Depolymerized natural rubber as a processing aid

Abstract

The development of a commercially viable, light coloured, non toxic grade of depolymerized natural rubber by the Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka (proprietary) has led us to carry out research and development work on the potential industrial applications of depolymerized rubber, for example, as a speciality rubber in raw rubber blends to improve processability and certain physical properties due to its covulcanizable characteristics. The effects of percentage of depolymerized rubber on the processability and vulcanization characteritics are discussed in this paper. The results show that the use of depolymerized rubber in controlled amount enhances the processability and lowers the power requirement without adversely affecting the properties of the compounds. Also, the results obtained with the vulcanized mixes demostrate that the behaviour of depolymerized rubber is comparable to synthetic polyisoprenes and is an improvement over ordinary processing oils. Results show that the incorporation of certain percentages of depolymerized rubber in the formulations can significatly improve the abrasion resistance. Clearly, if depolymerized natural rubber can surpass the existing processing aids in quality and price, then a much larger market is potentially available world wide.