Rubber ablation

Ablation means removal of material from the surface of an object by vaporization, chipping, or other erosive processes. The term occurs in Space Physics [5]. In space vehicle design, ablation is used to both cool and protect mechanical parts and/or payloads that would otherwise be damaged by extremely high temperatures. A low-density EPDM rubber is a fire stopping and fire proofing product that can be ablative in nature. 

Tire wear is an ablation product of vehicle operation not found in exhaust which can be considered significant. Tire wear emissions have been estimated at 7 million ton/year in the United States (54). Both zinc and cadmium are components of tire rubber, and tire debris is a significant source of atmospheric emissions of these metals. Zinc comprises approximately 1.5% of tire dust by weight. In Los Angeles, tire dust is one of two major sources of atmospheric zinc, the other being metallurgical emissions (55). Cadmium emissions from tire debris was estimated at... 

Kim, E. S. Lee, T. H. Shin, S. H. Yoon, J.-S., Effect of Incorporation of Carbon Fiber and Silicon Carbide Powders Into Silicone Rubber on the Ablation and Mechanical Properties of the Silicone Rubber-Based Ablation Material. 

Second, in the case of styrene-butadiene copolymers which are used in various applications, the properties are largely dependent on the concentration of each monomer. For this reason, their detailed quantitative characterization is crucial. In this frame, methodology to obtain quantitative information for random styrene-butadiene copolymers has been developed from laser ablation coupled to Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (LA-FTICR-MS) experiments. Contrary to other analytical techniques, the proposed methodology did not require pretreatment. When PS, butadiene rubber (BR), and SBR were laser-ablated... 

Laser ablation technology for industrial applications has first come to prominence in 1965. For example, chlorinated rubber (CR) coatings were removed from concrete surfaces using a 60 W high power laser diode [59]. The ash particles were investigated by optical microscopy, image analysis, DTA/DTG, ESEM and EDX techniques. 

LIBS/RELMA was tested on a series of industrial NBR compounds with various deliberate recipe errors of all components (rubber, fillers, carbon-black, plasticisers, FRs, AOs, accelerators, ZnO, sulfur, mineral oil). UV excimer laser wavelengths must be employed on polymeric surfaces since only then sharp and regular ablation patterns are produced without any thermal side-effects (at variance with IR NdiYAG). LIBS/RELMA can be used for off-line analysis of vulcanisates, homogeneity testing and particle analysis in mixtures and element analysis of raw materials (in particular for fillers). RELMA... 

Because ablation is carried out at high temperatures it is possible to examine thermally static polymers such as poly-p-methylstyrene. Other recent applications of ToF-SIMS include the examination of PS [136-139], carbon-fibre reinforced epoxy resins [140], polyalkylacrylates [141], alkylketene dimers [142], perfluorinated polymers [143], siloxanes [144-150], rubbers [151], ethylene - tetrafluroethylene copolymers [151], Nylon 6 [152], PC [153], polydimethylsiloxane [154], polypyrrole coated PS [156], poly-p-phenylene vinylene [157], butyl rubber [158], poly(4-vinyl... 

Work continues on the RELMA (REmote Laser MicroAnalysis) system (172) in which spectral analysis is carried out on samples ablated continuously from a passing sheet of rubber compound by a laser. Relative... 

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