The effect of pressurized and fast stabilization on one step batch foaming process for the investigation of cell structure formation

• A fast and pressurized stabilization section was designed and built.
• The stabilization section was added to the one step batch foaming.
• Stabilization was performed during and after the application of pressure drop.
• The effect of stabilization process on cell structure was temperature dependent.
• A new mechanism of cell formation in microcellular foams was proposed.

Control of cell structure during pressure drop is essential for the investigation of cell formation mechanism. In this work, a one step batch foaming setup was totally redesigned to stabilize foam structure at initial stages of cell forming during and after depressurization as a novel idea. The saturation pressure, duration of pressure drop and foaming temperatures were 18.5 MPa, 100 ms and 70, 90, 110 °C, respectively. The shortest stabilized foaming time was 5 ms and the longest was 5000 ms. For comparison purposes non-stabilized samples were also produced. It was concluded that the effect of stabilization on foam morphology is dependent on the foaming temperature. Foam structure at foaming temperatures of 70 °C did not change with change of foaming time significantly. Foam structure at foaming temperatures of 110 °C for the shortest and the longest foaming times changed from 90 μm to 170 μm and 7E + 06 cell/cm3 to 8E + 06 cell/cm3.

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