Tires Channel black

Erom World War I to World War II the channel black process made most of the carbon black used worldwide for mbber and pigment appHcations. The last channel black plant in the United States was closed in 1976. Operations stiU exist and are even being expanded in Europe. The demise of channel black was caused by environmental problems, cost, smoke pollution, and the rapid development of od-fumace process grades that were equal or superior to channel black products particularly for use in synthetic mbber tires. 

Carbon black includes several forms of artificially prepared carbon, such as furnace black, channel black, lamp black, and animal charcoal. It is a finely divided form of carbon consisting of particles of extremely fine size. It is obtained by partial combustion (in 50% required air) of vapors of heavy oil fraction of crude oil in a furnace or by thermal cracking of natural gas. Carbon black is used in many abrasion-resistant rubber products including tire treads and belt covers. It also is used in typewriter ribbons, printing inks, carbon paper, and paint pigments. It also can be an absorber for solar energy and UV radiation. 

In the past decades the rapidly expanding automobile industry required increasing numbers of tires with various characteristics. This led not only to the development of new rubber grades, but also to the development of new carbon blacks required by the increasingly refined application processes and to the development of a new and better manufacturing process, the furnace black process. Unlike the old channel black process, this process allows the production of nearly all types of carbon black required by the rubber industry. It also meets the high economic and ecological requirements of our times. 

The channel black process is the oldest process for the manufacture of fine particulate carbon black and was operated in the USA from the end of the nineteenth century to 1976. The fine particulate channel black first made possible the production of long-lived car tires with a mileage of several tens of thousands of miles. 

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