INCREASING PRODUCTION WEIGHT OF MODIFIED-BIOSILICA FROM RICE HUSK AND ITS APPLICATIONS AS REINFORCING FILLER IN RUBBER FINISHED GOODS

Biosilica from rice husks has a potential that can be used as a reinforcing filler in the production of rubber finished goods displace mine silica. But it’s difficult to disperse homogenetically into a rubber finished goods, so it needs to modify the surface using a coupling agent sign. The capacity for the production of modified-biosilica would need to be at a great level to meet the needs of the rubber industry. The purpose of the research is to identify the characteristics of the modified-biosilica by silane TESPT (bis-(3-triethoxysilylpropyl) tetrasulfane) that resulted from increasing the weight of biosilica in the production process and the application as reinforcing filler on the rubber. Increasing of weight in the production process was done gradually on a scale of 0.5; 1; 2; and 5 kg of biosilica per process using a mixer-propeller. The technique on surface modifications was using a one-step modification (OSM) and two-step modification (TSM). Surface modification treatment using TESPT has increased the uniformity of the particle size distribution of the biosilica. Unmodified-biosilica has an average particle size of 717.1 nm (PDI 0.600), while modified-biosilica has an average particle size of 574.6 nm (PDI 0.585). Applications for reinforcing filler in the soles rubber industry are performed in PT Triangkasa Lestari Utama. Research indicates that increasing the weight of biosilica on the surface modifications did not significantly affect the density, lightness, crystallinity, and purity. The applications as reinforcing fillers have increased the quality of rubber finished goods compared with unmodified-biosilica. The best rubber finished goods quality approaching shoes-sol standards is a product that used modified-biosilica by OSM technique. This rubber finished goods has a tensile strength of 5.80 MPa, elongation at break of 425%, tear strength of 23.25% and abrasion resistance of 251.5 mm3 .

Effect of Short Banana Fiber on Hardness and Tensile Properties of Natural Rubber Composites

Banana fiber (BF) was utilized as a reinforcing filler for natural rubber (NR). BF/NR composites containing banana fiber contents of 5, 10, and 15 parts per hundred parts of rubber (phr) were mixed on a two-roll mill machine. The hardness, tensile properties of BF/NR composites were studied. It was found that the hardness and moduli of BF/NR composites are higher than that of NR. Despite tensile strength and strain at break of BF/NR composite lower than NR. Moreover, hardness and moduli of BF/NR composites increased, while tensile strength and strain at break decreased with the increase in banana fiber content. Thus, banana fiber exhibited improvement in the stiffness significantly of NR composites

Recycling of Bagasse as an Agricultural Waste and its Effect as Filler on Some Mechanical and Physical Properties of SBR Composites

In the present study, a series of mixes based on different concentrations of carbon black (CB) as a reinforcing filler and sugarcane bagasse as supplementary filler, were investigated to examine their effects on the mechanical properties of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) composites. To this end, the first group of mixes deals with the effect of different concentrations of CB ranging from 0 to 80 phr at fixed bagasse concentration of 25 phr. The second group of mixes involves the addition of bagasse with concentrations varying from 10 to 50 phr at 10 intervals with fixed CB concentration of 40 phr. The sizes of the employed ground bagasse powder (GBP) in all prepared formulations ranged from 20 to 180 μm. In addition, 2.5 phr of maleic anhydride (MA) was added to enhance the interfacial adhesion between SBR and agricultural waste fillers (i. e. bagasse). Tensile strength, elongation at break, modulus at 100% elongation, resilience, hardness (Shore A), abrasion and degree of swelling of the rubber vulcanizates were studied. The prepared samples were also analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to show the distribution of fiber and the occurrence of fiber-matrix adhesion. The optimum concentration of bagasse to be used simultaneously with CB in SBR composites was found to be 30 phr. Overall, it was found from the obtained results that the addition of GBP up to 50 phr is feasible without impairing the mechanical properties of SBR vulcanizates.

Research On the Effect of Reinforcing Filler on The Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Insulating Coated Silicone Rubber

This paper studies the silicone rubber insulation coating material used for the modification of overhead bare wires. The influence of two reinforcing fillers of silicone rubber on the density, mechanical properties and electrical properties of insulating coating materials was explored. Finally,25 copies of white carbon black were selected as a reinforcing filler to prepare a low-density, high-strength, and good insulating silicone insulating coating material.

Simulation of characteristics of composite material with «liquid» matrix

A theoretical model of composite material consisting of a fibrous reinforcing filler, epoxy and elastomer matrices is proposed. The main purpose of the elastomer matrix is relaxation of all stresses occurring under loading and blocking the crack growth. Such elastomer matrices were named as «liquid». The calculation of the stress-strain state of the developed composite material with «liquid» matrix was carried out by using the finite-element software Ansys. It was found out that when elastic characteristics of used elestomers were less, the level of maximal stresses was less and the load factor values were higher. Decreasing stresses results in the blocking of crack growth that leads to increasing durability of such materials.

Effect of Vulcanization Processes on Properties of Natural Rubber/Cellulose Composites

The effect of vulcanization processes and surface treatment of cellulose were investigated on tensile strength, degradation temperature, and morphological properties of cellulose/natural rubber composites. Cellulose was surface-treated with Si-69 silane coupling agent and used as reinforcing filler in natural rubber (NR). Different vulcanization processes including electron beam irradiation (EB-Cured) and sulphur vulcanization (S-Cured) were used to crosslink NR. The incorporation of both untreated and treated cellulose at various concentrations (5, 10, 15 and 20 phr) into NR was found to significantly improve the tensile strength and modulus. Notably, with addition of treated cellulose in NR, the tensile strength and modulus were considerably higher than that of the untreated cellulose for all curing system. SEM morphological analysis revealed a well dispersion of cellulose particles in NR matrix. Addition of cellulose slightly decreased the onset of degradation temperature of NR, however, the degradable temperature was found to be unchanged. The curing systems had shown an impact on tensile property of NR. S-Cured NR exhibited highest modulus of 2.23 MPa comparing to the EB-Cured NR (1.69 MPa) for the same amount of cellulose (20 phr), due to a stronger crosslink network. However, the curing system had no significant impact on degradation temperature of NR.

STUDY OF MAKING POLYESTER RESIN MATRIX COMPOSITES USING BASALT SCORIA POWDER FILLERS TO TENSILE STRENGTH AND COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH

An experimental study on the manufacture of polyester resin matrix composites using basalt powder as a reinforcing filler has been carried out. Basalt is a volcanic igneous rock often found in East Lampung and has not been utilised. Basalt is chosen as a reinforcing filler because basalt has advantages such as wear resistance, corrosion resistance, resistance to chemical reactions, and high hardness. The research parameters used were variations in the size of the basalt powder, the composition of the polyester resin matrix to the basalt powder, and the percentage of the catalyst. All parameters were mixed according to the research procedure, and all samples were formed under pressure 20 kN. Tensile test results showed the highest value of 0.961 kgf/mm2 from 60 mesh-25% polyester-1/30 catalyst variation parameter. The highest compressive strength value of 28.331 kgf/mm2 was obtained from the various parameters of 270 mesh-20% polyester-1/20 catalyst and 270 mesh-25% polyester-1/30 catalyst. The results were not much different from those, which is 27.787 kgf/mm2. The use of 1/30 hardener catalyst to the amount of polymer by 25 %wt gives optimal results on the characterisation material testing. However, the effect of the filler grain size gave different results for each test carried out. Therefore, to obtain the desired mechanical properties when using basalt rock powder as a filler, it is necessary to pay attention to the correct grain size.

Effects of Processing Conditions and Plasticizing-Reinforcing Modification on the Crystallization and Physical Properties of PLA Films

The polylactic acid (PLA) resin Ingeo 4032D was selected as the research object. Epoxy soybean oil (ESO) and zeolite (3A molecular sieve) were used as plasticizer and reinforcing filler, respectively, for PLA blend modification. The mixture was granulated in an extruder and then blown to obtain films under different conditions to determine the optimum processing temperatures and screw rotation. Then, the thermal behaviour, crystallinity, optical transparency, micro phase structure and physical properties of the film were investigated. The results showed that with increasing zeolite content, the crystallization behaviour of PLA changed, and the haze of the film increased from 5% to 40% compared to the pure PLA film. Zeolite and ESO dispersed in the PLA matrix played a role in toughening and strengthening. The PLA/8 wt% zeolite/3 wt% ESO film had the highest longitudinal tensile strength at 77 MPa. The PLA/2 wt% zeolite/3 wt% ESO film had the highest longitudinal elongation at 13%. The physical properties depended heavily on the dispersion of zeolite and ESO in the matrix.

A Study on Chemical Ageing of Composite Ribbed GFRP Bars under Load

Here we explored the chemical durability of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) bars under load. Three batches of ribbed GFRP bar specimens were fabricated using binder matrices: ED-22+isomethyltetrahydrophthalic anhydride (iso-MTGFA), ED-22+Ethal-450 and NPPN-631+ iso-MTGFA. As the reinforcing filler, we used an EC17 glass roving (for all the specimen batches). The specimens of each batch were aged in a 1 N alkaline NaOH solution at 60 °C for 2000 hrs. The ageing was performed under a 300 MPa load (30% of the failure stress). The tensile strength of the specimens from each batch following ageing was measured. The tensile test results demonstrated that that the strength loss of the specimens following chemical ageing was 58.9% for batch 1 based on ED-22+iso-MTGFA, 6.6% for batch 2 based on ED-22+Ethal-450, and 33.6% for batch 3 based on NPPN-631 + iso-MTGFA. The specimens of batch 2 based on ED-22+Ethal-450 exhibited the greatest resistance to the NaOH alkaline solution (a strength loss of 6.6%).