Experiment § Mint flavored Silicone
There are many different products that I come into contact with every day, some of them give off a fragrance, such as room fragrances and some have a pungent smell, such as toilet detergent. When we are developing new products, we are most afraid of encountering products with a strong or pungent smell. Some odors come from low-molecular-weight impurities in the raw materials, and vacuum pumping may be used to reduce the odor. There are also products of this kind in the industry, but this kind of example is rare. Most of the odor is inherent in the raw material and cannot be removed. The way to solve this situation is to add another smelly substance to cover up the original smell, such as various flavors. The products of the FX series have also been asked whether they can improve the smell of the product. For example, FX027 has the smell of Oxime, and customers feel the smell is weird during operation, and it is used to grain on the synthetic fiber cloth, so the susceptibility to odor will be more stringent. We study the mint flavor and add it to the original silicone. The product retains its original transparency and can continue to emit a fresh smell. Everyone joked that the product should not be used with toothpaste in case it was misused. In fact, the best way to reduce the smell is to ventilate. A suitable activated carbon mask can also effectively block it. Let us work together to create a better working environment.
—Author: Miss. Si-Hua, Yan
Activity § Process improvement of moisture curing products
In the production of moisture-cured products, the most troublesome thing is how to avoid product contact with moisture when packaging. After trying many different methods, we finally found the most suitable way of packaging. Recently, orders have increased, and the old production method had to divide an order into 2~3 batches, otherwise, it would not be able to keep up with customer demand. We have built a large hydraulic press that can load up to 500 liters of product at a time. When dispensing, one person holds the hose in both hands, and the other person must prepare the back cover, and quickly cover the back cover of the hose containing the product to avoid contact with moisture. At present, it takes about 3 seconds to dispense a 300ml hose, and a batch of 1,000 hoses is produced. Compared with the old process, output and quality are greatly improved. Moisture-curing products have been well received by the market, and shipments have continued to rise. The establishment of an automated packaging process is just around the corner.
Knowledge § If a lot of photoinitiators are added to the resin, what will happen to the cured product?
The photoinitiator absorbs light and decomposes to generate free radicals, allowing the acrylic monomer to polymerize. While the resin forms a network structure, the structure after the decomposition of the initiator becomes the chain end of the molecular chain. In other words, the more the initiator is added, the more chain ends are produced. The chain ends can be regarded as defects in the network structure. For a hard molecular chain, the more defects, the strength will decrease, and it will break under very low elongation, and it will feel more brittle. For soft molecules, the more defects, the easier the molecular chain will move. Under the same force, the elongation will become larger, and it will feel soft; sometimes there are too many molecular chains with a low crosslinking degree, and the hardened product will even feel sticky. The photoinitiator that has reacted and decomposed will become chain ends, and the unreacted initiator will remain in the cured product, which will be plasticized, and may also diffuse and migrate out of the cured product is other things to consider.
Living § Visit the Imperial Palace of Japan
The season happens to be the cherry blossom season in spring, and the rain of cherry blossoms falling in the sky dyes the earth a bright red color, which is amazing. Busy Tokyo, because of its high population density, has derived very convenient rail and road transportation, leading people across this big city. Different from the previous two group trips, the third trip to Tokyo, I tried to use my feet to get to know this familiar and unfamiliar city. In Ueno Park and Shinjuku Gyoen, we sat on the ground freely, picnic under the cherry trees and cherry blossom viewing, forgetting the hustle and bustle of the city, and rejuvenating our mind and body. Tokyo Station is surrounded by avant-garde high-rise buildings. It is hard to imagine that in such a prosperous city, there is a spacious classical garden, and a corner of the garden is open for free. I was curious to sign up for a visit to the Imperial Palace online to explore this classical and solemn garden. Currently, the Emperor of Japan still lives in the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. For about 75 minutes, we must follow the order and move forward in line with the team. The narrator used a megaphone to introduce the daily routines of various palaces and royal families along the way. There were also entourages to guide the walking route to prevent tourists from accidentally entering the royal forbidden area. There are not too many ornate decorations in the imperial palace. We also met housekeepers lying on the ground and using long tweezers to trim the turf, which truly reflected the strict attitude of the Japanese. If you have the opportunity, you might as well slow down, different from people in a hurry, appreciate the beauty of the metropolis in different ways, and enjoy the fun of slow life on busy streets!
—Author: Miss. Heng-Rong, Li
