Thermal Properties of Rubber Compounds. II. Heat Generation of Pigmented Rubber Compounds

Abstract

Abstract THE first paper (1) of this series discussed thermal conductivity of rubber and a number of compounding ingredients which were measured using the electric current as the source of heat. In this article the fundamental factors controlling the generation of heat and the variations possible by pigmentation are being studied. Results obtained for pigmented rubber in the pendulum and flexometer will be discussed and correlated. In the writers' laboratory two machines have been used extensively in studying the temperature developed in rubber compounds subjected to distortion by compressive forces. The first of these is a flexometer described by Cooper (2), and the second a compression machine in which a rubber block 14 cm. (5.5 inches) in diameter and 9.53 cm. (3.75 inches) high is pounded with a definite load a specified number of times per minute. The laboratory test block used in the flexometer is in the shape of a frustrum of a rectangular pyramid, of which the base is 5.4 × 2.86 cm. (2.126 × 1.125 inches), the top 5.08 × 2.54 cm. (2 × 1 inches), and the altitude 3.81 cm. (1.5 inches). This block of rubber is compressed between two plates under definite load, one of the plates being stationary while the other travels in a circular motion of definite magnitude. After the sample has been placed in the machine, the moving plate is set to one side of the center. Both the loading and the amount of offset may be varied within wide limits. With this machine one may study either the temperature developed over a period of flexing or the time required to compress the sample a predetermined amount.