Molecular Orientation Effect of Heat-Sealed PP Film on Peel Strength and Structure

Heat sealing properties are optimized by controlling temperature, pressure and dwell time, while film strength depends on the drawn ratio and the molecular orientation of the film. However, heat seal strength of polymer films with high drawn ratio shows lower peel strength, because the adhesion of films needs a higher heat sealing energy for molecular orientation relaxation at heat sealing. In the present study, polypropylene films with a drawn ratio of 1.0×, 1.5×, and 2.5× are heat sealed by using the heat sealing technique. The heat sealing condition is set to heat sealing time 1.0 s, sealing pressure 0.2 MPa, and heat sealing temperature 145°C. The effect of drawn ratio and stabilization temperature of PP films for peel strength are investigated using T-Peel test, DSC, FT-IR, and Raman spectroscopy. As a result, it is found that the peel strength is decreased with increasing the drawn ratio and stabilization temperature of PP films. The difference of ?H and melting point from the result of DSC measurement are exhibited for 1.5× drawn ratio film as compared with 2.5× one. In addition, FT-IR imaging and Raman line mapping reveal the influence and variation of high order structure for heat sealed parts of the drawn PP films.