A feasability study of polypropylene and polypropylene/polyethylene blends for foamed wire and cable jacketing applications

A feasibility study of polypropylene and polypropylene/polyethylene blend foams for underwater wire and cable applications was performed via rod profile extrusion. The foam samples were prepared using different loadings of an expandable mircosphere syntactic blowing agent, a variety of neat resins, and a range of processing conditions. The extruded product was then tested for an assortment of final properties including tensile, compression, hardness, density, and dynamic mechanical properties for characterization purposes.; The results of all the testing had to be taken into consideration for determining the material most suitable for the end use application. Once an ideal base resin material was found, blowing agent loading, processing conditions, or polymer blending were used to focus in on the desired properties.