Abstract
A grommet, made of ethylene propylene diene methylene (EPDM) rubber, is an integral part used for fixing and protecting the wire inserted from the outside to the inside of vehicles. Rubber compounds exhibit various mechanical properties and vulcanization characteristics depending on the accelerator mixing ratio. These mechanical properties affect the insertion and detachment forces when the grommet is manufactured and fixed to the vehicle body. In this study, we experimentally analyzed the changes in the properties of EPDM rubber depending on the vulcanization accelerator to improve the mounting performance of the grommet, and subsequently derived the optimum accelerator mixing ratio. We implemented a mixture design strategy to derive the optimum mixing ratio for obtaining the desired mechanical properties and vulcanization characteristics. The insertion and separation forces of the existing grommet were compared with those of the grommet fabricated using the derived mixing ratio and we found that the mounting performance was improved compared to the existing grommet.
Highlights
The last few decades have seen the development of a wide variety of elastomers for application to diverse fields
Ethylene propylene diene methylene (EPDM) rubber exhibits excellent ozone resistance but poor oil resistance, and it cannot be used in applications wherein it comes into contact with oil [4,5]
A grommet is manufactured via injection molding of EPDM rubber, and the mounting force is changed according to the mechanical properties of EPDM [7,8]
Summary
The last few decades have seen the development of a wide variety of elastomers (rubber materials) for application to diverse fields. The effect of the vulcanization accelerator on the EPDM was investigated and a grommet was manufactured to compare the insertion and detachment forces. While several studies have been carried out to examine the properties and effects of general accelerators [14], very few studies have focused on deriving or estimating the optimum accelerator mixing ratio via efficient and systematic experiments for realizing desirable, application-specific mechanical properties of rubbers [15,16]. The blending ratio of the EPDM and the vulcanization accelerator was optimized to improve the mounting ability of the grommet. We experimentally analyzed the changes in the properties of the EPDM rubber depending on the vulcanization accelerator and derived the optimum mixing ratio. The grommet was manufactured based on the derived blending ratio and the mounting performance was improved compared to the existing grommet
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