• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.560-565
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• 2011

This paper proposes the design of micro energy harvesting system by using thermoplastic polyurethane(TPU), which harvests electric energy from the kinetic energy of pedestrian and drives the desired load, and applied it to the self-generating shoes. Also, we designed the buck-boost converter in discontinuous conduction mode(DCM) which functions as a resistor emulator(RE) such that converter's average input current is proportional to input voltage, and it results in transfer of maximum power to buck-boost converter according to control behavior that converter's input resistance is matched with TPU's internal resistance. Therefore, this paper confirms the validity of proposed control scheme and possibility of application for self-generating shoes, from the obtained characteristic of designed micro energy harvesting system by using a TPU and buck-boost converter in DCM.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.1074-1087
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• 2022

This study reports an optimization of a 3D printed wrist brace (WB) for various tilting angles (0°, 45°, 90°) of the re-entrant (RE) pattern and thickness (2 mm, 4 mm) using thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) filaments and thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) filaments. The actual printing time, weight, Poisson's ratio, and tensile property of the manufactured samples were analyzed. The results confirmed that the actual printing time and weight increased with increasing thickness, regardless of the filament type. All tilting angles of the WB showed a negative Poisson's ratio (NPR), the largest of which appeared at 90°. The results of the tensile property analysis showed that a 90° tilting angle also had the largest value of elongation and stress. From these results, we conclude that the most suitable wrist brace is one in which the actual printing time is low, the weight is minimized to a thickness of 2 mm, and the tilting angle of the RE pattern is 90° for good shock absorption. The choice of filaments may be decided upon according to the user's preference, since the TPU is stiff and the TPE is elastic.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.256-262
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• 2013

We synthesized thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) with different contents of sulfuric acid group, and characterized their physical properties such as mechanical, thermal and grip properties. And the results were compared with carboxylic acid-introduced TPU. Wet slip, tensile strength and abrasion properties were increased by the introduction of acid group. Mechanical properties increased with increasing the acid content up to 0.3 wt%. However, wet slip was continually increased as the acid content increased due to increase of hydrophilicity of TPU.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.616-622
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• 2009

In-depth understanding of the influence of hot pressing and melt processing on the properties of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) is critical for effective mechanical recycling of TPU scraps. Therefore, this study focused on the effects of hot pressing and melt mixing on molecular weight (MW), polydispersity index (PDI), melt index (MI), characteristic IR peaks, hardness, thermal degradation and mechanical properties of TPU. The original TPU pellet (o-TPU) showed two broad peaks at lower and higher MW regions. However, four TPU film samples, TPU-0 prepared only by hot pressing of o-TPU pellet and TPU-1, TPU-2 and TPU-3 obtained by hot pressing of melt mixed TPUs (where the numbers indicate the run number of melt mixing), exhibited only a single peak at higher MW region. The TPU-0 film sample had the highest $M_n$ and the lowest PDI and hardness. The TPU-1 film sample had the highest $M_w$ and tensile modulus. As the run number of melt mixing increased, the peak-intensity of hydrogen bonded C=O stretching increased, however, the free C=O peak intensity, tensile strength/elongation at break and average MW decreased. All the samples showed two stage degradations. The degradation temperatures of TPU-0 sample (359 $^{\circ}C$ and 394 $^{\circ}C$)were higher than those of o-TPU (342 $^{\circ}C$ and 391 $^{\circ}C$). While all the melt mixed samples degraded at almost the same temperature (365 $^{\circ}C$ and 381 $^{\circ}C$). The first round of hot pressing and melt mixing was found to be the critical condition which led to the significant changes of $M_n$/$M_w$/PDI, MI, mechanical property and thermal degradation of TPU.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.286-293
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• 2004

Ester- and ether-based thermoplastic polyurethanes of different hardness were injection molded at different mold temperatures and effects of mold temperature on the physical properties of TPUs were investigated. Glass transition temperatures of soft segments of TPUs were hardly changed by mold temperatures. The phase separation of soft and hard segments of injection molded TPUs were affected little by mold temperatures. However, crystallinity of hard segments, temperature range of rubbery plateau, and tensile strength of injection molded TPUs decreased with increasing mold temperatures for TPUs of high hardness. However, injection molded TPUs of low hardness showed increases of crystallinity of hard segments, temperature range of rubbery plateau, and tensile strength with increasing mold temperatures. Different physical properties of injection molded TPUs depending on mold temperatures were attributed to different crystallization and physical crosslinking effects of hard segments.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.140-145
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• 2005

Effects of the polyol type and the hard segment content of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) on the crystallization of hard segments in TPUs were studied employing differential scanning calorimetry. Diols used for the preparation of TPUs were poly(tetramethylene ether glycol) (PTMEG), poly(propylene glycol) (PPG), polycaprolactone (PCL), poly(butylene adipate) (PBA) the molecular weights of which were 2000 and the hard segments contents of TPUs were $35\~44\;wt\%$. We found that crystallization of hard segments in TPUs were observed at higher temperatures and became faster with increasing hard segment contents of TPUs. The crystallization rate of TPU was also affected by the types of polyols used for the preparation of TPUs. It is postulated that lower miscibility of soft segments and hard segments results in higher crystallization rate and increase of cooling crystallization temperatures due to better hydrogen bending between hard segments in melts.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.481-493
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• 2022

This study investigated process conditions for 3D printing through manufacturing thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) samples under different infill conditions. Samples were prepared using a fused deposition modeling 3D printer and TPU filament. 12 infill patterns were set (2D: grid, lines, zigzag; 3D: triangles, cubic, cubic subdivision, octet, quarter cubic; 3DF: concentric, cross 3D, cross, honeycomb), with 3 infill densities (20%, 50%, 80%). Morphology, actual time/weight and compressive properties were analyzed. In morphology: it was found that, as infill density increased, the increase rate of the number of units rose for 2D and fell for 3DF. Printing time varied with the number of nozzle movements. In the 3DF case, the number of nozzle movements increased rapidly with infill density. Sample weight increased similarly. However, where the increase rate of the number of units was low, sample weight was also low. In compressive properties: compressive stress increased with infill density and stress was high for the patterns with layers of the same shape.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.314-325
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• 2000

Thermal degradation of thermoplasitc polyurethane modified polycarbonate has been investigated by means of DSC, GPC and FT-IR techniques. The polyurethanes used in this study are TPU-35 and TPU-53 containing 35.5 and 53.4 wt% of hard segments, respectively. The more content of hard segment, the higher the glass transition temperature (T$_{g}$) of TPU was observed. On the other hand, the T$_{g}$ of the TPU modified PC decreased with the content of TPU and the annealing temperature regardless of the hard segment contents. The latter behavior nay arise from the thermal degradation of TPU upon annealing process: the observed thermal degradation temperatures were at 240 and 25$0^{\circ}C$ for the PC/TPU-35 and PC/TPU-53, respectively. The molecular weight, molecular weight distribution and viscosity agree well with the DSC measurement, which implicates a thermal degradation of TPU. In addition, thermal stability of the TPU modified PC linearly decreased with an incorporation of TPU. Transesterification or any interaction was not observed using FT-IR: the evidence was no frequency shift or any variance betwere the carbonyl stretching and NH group. For the specimens prepared below the degradation temperature, the enhancement of the thickness dependent impact strength of the PC/TPU blend was observed, and the morphology of the two blends was compared.d.

• Clean Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.172-179
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• 2009

The thermoplastic polyurethane waste (TPU-S) with good tensile properties, hardness, NBS abrasion resistance, specific gravity and low wet coefficient of kinetic friction was melt-blended with ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber (EPDM) with high wet slip resistance and low mechanical properties to form EPDM/TPU-S blend films, and their composition-property relationship was investigated to find the optimum composition for shoe outsole material. The properties except the wet slip resistance increased with increasing TPU-S contents in the blend. All the properties except elongation at break, specific gravity and the wet coefficient of kinetic friction in the range of $0{\sim}65\;wt%$ of TPU-S did not attain the values predicted by the simple additive rule. The optimum weight ratio of EPDM/TPU-S for the application to the typical shoe outsole material was found to be 30/70.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.5-13
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• 2017

Polypropylene is the main existing material in the domestic market being used for the filter plate because of its moldability, low cost, and commercial availability. Polypropylene filter plate once distorted due to the high-pressure during operation may cause the problem in the continuous operation of the solid-liquid separation module. Thermoplastic Poly Urethane (TPU) can be a high-performance alternative material for the filter plate in the solid-liquid separation module of the dehydration process. Hence, to predict and evaluate the TPU for structural stability in the filter plate through analytical techniques designed and experimental verification is essential. As a result, TPU filter plate had maximum strain of 27.85 MPa at 20 bar pressure condition. This result is less than TPU stress-strain limit, which ensures the structural stability of the TPU material.