TY - JOUR A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Stark, Wolfgang T1 - Monitoring the vulcanization of rubber with ultrasound: Influence of material thickness and temperature JF - Polymer testing N2 - In consideration of the influence of the curing reaction on the material properties of elastomers, it is very important to control the vulcanization process properly. As shown previously [1], the effects of the vulcanization reaction of an elastomer can be monitored by use of ultrasonic sound waves. This technique has to a certain degree a high similarity to the standard curemeter test according to ISO 6502 but can be applied also inside a production tool. So far, the method was only applied to the vulcanization of one compound at a given temperature and sample thickness. This is now complemented with measurements on another compound system at different temperatures and sample thicknesses. The expected effects of temperature and thickness on the curing behaviour were found by use of the ultrasound online control. KW - Vulcanization KW - Cure process KW - Ultrasound KW - Curemeter KW - Elastomer KW - Natural rubber PY - 2009 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2009.08.006 SN - 0142-9418 VL - 28 IS - 8 SP - 901 EP - 906 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] AN - OPUS4-19959 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jaunich, Matthias A1 - Stark, Wolfgang A1 - Hoster, B. T1 - Monitoring the vulcanization of elastomers: Comparison of curemeter and ultrasonic online control JF - Polymer testing N2 - The vulcanization of elastomeric materials has a high impact on the properties of the final product. Therefore, it is important to monitor and control this crosslinking process. A common technique to attain the necessary curing time is the use of a curemeter in accordance with ISO 6502 in order to determine the time for full cure of a sample with a standardized geometry. Based on this result and a lot of practical experience, the required curing time for a given product geometry is estimated. Within the scope of this work, a new analysis technique will be compared with the standard procedure. The ultrasonic online control employs ultrasound waves to measure the changes in material properties caused by vulcanization. For this study, a natural rubber compound with a conventional curing system was investigated by both techniques. It was found that the results of the ultrasonic technique show good agreement with the results of the curemeter. KW - Cure process KW - Ultrasound KW - Curemeter KW - Elastomer KW - Vulcanization KW - Online control PY - 2009 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2008.11.005 SN - 0142-9418 VL - 28 IS - 1 SP - 84 EP - 88 PB - Elsevier Science CY - Amsterdam [u.a.] AN - OPUS4-18674 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Strommer, Bettina A1 - Schulze, Dietmar A1 - Schartel, Bernhard A1 - Böhning, Martin T1 - Networking Skills: The Effect of Graphene on the Crosslinking of Natural Rubber Nanocomposites with Sulfur and Peroxide Systems JF - Polymers N2 - Tailored crosslinking in elastomers is crucial for their technical applications. The incorporation of nanoparticles with high surface-to-volume ratios not only leads to the formation of physical networks and influences the ultimate performance of nanocomposites, but it also affects the chemical crosslinking reactions. The influence of few-layer graphene (FLG) on the crosslinking behavior of natural rubber is investigated. Four different curing systems, two sulfur-based with different accelerator-to-sulfur ratios, and two peroxide-based with different peroxide concentrations, are combined with different FLG contents. Using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), vulcametry (MDR) and swelling measurements, the results show an accelerating effect of FLG on the kinetics of the sulfur-based curing systems, with an exothermic reaction peak in DSC shifted to lower temperatures and lower scorch and curing times in the MDR. While a higher accelerator-to-sulfur ratio in combination with FLG leads to reduced crosslinking densities, the peroxide crosslinkers are hardly affected by the presence of FLG. The good agreement of crosslink densities obtained from the swelling behavior confirms the suitability of vulcameter measurements for monitoring the complex vulcanization process of such nanocomposite systems in a simple and efficient way. The reinforcing effect of FLG shows the highest relative improvements in weakly crosslinked nanocomposites. KW - Nanocomposite KW - Elastomers KW - Graphene KW - Crosslinking KW - Network KW - Rubber KW - Vulcanization PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-560409 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14204363 VL - 14 IS - 20 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-56040 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -