1. Selection of raw rubber (main material)
Low price, low price for low cost is obvious. The density is small, the unit volume cost is low, the product rubber cost is also low, the general non-polar rubber density is small, the smaller density of rubber has ethylene propylene rubber, butadiene rubber, etc., in addition to rubber and plastic can also reduce the density.
Can be filled with large rubber such as oil-extended styrene-butadiene rubber, oil-extended butadiene rubber, even if the amount of carbon black and oil is increased, the wear resistance is not reduced. From the cost point of view, the use of these raw rubber is more advantageous. Therefore, oil-filled styrene-butadiene rubber and butadiene rubber are mostly used for tire matching this year.
EPDM rubber is a kind of rubber with the largest filling capacity in rubber. It can be filled with 500 parts of medium-particle thermal carbon black, semi-reinforced carbon black, and fast-pressed carbon black, and can maintain certain physical properties, which can significantly reduce costs.
The chlorinated polyethylene developed in recent years is also an elastomer that can be filled with a large amount of filler. The test shows that adding 300 parts of cheap porous powder quartz filler to chlorinated polyethylene can still maintain good tensile properties and have a significant effect on reducing cost.
Porous powder quartz belongs to a volcanic ash sedimentary rock. The natural particle size of the product is fine (about 0.5μm), the particle distribution is uniform, the specific surface area is large (8.3 m2/g), and the shape structure is similar to spherical without angular shape. From the electron microscope image, the surface is full of nano-scale mesopores, and the average pore diameter is about 8.8nm (nanometer).
Porous powder quartz features: porous structure, natural fine particle size, light weight and surface approximate spherical. This makes the polymer composite material has better fluidity, dispersibility and is not easy to precipitate. Decided to have a very wide range of uses in the rubber industry.
Porous powder quartz is a kind of silica system, the safety of use is recognized, has been widely used in the rubber industry, cheap porous powder quartz can replace part of the carbon black, white carbon black to reduce costs.
Rubber and some plastics, resins and other blends as the main material of the formula, not only can improve some of the properties of the product, but also can reduce the cost of the formula, is the current rubber formula widely used method. For example, natural rubber and polyethylene, nitrile rubber and polyvinyl chloride, ethylene propylene rubber and polypropylene blend.
According to the characteristics of the product requirements, a reasonable choice of alternative materials or inexpensive new rubber is also one of the effective ways to reduce material costs.
2. Rational use of renewable resources
The use of reclaimed rubber is an obvious way to reduce costs. The price of reclaimed rubber is low and it contains reusable part of antioxidants, carbon black, promoters and active agents. In particular, reclaimed rubber is sometimes used instead of raw rubber. Therefore, reclaimed rubber should be used as much or all as possible in low-and medium-grade products. Some special rubber such as nitrile rubber, fluorine rubber, silicone rubber, epichlorohydrin rubber, acrylic rubber, the appropriate blending of reclaimed rubber sometimes its performance is not much, but can greatly improve the process performance, is a good thing.
The rational use of vulcanized rubber powder is also one of the important ways to reduce costs. For many years, the rubber industry has been exploring effective ways to recycle waste rubber products, which is of great significance to reduce the cost of rubber products. In addition to the use of vulcanized rubber powder on the road, it is also a good filler for rubber, with low price, low density, good affinity and so on. A small amount of vulcanized rubber powder blended in the tread rubber of the tire can also properly improve the wear resistance and tear resistance. The activation modification of fine rubber powder and rubber powder can further improve the use value of rubber powder in rubber.
Making full use of vulcanized waste rubber edges and scrap products is also an effective way to reduce the cost of certain rubber products. For example, a large number of butyl rubber water tires and capsules discarded by the tire factory are better classified by the rubber factory and made into rubber powder by mechanical method. It can also be further made into reclaimed rubber and filled into corresponding rubber materials or low-grade rubber materials as fillers to turn waste into treasure. Full and reasonable utilization of renewable resources can increase the amount of waste rubber recycling and is a new way to reduce the formula cost.
3. Increase the amount of filler and oil
Generally, fillers are relatively cheap, no matter which one is used, as long as the amount is increased, the cost can be greatly reduced. But
At the same time, the operating oil corresponding to its performance and dosage must be added.
Inorganic fillers such as calcium carbonate and china clay are generally used as inexpensive fillers. Generally, the particle size of these inorganic fillers is large, the surface is hydrophilic, and the compatibility with rubber is not good, so its reinforcing performance is far inferior to carbon black, and increasing its dosage tends to lead to a significant decrease in the performance of vulcanized rubber. In order to improve the binding ability of inorganic fillers and rubber macromolecules and increase their filling amount, it is necessary to carry out various surface modification treatments on them. For example, calcium carbonate grafted with low molecular weight carboxylated polybutadiene can significantly improve the tear strength, constant elongation stress and wear resistance of vulcanized rubber, and also make the rubber compound have good moisture resistance and electrical properties, and improve the processing performance of the rubber compound, increase the filling amount, and partially replace the semi-reinforced carbon black. The combination of calcium carbonate and precipitated silica treated with titanate and silane coupling agent can improve the processing performance of EPDM rubber, increase the filling amount, reduce the amount of silica, and reduce the cost of rubber under the premise of maintaining the performance index.
In order to reduce material costs, a variety of inexpensive fillers have been developed in China in recent years. Most of these fillers used to belong to industrial waste and environmental pollution sources, and have achieved remarkable economic and social benefits after development and application.
Cheap non-reinforcing filler, good application effect in rubber products are red mud, oil shale ash, silica-alumina carbon black, wollastonite powder, porous powder quartz, active silica powder, high transparent white slip powder, etc.
