{{unreferenced, date=July 2013 Semiembossed film is used as a liner to the calendared

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

to retain the properties of rubber and also to prevent dust and other foreign matters from sticking to the rubber while calendaring and during storage. It is manufactured with 100% virgin low-density

polyethylene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...

. The raw material is extruded and cast on the embossed roll and cooled. It can be of any color. Milky white, French blue, red and yellow are standard colors. The diamond-shaped embossing in the film helps in the easy removal of air between the film and the rubber. Semiembossed film is used by tyre manufacturers, tread and bonding gum manufacturers,

conveyor belt A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system is one of many types of conveyor systems. A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to ...

manufacturers and other rubber coated fabric manufacturers.

Film embossing process

Film embossing is a mechanical process in which a flat film is transformed into an embossed product. During the process, thermal and

stress field A stress field is the distribution of internal forces in a body that balance a given set of external forces. Stress fields are widely used in fluid dynamics and materials science. Consider that one can picture the stress fields as the stress cre ...

s are applied to the polymer, causing changes in the microstructure and physical dimensions of the material. The engineering analysis of the process requires the study of various aspects relating to the characterization of the microstructure before and after embossing, A variety of techniques were employed to characterize the properties and

microstructure Microstructure is the very small scale structure of a material, defined as the structure of a prepared surface of material as revealed by an optical microscope above 25× magnification. The microstructure of a material (such as metals, polymers ...

of the embossed film in relation to

crystallinity Crystallinity refers to the degree of structural order in a solid. In a crystal, the atoms or molecules are arranged in a regular, periodic manner. The degree of crystallinity has a big influence on hardness, density, Transparency and translucen ...

, orientation, mechanical properties, and dimensions of the embossed films. The thermal treatment of the polymer film was shown to be the most significant factor in the process. By controlling the thermal treatment of the film, it is possible to manipulate the properties and dimensions of the embossed film. The important aspects: influencing thermal treatment include the radiation heater temperature, preheat roll temperature, line velocity, and film thickness. The initial film orientation and embossing pressure have a minor effect on the final properties of the embossed film. The main effect of the embossing pressure is on the bulk thickness of the embossed film. Rubber