Published November 1970
This report is concerned with the technology and economics for producing the polyacrylates prepared from acrylic and methacrylic acids and their derivatives. It does not include the production of acrylic synthetic fiber which is a polymer of acrylonitrile, nor does it concern other polymers of acrylonitrile such as ABS resins which is the topic of another PEP Report, No. 20.
Five processes are included in the study, e.g., batch bulk polymerization (or cell casting), continuous-bulk polymerization (or continuous casting), solution polymerization, emulsion polymerization, and suspension polymerization. Depending on the polymerization process, the products are in the forms of sheets, solution, latex, or pellets. It was necessary to make the cost estimates on selected recipes because of the large number of possible formulations and different applications. Extrapolation to other formulations and conditions were made when it was desirable to indicate the difference in processing costs.