Chemical Problems of the Linoleum Industry A. B. MILLERANI) FOSTER D. SNELI,,Foster D. Snell, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y.
S
OMIE cliemical knowledge of the ingredients of linoIcorn is plainly OS assistance in dealing with the technical problems of this industry. The nart that mav be ulaved In,
The chemistry of linoleurn centers around its ozidized oil-rosin binder, This
iu rnariy respects excellently adupted for j h r ( : o u e r hPurposes, h a the hficiencies of the lw muter resistance of oxidized oils and the lmo alkali
d u s t v might be rendered o h lete through proper r e s e a r c h . The requirements from an engineering be more economically and readily met. The effortsof the desinner.
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not nearly asobvious. ~ a r t i a i l y resins and iesinoids promise. necessary in his work, wouldnot, because of the refractory nature as in the past, entail such great processing and fabrication entails the use of Certainly there of the chemistry involved and partially becauseof the apparent heavy equipment with large horsepower requirewould appear to be a real opporments. Chemical modificatiort of the binder and tunity in seeking methods reand i m m e d i a t e needs of the processing my do much towar& SinLplifieation qniring a minimum of time and industry from at1 engineering effort in m a n u f a c t u r e while arid may make compct decentralized and designing viewpoint, these maintaining and iniproving the groups liave taken precedence in production programs. The Pracfica1. qualities available in the product nature of the presently availof today. able plastic resulted inn call from the plant lor niore and iiiiire OIL-REBINPLnmc heavy machinery, and more horsepower to mangle the The characteristil; properties of the material we know as plastic and force it into smooth sheets. From the field tins come the demand to produce objects of art by the mile, so linoleum arise from its oxidized oil-resin binder in conjunction the smooth sheet is dented, chopped and reassembled, with pigments, and inorganic and organic fillers. The sprayed, painted, and generally disguised. Tlie engineer's preparation of linoleum binder is almost unique among oil vork has been governed by the material and chenkal proc- products in that the binder is brought to its plastic or B stage esses given him while the designer has been called upon to by oxidation, then converted to the C stage by heat. This meet. the natural or stimulated demands from the trade and is just the reverse of paint nianufacture where the I3 stage t,o this end has required all the bizarre plastic and pigment is obtained by oil-boiling and the C by air-drying, oxidation. Walton's original plastic was an airdried linseed oil, combinations the chemist could muster. As de Waele (Z)said in his classical article on the linolenni fluxed with rosin and kauri gum and heated to a gel, which industry: "The adoption of the process eniployed appears in Bakelite terminology we might call the beginning of the C to have been arrived a t by a method of evolution, little chemi- stage. The incorporation with fillers gave a partial degradacal knorrledge seeming to be possessed 011 the nature of the tion to the B stage, follow
