Process for obtaining high melting ethylene polymers

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR PRODUCING LINEAR, HIGHLY CRYSTALLINE POLYETHYLENE HAVING A MOLECULAR WEIGHT ABOVE 50,000, BEING PRACTICALLY FREE OF BRANCHINGS, AND HAVING A MELTING RANGE BETWEEN 135*C. AND 145*C. WHICH PROCESS COMPRISES POLYMERIZING ETHYLENE IN AN INERT HYDROCARBON SOLVENT AND IN CONTACT WITH A CATALYST WHICH IS AT MOST ONLY PARTIALLY SOLUBLE IN THE INERT HYDROCARBON SOLVENT, SAILD CATALYST CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF MICRO-CRYSTALLINE PORTIONS, CONTAINING DIRECT METAL-TO-CARBON BONDS AND BEING PREPARED BY MIXING (A) AN ORGANOMETALLIC COMPOUND HAVING A FORMULA SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF MER2 AND MER3, IN WHICH ME IS A METAL SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF AL, MG, BE AND ZN, AT LEAST ALL BUT ONE OF THE R''S BEING ALKYL RADICALS CONTAINING FROM 2 TO 16 CARBON ATOMS AND THE REMAINING R, IF ANY, BEING A MEMBER SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF SAID ALKYL RADICALS, ALKOXYRADICALS CONTAINING 2 TO 4 CARBON ATOMS, AND HALOGEN, WITH (B) A SOLID, CRYSTALLINE COMPOUND HAVING THE FORMULA TI(X)R(RCOO)4-N, IN WHICH X IS HALOGEN, R IS SELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF ALKYL AND ARYL RADICALS AND HALOGENATED ALKYL AND ARYL RADICALS AND N IS AN INTEGER VARYING BETWEEN ONE AND (4-1), SAID CATALYST BEING AT MOST ONLY PARTIALLY SOLUBLE IN HYDROCARBON SOLVENTS.