Processes and apparatuses for producing polymer particles with a solid state polycondensation reactor and an underwater pelletization unit. The apparatuses use a pre-conditioning zone to adjust a temperature, crystallization in addition to dust, acetaldehyde and water content of the particles from a crystallization bin. Various inert gas streams can be provided from a purification unit to remove dust, acetaldehyde, water and adjust temperature and crystallinity of the particles, as also move the particles. The precondition zones have stages that allow for the particles to accurately achieve the desired SSP reactor inlet conditions

The present disclosure is directed to improved poly(arylene ether ketone) powders for use in laser sintering.

The present invention relates to a process for continuous production of partly crystalline polycondensate pellet material, comprising the steps of forming a polycondensate melt into pellet material; separating the liquid cooling medium from the pellet material in a first treatment space, wherein the pellets after exit from the first treatment space exhibit a temperature T.sub.GR, and crystallizing the pellet material in a second treatment space, wherein in the second treatment space fluidized bed conditions exist, and in the second treatment space the pellets are heated by supply of energy from the exterior by means of a process gas.

The present invention relates to a process for continuous production of partly crystalline polycondensate pellet material, comprising the steps of forming a polycondensate melt into pellet material; separating the liquid cooling medium from the pellet material in a first treatment space, wherein the pellets after exit from the first treatment space exhibit a temperature T.sub.GR, and crystallizing the pellet material in a second treatment space, wherein in the second treatment space fluidized bed conditions exist, and in the second treatment space the pellets are heated by supply of energy from the exterior by means of a process gas.

A tumbler crystallizer for crystallizing pelleted, tacky, polymeric materials includes a housing for rotatably supporting a removable paneled drum on rollers. The removable panels may be made of a transparent, heat-insulating material. The drum receives a flow of hot pellets through an inlet chute, and a tumbling action of the drum and internal agitators keeps the pellets in motion relative to each other to prevent agglomeration until they reach a desired level of crystallinity and are no longer tacky. Baffle plates are provided at intervals along the length of the drum to slow the flow of pellets therethrough to increase residence time. Damper plates are provided near the exit end of the drum to aid in building a bed of pellets within the drum, and also to control residence time of the pellets within the drum.

The present invention relates to a process for continuous production of partly crystalline polycondensate pellet material, comprising the steps of forming a polycondensate melt into pellet material; separating the liquid cooling medium from the pellet material in a first treatment space, wherein the pellets after exit from the first treatment space exhibit a temperature T.sub.GR, and crystallizing the pellet material in a second treatment space, wherein in the second treatment space fluidized bed conditions exist, and in the second treatment space the pellets are heated by supply of energy from the exterior by means of a process gas.

The present invention provides a method for manufacturing textile waste into fiber grade polyester chips applicable to textile processing. The method comprises textile waste crushing, alcoholysis, filtering and separation, cooling crystallization, pressing, decoloration, distillation purification, preheating, prepolycondensation, polycondensation, cooling strip casting, and cutting into particles. By reducing textile waste to high purity bis(2-hydroxyethyl)terephthalate (hereinafter referred to as BHET), fiber grade polyester chips applicable to textile processing are re-manufactured. Thus, efficient recycling is achieved.

The present disclosure is directed to improved poly(arylene ether ketone) powders for use in laser sintering.

A process for continuous production of partly crystalline polycondensate pellet material which comprises the step of crystallizing the pellet material in a second treatment space (6a) under fixed bed conditions by supply of energy from the exterior by means of a process gas, wherein the process gas has a temperature (T.sub.Gas), which is higher than the sum of the pellet temperature (T.sub.GR) and the temperature increase (T.sub.KR) which occurs due to heat of crystallization released hi the second treatment space (6a), i.e., (T.sub.Gas>(T.sub.GR+T.sub.KR)). The pellets at the exit from the second treatment space (6a) have an average temperature (T.sub.PH), which is 10 to 90 C. higher than the sum of the temperature of the pellets (T.sub.GR) and the temperature increase (T.sub.KR) which occurs due to heat of crystallization released in the second treatment space (6a), i.e., (T.sub.GR+T.sub.KR+90 C.)T.sub.PH(T.sub.GR+T.sub.KR+10).

Methods of recovering and/or recycling expanded polymer tooling, the methods including collecting expanded polymer tooling, reducing the collected expanded polymer tooling into smaller particles, treating the reduced expanded polymer tooling in order to yield an at least partially purified recovered polymer composition, and then collecting the at least partially purified recovered polymer composition. The at least partially purified recovered polymer composition can then be used to form new expandable polymer tooling.