Adhesive tack and green strength of EPDM rubber

Abstract

AbstractMeasurement of tack of EPDM (ethylene‐propylenediene terpolymer) rubber with natural rubber (NR) of four different molecular weights, styrene‐butadiene rubber (SBR), butadiene rubber (BR), bromobutyl rubber (BIIR), and polychloroprene rubber (CR) was done over a range of rates of testing, contact times, and temperatures of contact. The effect of different additives, namely carbon black, phenol‐formaldehyde resin, coumarone‐indene resin, and methyl methacrylate is also reported. Green strength of all the rubbers was measured. Tack strength increases with increase in contact time for all the rubbers. Adhesive tack between EPDM and low‐molecular‐weight NR is much higher than that between EPDM and NR of high molecular weight. Tack strength of EPDM with BIIR is the highest among the tack values obtained for synthetic rubbers. The adhesive tack between EPDM and natural/ synthetic rubber passes through a maximum when plotted against temperature of contact. It increases with testing rate. All these phenomena could be explained in terms of interdiffusion of rubber chains under different conditions and solubility parameter of two contacting rubbers. It was observed that tack strength varies with (contact time)1/2 and (rate)1/2 in accordance with the reptation theory. Phenol‐formaldehyde resin (PF) or coumarone‐indene (CI) resin in EPDM improves the tack strength quite significantly. The resin in the NR phase does not have a marked effect. The presence of carbon black decreases adhesive tack strength between EPDM and NR. The surface of EPDM, however, becomes smoother with the addition of the additives. Peel tests and commercial tack tests give similar results in the tack strength between EPDM/NR and EPDM/SBR.