A New Class of High Performance Carbons for Improved Thermal Conductivity and Service Life in Bladder Compounds (Paper No. 15)

摘要

A series of carbon blacks and a new class of thermally-modified carbons covering a narrow range of particle size and structure were evaluated for their thermal conductivity, fatigue life, rubber reinforcement and compound processibility in a butyl, tire-curing-bladder compound. In addition to mean particle size and structure, the thermally-modified carbons provide different levels of graphitization as a third variable in understanding the fundamental properties controlling thermal conductivity and rubberproperties of curing bladder compounds. Compared to the control compound thatcontained an acetylene black, the results showed that higher graphitic order of the thermally-modified carbons increased the thermal conductivity of the butyl-rubber compounds. In addition, the compounds containing thermally-modified carbons exhibited improved fatigue life, equal processibility and lower modulus compared to the control. This knowledge is important for the future development of curing bladders withimproved thermal conductivity and fatigue life with good reinforcement levels, which can result in reduced cure cycles with fewer bladder changes leading to increased productivity in tire plants.