Microscope, binocular simple

A simple qualitative visual method for rating the dispersion of fillers (50phr carbon black) In Blon elastomer was developed and Is Illustrated In Figure 2. A cross section of cured elastomer Is examined under a binocular microscope to check gross dispersion of fillers. The visual dispersion Is rated against a set of standard photographs of dispersions which had previously been ranked and correlated with certain Important physical properties. For example, In Figure 3, the flex life of a well dispersed elastomer was over 300 million cycles while that of a poorly dispersed one was below one million cycles. The correlation of physical properties to dispersion has been substantiated with other rubbers (14). 

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