Additives to prevent the formation of surface defects during poly(vinyl chloride) calendering

Abstract Gas checks are visible fleck‐shaped defects that occur on the surface of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) films during industrial calendering. Films containing these surface defects often do not meet minimum product specifications and therefore must be disposed of or recycled, resulting in increased cost and material waste. Currently, gas checks are controlled by keeping film gauge low and through trial‐and‐error modifications of processing parameters by calender operators. In this work, our group developed a series of chemical additives that can be blended with PVC to prevent the formation of gas check defects. We found that a series of poly(caprolactone) (PCL)‐based compounds with diester linkers and alkyl chain cappers were all effective at preventing the formation of gas checks during calendering, with additive concentrations as low as 8 phr producing films with no gas checks. We found that the blends produced with our additives had higher melt viscosities than those produced with additives that do not remove gas checks, suggesting that viscosity plays an important role in preventing gas check defects.