Patent 7211634 was granted and assigned to Eastman Chemical Company on May, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Disclosed is a process for the preparation of high molecular weight polyesters by reacting one or more dicarboxylic acids directly with 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol and, optionally, one or more diols. The process uses an overall diol to dicarboxylic acid molar ratio of about 0.97 to about 1.2 and an incremental addition of either the diacid or diol components. The process provides a shorter total reaction time and, thus, lessens the thermal degradation of polyester which may result in high color and reduced molecular weight.