Effect of the blow-up ratio on morphology and engineering properties of three-layered linear low-density polyethylene blown films

A series of linear low-density polyethylene films were produced using a three-layer co-extrusion machine. How the blow-up ratio and resin characteristics affected the final film morphology and engineering properties were studied. The crystalline morphology and orientation during the blown film process of the low-density polyethylene film were investigated using small-angle X-ray scattering, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Increasing the blow-up ratio increased the transverse direction molecular orientation and decreased the machine direction orientation. The resulting low-density polyethylene morphology was a regular lamellar stacking parallel to the machine direction. The film morphology strongly influenced the mechanical properties. Increasing the blow-up ratio from 1.7 to 2.8 decreased the machine direction tensile strength by 14% and increased the transverse direction tensile strength up to 27% for both the low-density polyethylene/1-butene and low-density polyethylene/1-octene co-monomers, while the machine direction tear strength increased up to 36% and the transverse direction decreased by 16%. Moreover, the first and second heating characteristics from differential scanning calorimeter showed the inherent crystallinity change with increasing blow-up ratio for both the low-density polyethylene/1-octene and the low-density polyethylene/1-butene copolymer. The crystalline orientation changes induced with increasing blow-up ratio affected the film water vapor and oxygen permeability.