Rubber materials formulation

I have three examples and will start with the design of fuel additives, which is a somewhat simpler molecular structure design problem. Then I will mention rubber compounds formulation, a material design issue. Finally, I will mention some ongoing effort in the area of catalysts. 

Component failure is so crucial that Caterpillar does not trust any other company to make these rubber products—not even Goodyear or Firestone. Caterpillar makes its own rubber component formulations. Rubber component failure is a multilevel issue performance depends on the rubber parts, which depend on the rubber component-based materials. This, in turn, depends on the failure mechanics properties of these materials, which are affected by rubber curing chemistry. In the end, the design- and manufacturing-related issues depend on quantum chemistry of sulfur links. This is another problem in which the transformation process goes from molecules to materials to market and has the proverbial brick wall in between. 

There is wide variety of vulcanisation agents and methods available for crosslinking rubber materials including peroxide, radiation, urethane, amine-boranes, and sulfur compounds [20]. Because of its superior mechanical and elastic properties, ease in use, and low cost, sulfur vulcanisation is the most widely used. Although vulcanisation with sulfur alone is not practical compared to the accelerated sulfur vulcanisation in terms of the slower cure rate and inferior physical properties of the end products, many fundamental aspects can be learned from such a simply formulated vulcanisation system. The use of sulfur alone to cure NR is typically inefficient, i.e., requiring 45-55 sulfur atoms per crosslink [21], and tends to produce a large portion of intramolecular (cyclic) crosslinks. However, such ineffective crosslink structures are of interest in the understanding of complex nature of vulcanisation reactions. 

The plastics industry and all the products made from plastics are almost entirely dependent on chemicals extracted or produced from hydrocarbons. This includes not only the familiar materials such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), epoxies, nylon, polyesters, polycarbonate. Teflon and Plexiglas, but also includes a large portion of materials made from rubber and a diverse group of other materials formulated from polymers such as tape, glue, ink, waterproofing, wax, and polishes. Virtually all the synthetic fibers used in textile products, Orion , Dacron , Nylon and polyesters are made from polymers based on hydrocarbons. 

Virtually all rubber materials, and plastic materials, can be made into an adhesive or sealant compound. This is because many elastomers begin as monomers dispersed in water or solvent and are polymerized in situ. Latex products can remain so, while solid elastomers that are extracted from either water or solvent systems can be solvated with an appropriate organic solvent system. In addition, most solid elastomers exhibit thermal flow characteristics which can make them suitable for hot-melt formulations. And since there are many different rubber polymer families, it stands to reason that there will be many different rubber-based adhesives to identify and describe. Some, however, have... 

Vulcanization, named after Vulcan, the Roman God of Fire, describes the process by which physically soft, compounded rubber materials are converted into high-quality engineering products. The vulcanization system constitutes the fourth component in an elastomeric formulation and functions by inserting crosslinks between adjacent polymer chains in the compoimd. A typical vulcanization system in a compound consists of three components (1) activators (2) vulcanizing agents, typically sulfur and (3) accelerators. 

A numerical tool capable of predicting the mechanical behaviour of SWCNTs reinforced rubber. The formulation is based in a micromechanical, non-linear, multi-scale finite element approach and utilizes a Mooney-Rivlin material model for the rubber and takes into account the atomistic nanostructure of the nanotubes. The interfacial load transfer characteristics were parametrically approximated via the use of joint elements of variable stiffness. The SWCNTs improve significantly the composite strength and toughness especially for higher volume fractions. 

To prepare filled rubber compounds and blends, rubbers were mixed with filler using an internal mixer. During the mixing time samples were taken out for further investigation. Used materials, formulations as well as mixing conditions will be given in details in each part later. 

These considerations account for the formation of a viscous liquid film on certain materials, and not on others, during frictional sliding. Moreover, the properties of the film, its viscosity and adhesiveness, will clearly depend upon the detailed Reactions initiated by mechanical rupture of the elastomer molecules. They will therefore differ from one elastomer to another and they will also depend upon the particular ingredients used in the rubber mix formulation, especially when these substances are themselves able to participate in free-radical reactions. 

Supported films of nitrile phenolic adhesives are formulated with excess phenolic resin which gives a more brittle polymer with resin on its surface. This surface excess obviates the need for priming the metal substrate with nitrile-phenolic before bonding. The brittleness of the adhesive is offset by the presence of fabric as the carrier. Solvent based nitrile phenolics contain an excess of nitrile rubber. Materials which are used as the support comprise cotton nylon polyester glass tissue paper. The support may be either woven or non-woven. 

The cure reaction for many silicone sealants is initiated by acid added at low levels to the sealant formulation. Acids are chemically incompatible with concrete, marble, and limestone. When acid-containing silicone sealants are used in joints with these substrate materials, the acid reacts with the substrate bond surfaces, creating salts at the bond interface. These salts destroy the sealant/substrate adhesion and cause debonding and loss of the seal. In order to use a silicone sealant with these substrates, a silicone formulated without acid is required. Other known chemical incompatibilities are silicone and polychloroprene. Use of these two materials together in a sealant joint is to be avoided. Solvated sealant use in joints containing plastic or rubber materials should be undertaken only after chemical compatibility studies of the sealant with these materials is performed. Typical incompatibility will manifest itself over time by causing the sealant or substrate to soften, harden, crack, and/or craze. A standard test method for determining chemical compatibility is ASTM D-471. 

Cure Characteristics. Methods of natural rubber production and raw material properties vary from factory to factory and area to area. Consequentiy, the cure characteristics of natural mbber can vary, even within a particular grade. Factors such as maturation, method and pH of coagulation, preservatives, dry mbber content and viscosity-stabilizing agents, eg, hydroxylamine-neutral sulfate, influence the cure characteristics of natural mbber. Therefore the consistency of cure for different grades of mbber is determined from compounds mixed to the ACSl formulation (27). The ACSl formulation is as follows natural mbber, 100 stearic acid, 0.5 zinc oxide, 6.0 sulfur, 3.5 and 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT), 0.5. 

Hard products may also be made by vulcanising rubber (natural or synthetic) using only about two parts of sulphur per 100 parts of rubber. In these cases either the so-called high-styrene resins or phenolie rubber compounding resins are ineorporated into the formulation. These compounds are processed using the methods of rubber technology but, like those of ebonite, the produets are more akin to plastics than to rubbers. Examples of the usage of these materials are to be found in battery boxes, shoe heels and ear washer brushes. 

The increased polarity of the acrylic polymers puts more stringent requirements on the properties of the tackifiers or plasticizers that can be used. The very low polarity additives commonly found in rubber based PSAs are not useful in most acrylic PSA formulations. For example, materials like paraffin waxes, mineral oils, and synthetic hydrocarbon tackifiers have little or no value in most acrylic PSAs. 

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