Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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CONTROLLED COLOR RELEASE ACCENT COMPOUND AND
PRODUCTS THEREFROM
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention is directed toward a controlled release accent
compound for providing an extruded base material with an accent color. More
particularly, the accent compound according to the invention is a blend of a
binder component and a colorant, wherein the binder material controls the
release of the colorant to the base material during extrusion thereof. Specifically,
the binder component includes at least polyphenylene oxide.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is known in the art to fabricate polymeric, i.e., plastic, materials
having a multicolored appearance. For example, in the vinyl siding industry,
much effort has been expended to prepare woodgrain appearing materials.
Often, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,381, a base material is extruded with an accentcolor producing material. The accent color imparts the woodgrain effect to the
base material, such as by having a different heat deflection temperature from the
base material.
The accent color producing compounds and methods heretofore known
in the art have been somewhat successful in preparing commercially acceptable
products, and in fact, the demand for woodgrain-appearing vinyl siding continuesto grow. However, these compounds and methods such as in the '381 patent,
have also proven to be difficult to control during processing. It has been foundthat despite careful control of for example, heat deflection temperatures, precise
control over the amount of accent coloring is difficult to maintain. Of course,
without precise control over such coloring, the finished accented product will
vary from batch to batch. This is severely commercially detrimental. A user
finishing a project such as the siding of a building will normally demand to have
a siding product having somewhat complete uniformity. Substantial variances in
the amount of accent coloring, the distribution thereof or the like are normallyunacceptable, except of course when such variances mimic natural variances in
woodgrain patterns or the like.
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A need exists therefore, for a controlled color release accent
compound which will promote and enhance the release of a colorant to an
extruded base material. It has been unexpectedly found that a polyphenylene
binder component according to the present invention, provides such controlled
5 color release.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
It is therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a color
release accent compound for use in imparting an accent color to an extruded
10 base material.
It is another object of the invention to provide a compound as above,
wherein use of the compound will impart an improved measure of control over
the accent coloring.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide products
15 having an accent color.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide products as above,
wherein the accent coloring control is improved.
These and other objects together with the advantages thereof over the
existing art, which shall become apparent from the specification which follows,
20 are accomplished by the invention as hereinafter described and claimed.
In general, a controlled color release accent compound according to
the invention comprises from about 20 to about 99 percent by weight of a
polyphenylene oxide binder; and, from about 80 to about 1 percent by weight of
a colorant component.
PRL. ~ U EMBODIMENT FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
As will be apparent from the description to follow, the present
invention provides an accent color compound, which when extruded with an
extrudable base material, will impart a controlled amount of accent coloring
30 thereto. The accent color compound includes at lease a polyphenylene oxide
binder and a colorant component. The exact nature of the colorant component
is not a limitation of the invention, and will vary depending upon the amount ofcoloring desired, the type of base material being extruded and the like.
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Conventional colorants including pigments and the like are all within the scope
of the invention. One preferred class of colorants includes the pigments
conventionally used in vinyl siding extrusions.
The polyphenylene oxide (hereinafter referred to as "PPO") binder
5 includes a PPO component, the colorant and optionally, one or more additional
resins. Conventional processing aids, conditioners, extenders and the like can
also be used and fall within the scope of the invention, although they will not be
fully described herein. In addition, the PPO component itself may also be a
blend of PPO and another polymer, as will be discussed hereinbelow.
A preferred accent color compound according to the present invention
includes from about 20 to about 99 percent by weight of the polyphenylene
oxide binder and from about 80 to about 1 percent by weight of the colorant
component. A more preferred compound includes about 30 percent by weight
of the colorant and about 70 percent by weight of the PPO component or the
PPO component and another resin.
The PPO component, as stated above, may be a blend of PPO and
another polymer, such as polystyrene, high impact polystyrene, polyamide,
polymethyl methacrylate, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, styrene acrylonitrile,polybutylene terephthalate, or the like. For example, a useful and commercially
available PPO/styrene blend is Noryl PX-1390 available from General Electric.
The amount of PPO and other polymers used in the blend will vary depending
upon the end use of the compound, and one skilled in the art will readily
determine which if any such blends are useful. PPO can be used by itself as the
PPO component, and neither it nor the blend is necessarily more preferred.
As was also stated hereinabove, the binder may also include one or
more additional resins. It is preferred that these resins be selected from the
group consisting of non-acrylic and non-polycarbonate addition- and
condensation-type polymers, or copolymers or mixtures thereof, having at least
a degree of weatherability.
Examples of useful addition-type polymers include acrylonitrile
butadiene styrene; acrylic ester-modified styrene acrylonitrile; styrene
acrylonitrile; acrylonitrile ethylene styrene; acrylonitrile methacrylate;
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polystyrene; high impact polystyrene; polyvinylidiene fluoride; chlorinated
polyethylene, and copolymers and mixtures thereof.
Another way of classifying the useful addition-type resins is as those
polymers having repeating monomer units selected from the group consisting of
5 acrylonitrile, butadiene and styrene, propylene, ethylene, methylmethacrylate,ethylacrylate, ethylmethacrylate, isoprene, vinyl chloride, vinylidiene fluoride,
vinyl acetate, 2-ethylhexylacrylate, maleic anhydride, methacrylic acid, and
mixtures and copolymers thereof. Examples include acrylonitrile butadiene
styrene; acrylic ester-modified styrene acrylonitrile; styrene acrylonitrile;
10 acrylonitrile ethylene styrene; methacrylonitrile butadiene styrene; acrylonitrile
methacrylate; polystyrene; high impact polystyrene; polyvinylidiene fluoride,
chlorinated polyethylene, and copolymers and mixtures thereof. A preferred
resin component is an acrylic ester-modified styrene acrylonitrile, or ASA. One
useful con,mercially available ASA is Geloy 1020 from General Electric.
Examples of useful condensation-type polymers include polyester,
polyamide, polyurethane, and copolymers and mixtures thereof.
A preferred amount of PPO component as compared to the resin
component is from 100 to about 5 percent by weight of polyphenylene oxide
component and from 0 to about 95 percent by weight of resin component. One
20 further preferred accent color compound includes 38.5 percent by weight of
Noryl PX-1390, and 31.5 percent by weight of Geloy 1020.
It has been further unexpectedly found that when the resin component
is used, and the viscosity thereof is different from the viscosity of the PPO
component, even further control over accent coloring is achieved. A preferred
25 viscosity system has a PPO component having a higher viscosity than the resincomponent. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, viscosity is an
arbitrary measurement, and therefore, will not be quantified herein. The
quantified variance in viscosities is also not an absolute limitation of the
invention, and will change depending upon the end use of the inventive
30 compounds.
The compounds according to the invention can be used with any
extruded polymeric material to which it is desired to impart an accent color. Anexample of an extrusion process is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,381 which is
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hereby incorporated by reference for such disclosure. No single extrusion
process is a limitation of the invention beyond that the extruder has an inlet and
an outlet. Preferably the extruder has ports between the inlet and the outlet, as
is conventional.
Extrudable materials which can be accent colored according to the
invention include without limitation, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidiene fluoride,
acrylonitrile ethylene styrene, acrylic ester-modified styrene acrylonitrile, acrylic,
polycarbonate, chlorinated polyvinyl chloride, chlorinated polyethylene, and
copolymers and mixtures thereof and the like. These materials are useful in
preparing among others products, siding, decking, fencing, downspouts, gutters,
skirting and the like for the building industry. When used with these materials,it is preferred to extrude from about 0.1 to about 99.9 percent by weight of an
extrudable polymeric component with from about 99.9 to about 0.1 percent by
weight of the controlled color release accent compound as described
1 5 hereinabove.
The PPO binder component, with or without the additional resin
component, is preferably formed into a fused pellet with the colorant and other
processing materials if used, by conventional techniques. The pellet can be
added to the extruded base material at any desired point between the inlet and
the outlet to impart accent coloring to the extruded base material.
GENERAL EXPERIMENTAL
In order to demonstrate the practice of the present invention, a
woodgrained colored vinyl siding product was prepared. The base material used
was a ten parts per hundred titanium dioxide polyvinyl chloride capstock
composition. The base material was extruded using a 40 millimeter conical, twin-screw extruder. This extruder has an inlet hopper leading to a barrel, a vent into
the barrel and an outlet die head assembly.
A controlled color release accent compound was prepared according
to the invention, and included 38.5 percent by weight of Noryl PX 1390, 31.5
percent by weight of Geloy 1020, and 30.0 percent by weight of a pigment
known and commercially available as Shepard Brown 221. Using a Computrac
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TMX, the sample was shown to have a moisture content of 0.045 percent by
weight.
The accent compound was introduced into the vent of the extruder
barrel, and the base and accent color were extruded at 185C. The extruder was
set to rotate at from 1100 to 1300 rotations per minute. The resulting extruded
product showed excellent streaking and a good woodgrained appearance. As a
control, a sample product according to U.S. Pat. No.5,387,381 was also
prepared. The amount of streaking between the control and the inventive
products was substantially similar. However, it was found that the results of the
invention were easily repeatable while those of the control sample were difficult
to reproduce with consistency.
It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific
components as recited herein, except as is otherwise stated in the specification.
Similarly, the example has been provided merely to demonstrate practice of the
subject invention and does not constitute limitations of the invention. Those
skilled in the art may readily select other components and process conditions,
according to the disclosure made hereinabove.
Thus, it is believed that any of the variables disclosed herein can
readily be determined and controlled without departing from the scope of the
invention herein disclosed and described. Moreover, the scope of the invention
shall include all modifications and variations that fall within the scope of theattached claims
