Choice of Rubber Compounds for the Ore and Mining Industries

Rubber has been used by the mining industry, both in the form of cured rubber and in its uncured state, for bonding and vulcanising to metal surfaces of tanks and vessels for over half a century. It has been used to protect such items of the plant and equipment from the deleterious effects of abrasive wear, caused by elements such as coal dust, ore particles in slurry and solid form and dusty fumes. 

Despite the introduction of synthetic elastomers, ceramics and other abrasion resisting metals such as manganese, natural rubber holds a dominant position in this field of application and is the primary choice for abrasion resistance. Synthetic rubbers (particularly styrene-butadiene rubber which is dominant in the tyre industry sector) are used in dry abrasion application such as general purpose abrasion resistant sheets and conveyor belt covers, since the rubber can be reinforced with fine particles of carbon blacks to achieve dry abrasion resistance close to that of natural rubber. It should be noted that styrene-butadiene rubber is inferior to natural rubber in cutting and chipping resistance. 

Wear can be described as an undesirable deformation of the surface of an object, moving or fixed part of the equipment by way of removal of small particles due to mechanical action such as abrasion, impact, friction, etc. In addition to the mechanical reasons, deformation could arise due to chemical action such as in the case of impellers in the fertiliser industries which are exposed to the reacting phosphoric acid fumes containing dust particles of phosphates. 

In the process of wear of a material of construction, four elements are involved  

The measure of wear depends on the state of the medium as solid, liquid, slurry, dust, fumes or gases the type of motion and its velocity and the load. 

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