Rubber Institute gets US patent for ready-to-use mix

Introduction

Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII) has got an US patent for ready-to-use rubber mixes for the industry .

The patent, relating to development of industry standard and application focussed rubber, uses techniques that are environment friendly and energy efficient.

The research work was undertaken by Rosamma Alex, KK Sasidharan and James Jacob of the institute.

For the production of rubber products including tyres, the most critical process is mixing rubber with different ingredients such as plasticisers, vulcanising agents, anti-degradants and fillers.

Energy-intensive

This mixing process pollutes the ambient air to a great extent, if the commonly preferred fillers such as carbon black, silica and clay are used. Further, this is a very energy-intensive process during the manufacture of rubber products.

The issues related to air pollution and high energy consumption during filler incorporation in dry rubber can be avoided to a great extent if fillers are incorporated in the latex.

Perfect compromise

Tyre makers and raw materials suppliers are concentrating on development of technologies to meet the magic triangle properties such as road grip, durability and fuel efficiency for tyres. Generally, fuel efficiency improves at the expense of road grip and durability.

RRII has succeeded in challenging the magic triangle properties of tyre compounds and other issues such as air pollution and higher energy consumption during mill mixing, using a latex filler master-batch consisting of carbon black, silica and nanoclay as a ready to use raw material for the rubber industry.

Source

The Hindu BusinessLine, June 23, 2014