Chapter 1 | Introduction

Abstract

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Rubber manufacturing is composed of mostly four different types of processes which include (1) processing with conventional vulcanization, (2) processing with thermoplastic elastomers, (3) processing with polyurethane thermosets, and (4) processing with natural or synthetic rubber latex. The vast majority of economic activity today uses the processes dealing with conventional rubber vulcanization. There are numerous rubber products discussed which include light, medium, and heavy-duty truck tires, passenger tires, airplane tires, motorcycle tires, bicycle tires, rubber hose, conveyor belts, flat belts, rubber seals, gaskets, dynamic seals, radial lip seals, radial shaft seals, packings, fluid seals, bushings, motor mounts, isolators, dampers, shoe heel and soles, single ply roofing, cellular rubber products, rubber coated fabrics, rubber gloves, surgeon's gloves, examination gloves, blowout preventers, tank lining, wire and cable insulation, rubber rollers, etc. The rubber industry is based on many raw materials such as many different synthetic and natural rubbers combined in a proprietary recipe with a filler/oil system, such as naphthenic oil and carbon black or precipitated hydrated silica with organosilanes as well as proprietary curative packages based on usually a sulfur-based system, but sometimes a peroxide system. Some of the common synthetic elastomers used include SBR, CR, NBR, CIIR, AEM, CSM, EPDM, BR, silicone rubber, FKM, etc. So, thousands of proprietary recipes are based on a rubber system, a filler/oil system, a curative package, and a antidegradant system. A rubber processing plant may consist of an internal mixing system, an extruder, a sheet calender, a fabric calender, an autoclave, or compression molding, or tire curing presses, or rotary cure press (rotocure), or injection molding, or continuous vulcanization units, to name a few. Most of these manufacturing steps are very capital intensive.