A technique for studying high-velocity drawing in polymers

Abstract

The principle of elastic relaxation is considered as a technique for drawing polymers at high velocities. The theory is worked out and some tests are described in which skeins of low density polyethelene filaments have been drawn using some heat-set terylene webbing as the elastic. These tests, in which polythene was drawn at a velocity of about 50 feet per second at a temperature of about l8°C, demonstrated that the technique is feasible. Comparison with the theory suggests that the force to draw at this speed is about twice that measured at very slow rates of drawing.