Examination of Vulcanization of Tire Rubber by Microwave Heating

摘要

Production of rubber, which began in the 18th century, became widely used on a daily basis due to optimization of synthetic rubber and vulcanization. Rubber generally improves rubber elasticity (elastomer) by forming a three-dimensional network of molecules by vulcanization. Generally, in the vulcanization of rubber, when the vulcanization time is long and high temperature treatment is performed, the physical and chemical properties of the rubber deteriorate. For this reason, vulcanization at a low temperature in a short time is required, but it is difficult to achieve due to low thermal conductivity. This research aims to develop microwave vulcanization of tire rubber and produce "short time, low temperature, high quality" rubber. Especially, in this presentation, (i) the interaction between rubber and microwave was verified by measuring the dielectric factor of rubber raw materials and their mixtures. Moreover, by systematizing this, the feature of microwave heating in tire rubber was theoretically predicted. In addition, (ii) a rubber vulcanization experiment using microwave heating was performed to verify the advantages of the process compared to existing heat transfer methods (conventional heating).