Final Design

Interfacial Polycondensation of Nylon 6, 10; Modified Nylon Rope Trick

2013-14

2013-14 Mentored by:

Dr. Santosh K. Gupta,

FASc, FNASc, FNAE

Distinguished Professor

Department of Chemical Engineering

UPES, Dehradun

Mentee:

Chinmay Verma

Nayan Kale

Rhythm Agarwal

Shivam Ashok Dixit

1 DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING| UPES

1 Interfacial Polycondensation of Nylon 6, 10; Modified Nylon Rope Trick

Introduction As per out project titled Interfacial Polycondensation of Nylon 6, 10, we were assigned to perform

nylon rope trick on laboratory scale. The reaction was carried out successfully in the laboratory.

After that, a mechanism for commercial use was designed and later fabricated by our team of four

people. This is completely designed independently under the guidance of Dr. S.K. Gupta. The details

of the project follows.

Materials Required:

Beakers 3 glass beakers of 100 ml capacity

Capillary tubes

Valves

Wooden plank -6 x 3

Adhesives - Fevicol, Araldite, M-seal

Thread

Motors

Galvanised Iron Rods

Thermocol

Chemicals Required:

Sebacoyl Chloride

Hexamethylene Diamine

NaOH

Hexane

Pure water



Basic Design Specifications:

1. The Reactor

Total Volume: 250 ml

Area of circular cross section: 33.3 cm2

Height of the vessel: 9 cm

2. Storage tanks

Total no. of tanks: 2

Total Volume: 100 ml

Height at which tanks are kept: 60 cm

Distance from the reactor: 26 cm

Type: Open roof tanks

3. Connecting tubing

Diameter of the pipe: 1.8 cm

Length of pipe: 33 cm

Positioning of pipe 1 connected to tank 1: Glued with Araldite adhesive along the wall

from top

Positioning of pipe 2 connected to tank 2: Free-end

Connected with tanks via Ball valves.

4. Motors

Critical speed of motors: 60 rpm

Placed parallel to each other at a distance of 11 cm

Height of motors: 17 cm

Contains extended shaft of GI type of 10 cm

Motor 1: Placed directly over the reactor for winding the Nylon 6, 10

Motor 2: Placed parallel to the motor 1 attached with a hook and rope to draw the

polymer out to motor 1

Connected to power supply with the help of adapters

5. Base

3 ft x 3 ft

Type: plywood



Challenges and Combat: Production of Nylon 6, 10 by the phenomenon of Interfacial polycondensation using Sebacoyl

Chloride is not done commercially and is just done on a lab scale. Also, it has no automated system to

draw the polymer out of the reactor.

Thus, in this model we have made an attempt to automatize the entire mechanism of producing and

drawing the polymer successfully exhibiting the advanced version of Nylon- rope trick.

Explanation of the design made:

Here, we have optimized the design so as to make it a continuous process.

To make the design more scientific we shall add 2 more reactant vessels. One for storing

hexa methylene di-amine, and other for sebacoyl chloride. These shall be raised to a height in

such a way that the reactants flow to the main reactor vessel under the action of gravitational

force.

Two of the containers are connected by a tubing system to the main reactor. Control valves

are attached so as to control the flow rate of respective fluids.

Two motors are now used instead of one, the first one drives the hook and the other motor

spindles the polymer fiber around the spool attached to it.

Actually the hook passes over the motor 2 spool and goes into the reactor. As the process of

extraction starts and the polymer end reaches the rod, the hook is detached from the fiber

from where on it is collected over this rotating rod. After the required length is extracted this

motor is stopped and the hook is once again sent into the vessel. By repeating the process

extraction is carried out in such a way that we get equal lenghts of extracted polymer over a

bobbin or a wheel.



Observations, Experiences and Precautions:

The polymer was withdrawn with the help of the two motors. The rotation per minute (RPM)

of different motors were checked and we observed the following :

Motor Observation

Geared Motor -200 rpm Was too fast to draw out the polymer.

Geared Motor -100 rpm Extensive breakage of the polymer.

Swing Motor Too slow for withdrawal.

Geared Motor -60 rpm Withdrawal rate was adequate.

Hook:

Different hook designs were used to withdraw the polymer properly

and for optimization.

1. Safety pin

Reason for usage: because of the pointed needle and smaller

size

Reason for rejection: Lightweight not able to penetrate the

film

2. Curtain hook

Reason for usage: The hook shape may prove to be useful

Reason for rejection: too large in size

3. Nail

Reason for usage: heavy weight

Reason for rejection: small head

4. Screw(final)

Reason for usage: Threads and larger head



Reactor walls:

Earlier we faced a problem of polymer sticking to the walls of the reactor due to which the

drawing out mechanism became cumbersome. For this we used various materials like oil on

the wall surface or grease and even cello taping. But none of the materials worked as

expected and thus we came to the conclusion to reduce the concentration of reactants and

finally our problem was solved.

Material of the beaker:

We used different materials and it was concluded that plastic beakers must not be used as

they dont allow the film to form properly and instead glass beakers must be preferred for the

reaction as well as the storage purpose.

Financials of the project

Hexamethane diamine Rs. 337/-

Sebacoyl Chloride- Rs. 2722/-

Motors: Rs. 1020/-

Plyboard: Rs. 580/-

Beakers: Rs. 1170/-

Valves and tubing: Rs. 100/-

Adhesives: Rs. 300/-

Paint: Rs. 180/-

Miscellaneous: Rs. 1100/-

Total: Rs. 7509/-



Further Optimizations possible

To duplicate the basic design, several optimizations have to be made to make the process

industrially acceptable. Some of the optimization techniques which can prove to be useful

are:

1. Creating further design where polymer automatically gets removed from the shaft and

goes to a tank containing a basic solution for neutralization of the acidic nature and

then subsequent washing

2. We can use floating roof storage tanks as the reactants are volatile. Thus, we can

control the fumes coming out of the reactant.

3. Usage of a threaded shaft for efficient removal of rotating bobbins on which polymer

is wound.

4. Applying computerized control system for controlling the flow rate, removal of

polymer, drawing, washing etc.

5. H bridge controllers to be used for controlling motor speed and direction.

Conclusions

Our team of four people have made the best efforts to make an innovative approach to perform this

experiment and optimize it for industry usage. We would like to suggest that it is an extremely

sensitive reaction and thus must be carried out with great caution.

Documents

Final Design