In the rubber products industry, many rubber products processed from natural rubber as the main raw material (such as tires, hoses, tapes, seals, shock absorbers, etc.) will add a certain proportion of latex reclaimed rubber in the production, or directly use latex reclaimed rubber to replace natural rubber (the price of latex reclaimed rubber is significantly lower than that of natural rubber), so as to achieve the purpose of reducing costs. So does it mean that latex reclaimed rubber is the same as natural rubber? In addition to the price, what are the differences among the two?
1. The basic performance characteristics of natural rubber
Natural rubber is made of white slurry liquid cut out of rubber tree plants through coagulation, tableting, drying and other processes, rubber hydrocarbon composition is more than 90%, good elasticity and resilience, high tensile strength, high elongation at break, wear resistance, flex resistance, tear resistance, etc., low heat generation, small lag loss, and good performance when used with other rubber. Natural rubber is a scarce natural resource that is widely used in the manufacture of tires such as treads, carcass, and sidewalls, as well as hoses, tapes, general mechanical seals, sponge rubber, etc.
2. Basic performance characteristics of latex reclaimed rubber
Latex reclaimed rubber is a renewable resource processed by selecting, crushing, desulfurizing, filtering and other physical and chemical processes of waste natural latex products or natural latex, the main component is rubber hydrocarbons (high-quality latex reclaimed rubber rubber hydrocarbon content is more than 75%), with good elasticity, high tensile strength and elongation, small specific gravity, good plasticity, generally used alone or with natural rubber and other combined production of various rubber products, saving raw material costs and industrial and electrical costs.
3. The difference among the processing performance and aging resistance of latex reclaimed rubber and natural rubber
(1) Processability
Natural rubber has a high relative molecular weight, a wide distribution of considerable molecular weight, the molecular chain is easy to break, and there are a certain number of gel molecules in the raw rubber, so it is easy to carry out plasticizing, mixing, calendering, extrusion, molding, etc.; It has good dispersion and co-solubility with the compounding agent, and is easy to be processed and pasted by calendering, extrusion, etc. However, natural rubber is prone to vulcanization and regression when vulcanizing, which requires special attention.
Latex reclaimed rubber has good plasticity, the compounding agent is evenly dispersed, and the power required for rubber mixing is lower than that of natural rubber. If the power required for mixing natural rubber is 100, the latex reclaimed rubber 2SLYY113 is about 60. Compared with natural rubber, the rubber mixed with latex reclaimed rubber is easier to produce and compress the film, and the reclaimed rubber can play a role in lubrication. In addition, the processing of latex reclaimed rubber generates less heat, has good vulcanization flatness, small vulcanization return, and small expansion and contraction of unvulcanized rubber.
(2) Aging resistance: natural rubber contains unsaturated double bonds, light, heat, ozone, radiation, flexural deformation and copper, manganese and other metals can promote the aging of rubber, so unaging resistance is the Achilles heel of natural rubber; Antioxidants must be used in appropriate amounts when processing natural rubber products. Latex reclaimed rubber has undergone intense treatment such as vulcanization, mixing and oxidation in the production process, and rubber hydrocarbons have become a stable state that can no longer change, especially when exposed to sunlight, and latex reclaimed rubber has excellent weather resistance.
In principle, latex reclaimed rubber is born to reduce the cost of natural rubber products, and the prices of the two are different, but a large part of the application occasions are overlapping. In the production of natural rubber products, the appropriate use of latex reclaimed rubber can not only reduce the cost of raw materials, but also improve the process performance of rubber compounds; In the follow-up, the editor will continue to discuss with you the specific application skills of latex reclaimed rubber in natural rubber products.
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