NEW METHOD FOR MEASURING THE EFFECTS OF POST-CURE OR AEROBIC HEAT AGING ON COMPOUND DYNAMIC PROPERTIES

摘要

With Rubber Process Analyzer (RPA) technology, one can easily measure after-cure dynamic properties quickly by dropping the die temperature to a lower level and performing a rapid strain sweep. However, it was not technically feasible to measure the effects of post-cure or aerobic air aging on these initial after-cure dynamic properties because the RPA technology is based on a sealed test cavity which is anaerobic in nature. Now with the development of new dies, it is now very practical to remove samples from the test instrument, post-cure these samples in an air circulating oven, reinsert these aged samples back into position in the instrument, and quantify the effects of post-cure on the dynamic properties. This paper reports on the changes noted from aerobic air aging on cured dynamic properties vs. anaerobic heat aging. These studies were conducted with different selected compounds based both on specialty elastomers and general-purpose elastomers as well.