Correlation of Blooming and Tensile Properties in Surfactant-Loaded Natural Rubber Vulcanizates

摘要

Tensile properties of surfactant-loaded natural rubber (NR) vulcanizates are investigated in correlation with blooming. Rubber sheets are compounded using an L12 orthogonal array of Taguchi design of experiment, where ingredients are treated as factors varied at low and high loadings. Blooming experiments are carried out by placing NR sheets in a natural convection oven set at 50°C for 20 days. The amount of bloom on the surface is removed using adhesive tape and is monitored with time. Tensile properties of rubber dogbone samples are also measured with time. Results show that 5 out of 12 formulations show blooming to be significantly related to tensile modulus (0.005 < 0.039). It is observed that the tensile modulus increases with blooming (0,898 < r < 0.973). Three formulations indicate significant correlation of blooming with tensile strength (0,022 < 0.047). As observed, tensile strength decreases with blooming (-0.884