Environmental factors affecting rubber

Environmental Factors Affecting Strength and Durability of Rubber... 

Temperature and other environmental factors affect the mechanical behavior. Thus, polymers can show all features of a glassy brittle solid, an elastic rubber, or a viscous liquid depending on the temperature and time scale of measurements. At low temperatures or high frequencies, a polymeric... 

Apart from mechanical deformation imposed on the rubber, the strength and durability of the vulcanized rubber is affected by other environmental factors discussed in the subsequent sections. 

With rubber base adhesives, it is necessary to prevent their properties from changing during service life. Oxidative changes induced by thermal, ozone exposure and UV light can dramatically affect service life of rubber base adhesives. More precisely, the rubber and the resin are quite susceptible to oxidative degradation. Environmental and physical factors exert detrimental effects on rubber base adhesive performance. These effects can be mitigated by the incorporation of low levels of stabilizers during the fabrication process of the adhesive. 

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