative to the flow rate from the die lip slit section according to discharge rate.
It is preferable that first cooling drum 31 has a temperature of 15 to 40° C., which may affect the crystal structure of gelled sheet 12. This is because the final cooling temperature should be below the crystallization ending temperature. The molecular orientation tends to advance in a later drawing process when the higher-order structure is fine. To make up for cooling time, it is possible that the diameter of first cooling drum 31 is enlarged, another cooling drum 32 is added to first cooling drum 31 or a plurality of cooling drums are further added. To make the crystal structure precise and uniform in gelled sheet 12, it is preferable that a parameter such as conveyance speed, drum temperature, drum size and the number of drums, is designed in view of the cooling speed. For example, even when a target sheet temperature is 30° C., first cooling drum 31 may be around 20° C. because a too high speed might cause insufficient heat conduction. It is preferable that humidity is lowered by air conditioning when the temperature is below 25° C. First cooling drum 31 may have a shape of a roller or belt. It is preferable that a surface of first cooling drum 31 is made of metal, ceramic or fiber composite material, which is excellent in shape stability and working accuracy to keep the roller speed constant. It is particularly preferable that the surface is made of a metal excellent in heat conduction to a film. It is possible to perform non-adhesion coating or rubber coating on it to the extent that conduction is not obstructed. It is preferable that the surface of sheet and roller are made of metal including metal plating which is excellent in scratch resistance and heat conductivity and not swelled by the bled-out diluent making wet state on the surface.
It is preferable that the roller has a surface roughness of 0.2 to 40 μm at the maximum height. To make a mirror surface, the surface roughness is preferably 0.2 to 0.8 To make a sufficiently rough surface, the surface roughness is preferably 20 to 40 Because the surface of the roller is wet with the diluent, the mirror surface has a low coefficient of friction caused by lubrication. The rough surface has an increased coefficient of friction caused by less or no lubrication because the diluent discharges from the unevenness. Although the mirror surface and the rough surface may be combined as needed, it is basically preferable that the mirror surface is provided from the viewpoints of maintenance such as cleaning and speed control precision, preferably with a certain lubricant with diluent to prevent the sheet from having uneven appearance.
It is preferable that first cooling drum 31 and second cooling drum 32 are provided with a conventional heat pump or cooling device in addition to an internal flow path for refrigerant to control the surface temperature. The roller is driven to rotate by a rotation driving means such as motor at a predetermined speed while a speed-changing mechanism may be provided between rollers to apply draw tension or relaxation according to expansion and shrinkage of the sheet. Alternatively, each roller may be provided with a motor to achieve function like the speed-changing mechanism by accurately adjusting the speed by inverter or servo.
In
To prevent wet gelled sheet 12 from meandering or degrading the cooling efficiency by lubrication, it is possible that the sheet is pushed onto drum 31 with a contacting means such as nip roller, jet nozzle, suction chamber and electrostatic application. Such a contacting means can improve the travelling property and cooling efficiency of gelled sheet 12 to enable easy setting of the cooling speed and the final cooling temperature.
Other than first cooling drum 31, it is preferable that gelled sheet 12 is depressed with a nip roller onto second cooling drum 32 or other conveying roller to increase coefficient of friction which has been decreased on the mirror surface. It is preferable that the surface of nip roller is made of rubber-like elastic material which can depress gelled sheet 12 uniformly onto uneven thickness of gelled sheet 12, deflection of roller and slight surface unevenness, while the material is preferably a general vulcanized rubber such as Nitrile isoButylene-isoprene Rubber (NBR), Chloroprene Rubber (CR), Ethylene Propylene Rubber (EPDM) and Hypalon rubber (CSM). When gelled sheet 12 or conveying roller has a high temperature like 80° C. or higher, it is particularly preferable to employ the EPDM or CSM. Under a higher temperature, it is preferable to employ a silicone rubber or a fluorine rubber as well as the vulcanized rubber. It is preferable to employ a rubber which is little swelled by diluent to prevent the roller from having a distorted shape over time.
Next, gelled sheet 12 is oriented in a sheet-conveying direction with a plurality of roller groups in lengthwise drawing process 4, and then both ends of uniaxially oriented sheet 13 are gripped by a conventional clip to be oriented in a sheet width direction (direction orthogonal to the conveying direction) while the sheet is conveyed in the travelling direction while heated and kept warm in an oven. Such a drawing process can achieve a high productivity and characteristics such as strength and air permeability of microporous film. The drawing process in the sheet-conveying direction (which may be called “lengthwise drawing”) as well as driving process is performed with a roller having a metal surface and a temperature control mechanism such as conventional heater inside. To ensure the freedom of roller path, it is possible to provide an idler roller which is not driven and not shown in
Alternatively, like first cooling drum 31, it is preferable that heating roller group 41 or drawing roller group 42 has an internal structure in which the roller is provided with a flow path for heat medium such as vapor and pressured hot water. It is possible that the roller is supported as rotatable with bearings and a shaft end connects to a heat-medium supply pipe with a rotary joint for supplying heat medium without obstructing the rotation of roller to supply heat medium to the inside.
It is preferable that the drawing is performed at a draw ratio of 5 to 12 in a sheet conveying direction although depending on the gelled sheet thickness. To improve strength and productivity, it is preferable that the drawing is performed at an area ratio of 30 or more in a sheet width direction as needed together with the sheet conveying-directional drawing. It is preferable that the area ratio is 40 or more, preferably 60 or more.
It is preferable that a drawing temperature is a melting point of polyolefin resin or less. It is preferable that the temperature is in a range of [crystal dispersion temperature Tcd of polyolefin resin] to [melting point of polyolefin resin]. For example, it is preferable that the temperature is 80 to 130° C. for polyethylene resin, preferably 100 to 125° C. After drawing, a cooling process is performed down to these temperatures.
Thus performed drawing cleaves a higher order structure formed on the gelled sheet to miniaturize crystal phase and form many fibrils. The fibrils are three-dimensionally connected irregularly to form a web structure. It is suitable for a battery separator because the drawing improves mechanical strength and enlarges fine pores.
Thus obtained uniaxially oriented sheet 13 or biaxially oriented sheet 14 can be washed to remove diluent and dried up to make microporous plastic film 11 by a conventional technology as disclosed in WO2008/016174. To make microporous plastic film 11, it is possible that dry drawing process 7 is performed to reheat and re-draw the sheet after washing process 6. Re-drawing process 7 may be performed with a roller or a tenter. Also, heat treatment may be performed to adjust physical properties and remove residual distortion through the process. Depending on intended purposes, it is possible that the surface of microporous plastic film 11 is subject to a surface treatment such as corona discharge or functional coating with heat-resistant particles.
In
Gripping force (frictional force) is necessary between the roller and gelled sheet 12 to convey gelled sheet 12 without meandering in a travelling direction. Particularly in the drawing part where a high tension is generated by drawing, a high gripping force balancing the drawing tension is required to achieve a necessary draw ratio. The diluent having bled out as described above interposes between the roller and gelled sheet 12 in lubrication state to cause a deterioration of the gripping force required for conveyance and drawing.
We found that there is a correlation between the cooling speed by first cooling drum 31 and surface state of gelled sheet 12 causing the deterioration of gripping force. As described above, the temperature of first cooling drum 31 greatly influences the crystal structure of gelled sheet 12. When gelled sheet 12 in a fusion state is solidified by cooling on first cooling drum 31, the faster the cooling speed is the more precise the crystal structure is, while the slower it is the more coarse the crystal structure is. We found that the lubricating diluent tends to make it slippery when the cooling speed is faster and the crystal structure is more precise. We also found that the amount of diluent bleeding out of a surface contacting first cooling drum 31 is greater at a part from cooling drum 31 to the heating section of lengthwise drawing process 4.
Gelled sheet 12 is quenched on first cooling drum 31. It is preferable that a surface of gelled sheet 12 opposite to the surface contacting first cooling drum 31 is cooled by air nozzles or refrigerant-flowing nip roller 33 as described above so that inner layer part of gelled sheet 12 can be crystalized as uniformly as possible in the thickness direction. First cooling drum 31 contacts gelled sheet 12 to directly transfer heat at a cooling efficiency higher than air nozzles and air chambers. The refrigerant-flowing nip roller as shown in
Although heating roller group 41 and drawing roller group 42 are common to each other in terms of heating and heat-keeping function of gelled sheet 12 and variable roller rotation speed, drawing roller group 42 comprises a roller to substantively draw gelled sheet 12 and generates a peripheral speed difference to permanently deform gelled sheet in the travelling direction. More particularly, drawing roller group 42 is defined as rollers that substantively draw it as generating 3% or more of peripheral speed difference relative to the upstream roller.
Rotation speeds of roller (A) and roller (B) are controlled to perform a drawing while surfaces of roller (A) and roller (B) contact the surface opposite to the surface contacting first cooling drum of gelled sheet 12 in lengthwise drawing process 4, wherein roller (A)/(B) may be a roller at upstream/downstream side of drawing roller group 42 in
When roller (C) which contacts the surface contacting first cooling drum 31 is provided between roller (A) and roller (B) among rollers contacting the surface opposite to the surface contacting first cooling drum 31 of gelled sheet 122 in
It is preferable that gelled sheet 12 is pressed with a nip roller between heating roller group 41 or drawing roller group 42 as well in the cooling process so that the frictional force which has deteriorated by lubrication of diluent can greatly be increased. Slipping can be prevented even when the drawing generates tension because the surface opposite to the surface contacting first cooling drum 31 of which gripping force is higher contacts the drawing roller. Further, the gripping force can be increased by using a nip roller as shown in
It is possible that a nip is performed along a tangent line substantively with a nip roller to introduce gelled sheet 12 into heating roller group 41 or drawing roller group 42 as shown in
The phrase “nip along the tangent line” means a nip performed by the nip roller at a position where gelled sheet 12 starts contacting heating roller group 41 or drawing roller group 42. The nip performed with the nip roller at this position makes gelled sheet 12 as if being a tangent line of nip roller. The phrase “a nip is performed along a tangent line substantively” means that a nip that doesn't make a bank is regarded as “a nip performed along a tangent line” even when the nipped part is slightly away from the exact position where the sheet starts contacting the roller.
It is preferable that the surface of nip roller is made of soft rubber-like elastic material that can depress gelled sheet 12 uniformly onto uneven thickness of gelled sheet 12, deflection of roller and slight surface unevenness. Because the lengthwise drawing process accompanies conveyance above the heat dispersion temperature in particular, the material is preferably a heat-resistant rubber such as EPDM and Hypalon rubber. It is preferably silicone rubber or fluoro-rubber. It is preferable to employ a rubber that is little swelled by diluent to prevent the roller from having a distorted shape over time.
It is preferable that roller (C) which doesn't contribute to drawing is provided between roller (A) and roller (B) as shown in
It is preferable that the speed is controlled by a plurality of pairs of roller (A) and roller (B) in the lengthwise drawing process. For example, drawing is performed as providing speed difference between roller (A) at the most upstream side and roller (B) at the next among drawing roller group 42 as shown in
After the lengthwise drawing, it is possible that the sheet is once cooled with cooling roller group 43 and conveyed to a tenter oven to make the process paper feed of uniaxially oriented sheet 13 easy while the crystal structure formed by the lengthwise drawing is solidified in a case of lateral drawing so that a highly oriented and highly strengthened microporous plastic film can be prepared.
It is particularly preferable that the cooling is performed right after the drawing. The highly-strengthening effect can be maximized by providing the most downstream roller as a cooling roller among pairs of roller (A) and roller (B) in the lengthwise drawing process.
Hereinafter, our methods will be explained with reference to Examples although they are not limited to these Examples in particular.
A mixture is prepared by dry-blending of 0.375 parts by weight of tetrakis[methylene-3-(3,5-ditertiary butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)-propionate]methane together with 100 parts by weight of polyethylene (PE) composition which comprises 40 mass % of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene having mass average molecular weight (Mw) of 2.5×106 and 60 mass % of high-density polyethylene having Mw of 2.8×105.
Thus obtained mixture is fed to twin-screw extruder 21 at flow rate of 97 kg/hr by a film forming method shown in
Thus obtained polyethylene solution is supplied into die lip 23 as being measured by a gear pump and the polyethylene solution at 210° C. is discharged on first cooling drum 31 adjusted to 35° C. by waterflow to form gelled sheet 12. First cooling drum 31 is driven to rotate at 10 m/min.
Gelled sheet 12 is subject to sampling with 10 mm square before introduction to lengthwise drawing process 4 to find that the thickness is 1.5 mm in 10 times average of contact-type thickness meter. Since bled-out diluent adheres to the surface, the above-described thickness measurement includes ±0.1 mm variation at the maximum.
Gelled sheet 12 is heated to 110° C. on the sheet surface with heating roller group 41 and a metal waterflow roller at the first roller of drawing roller group 42. Between heating roller group 41 and the first roller of each drawing roller group 42, the rotation speed of motor directly connected to the roller is controlled to make the downstream side faster by 1% of speed difference according to thermal expansion of the sheet. Drawing roller group 42 consists of 2 rollers shown in
From first cooling drum 31, surfaces of all rollers in lengthwise drawing process 4 are made of steel coated with hard chromic plating of which surface roughness is 0.4 μm at the maximum height.
Among drawing roller group 42, drawing is performed at 8.66 of draw ratio between upstream roller (A) contacting the surface of gelled sheet 12 opposite to the surface contacting first cooling drum 31 and downstream roller (B) contacting the surface opposite to the surface contacting drum 31. In other words, the speed is controlled to set to 9 the total draw ratio of uniaxially oriented sheet 13 passing lengthwise drawing process 4, wherein the speed of cooling drum 31 is set to 10 m/min, speed ratio from heating roller group 41 to roller (A) is set to 1%, the speed of roller (A) is set to 10.4 m/min, and the speed of roller (B) is set to 10.4 x 8.66=90 m/min.
Both ends of oriented film 13 are gripped with a clip to perform lateral drawing at draw ratio of 6 times at 115° C. in an oven, and then biaxially oriented film 14 cooled down to 30° C. is washed in a washing bath of methylene chloride kept at 25° C. to remove liquid paraffin. The washed film is dried up in a dry kiln kept at 60° C. and then drawn again in redrawing process 7 at areal ratio of 1.2 times in lengthwise and lateral directions. The heat treatment is performed for 20 seconds by 90 m/min at 125° C. to prepare microporous plastic film 11 having thickness of 16 μm and width of 2,000 mm.
The amount of diluent bleeding out from the top and bottom surfaces of gelled sheet 12 is measured after casting the film formed with the above-described composition and extrusion. The bleeding-out amount per unit time is measured by the following process, in which a sharp-tipped scraper is contacted to each top and bottom surfaces of gelled sheet 12 by pressing at 20 N/m at a part between second cooling drum 32 and lengthwise drawing process 4 in
Table 1 also shows a measurement result of coefficient of friction between the surface of gelled sheet 12 and roller. In the process shown in
The coefficient of friction is measured by a conventional method disclosed by formula 2 and FIG. 5 of WO2012/133097. The measurement is performed by hanging 2 kg weight on a sheet which has been cut into 100 mm width and wound by contact angle of 90° on the lengthwise drawing roller (of which surface is coated with hard chrome plating at 0.4 μm at the maximum height) not in operation at normal temperature of 25° C. The roller under suspension is monitored to be prevented from rotating by the suspended motor resistance in the measurement. The coefficients of friction are compared between two samples, where the first sample is wiped with a waste cloth “KIM WIPE” made by Kimberly-Clark Corporation to make the diluent liquid invisible and the second sample is not wiped.
Table 1 shows the result in which the surface of gelled sheet 12 contacting the first cooling drum always has the lower coefficient of friction although there is some difference between before and after wiping with the waste cloth.
A microporous plastic film is produced by the same devices and the same condition as Example 1, except that drawing roller group 42 consists of three rollers as shown in
A microporous plastic film is produced by the same devices and the same condition as Example 1, except that nip roller 44 is provided on each heating roller group 41 and drawing roller group 42 along a tangent line substantively as shown in
As shown in
The drawing is performed between roller (A) and roller (D) provided as drawing roller group 42 shown in
The drawing is performed between roller (A) and roller (D) among five rollers provided as drawing roller group 42 shown in
Table 2 shows evaluation results of produced microporous plastic films according to the following standards.
The speeds of sheet and roller are measured by 1% accuracy including installation accuracy with a non-contact Doppler velocimeter (made by ACT Electronics Corp., model 1522).
No good: The speed difference between roller and sheet is 10% or more of roller rotation speed.
Acceptable: The speed difference between roller and sheet is 5% or more and less than 10% of roller rotation speed.
Good: The speed difference between roller and sheet is less than 5% of roller rotation speed.
The amount of meandering in lengthwise drawing process 4 is evaluated according to the following standards.
No good: Meandering amount is 10 mm or more.
Acceptable: Meandering amount is 5 mm or more and less than 10 mm.
Good: Meandering amount is less than 5 mm.
The bank in lengthwise drawing process 4 is evaluated according to the following standards.
No good: Air bank is observed on a roller in lengthwise drawing process 4 while uneven thickness defined as difference between the thickest part and the thinnest part is more than 5% of average thickness.
Acceptable: Air bank is observed on a roller in lengthwise drawing process 4 while uneven thickness defined as difference between the thickest part and the thinnest part is 5% or less of average thickness.
Good: Air bank is not observed on a roller in lengthwise drawing process 4.
Neck-in in lengthwise drawing process 4 is evaluated according to the following standards.
No good: The width difference between gelled sheet 12 entering lengthwise drawing process 4 and uniaxially oriented sheet 13 from lengthwise drawing process 4 to lateral drawing process 5 is more than 150 mm.
Acceptable: The width difference between gelled sheet 12 entering lengthwise drawing process 4 and uniaxially oriented sheet 13 from lengthwise drawing process 4 to lateral drawing process 5 is 100 mm or more and less than 150 mm.
Good: The width difference between gelled sheet 12 entering lengthwise drawing process 4 and uniaxially oriented sheet 13 from lengthwise drawing process 4 to lateral drawing process 5 is less than 100 mm.
The impermeability is determined according to JIS P8117 with Oken type Impermeability Tester (made by Asahi Seiko Co., Ltd., EGO-1T). The thrust strength is determined from the maximum load applied when a needle having 1 mm diameter and spherical tip (Radius of curvature R=0.5 mm) is pricked at 2 mm/sec into a microporous membrane having membrane thickness T1. The measured maximum load La is converted to Lb which would be the maximum load when membrane thickness is 16 μm according to formula: Lb=(La×16)/T1 to calculate the thrust strength [N/16 μm].
Good: The impermeability is 250 sec±20 sec while the thrust strength is 6N or more.
No good: Outside the range for the above-described Good
By comparing Examples and Comparative Examples, we found that all Examples have good conveyance characteristics with almost no slip and no meandering since the drawing is performed substantively with the surface opposite to the surface contacting first cooling drum 31. On the other hand, all Comparative Examples result in unacceptable slip and meandering. Accordingly, Comparative Examples don't achieve target physical properties and mechanical properties for microporous plastic film.
Also, compared to Examples 1 and 2, microporous films excellent in appearance and uniform thickness are produced without air bank because gelled sheet 12 is nipped substantively along a tangent line to start contacting the drawing roller in Examples 3 and 4.
The neck-in amount is suppressed with drawing roller (C) in Example 2 while the speed adjustment operation according to the torque of roller (C) is not necessary in Examples 1, 3 and 4 because a pair of roller (A) and roller (B) or another pair of roller (A′) and roller (B′) are adjacent.
As described above, we make it possible to provide a microporous plastic film excellent in strength and physical properties as maintaining a travelling stability in a drawing condition where the drawing is performed to give the microporous film desirable properties.
Our microporous plastic film is applicable to a separator used for electrochemical reaction device such as rechargeable battery, fuel cell and capacitor as well as a functional web such as filtration membrane, print film and clothing material. These examples do not limit applications of our methods.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-031388 | Feb 2015 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2016/051776 | 1/22/2016 | WO | 00 |
