Application Of High And New Technology In Rubber Industry

Experts foresee.

In twenty-first Century, with the breakthroughs in material science and life science, and the extensive application of biotechnology, information communication technology and new material technology, science and technology will become the leading force in the pformation and development of human society.

The field of high and new technology is very wide, mainly including information communication, biology, new materials, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, energy, ocean, environmental protection and so on. All fields are intersecting, merging and integrating increasingly. This integration and integration are pregnant with new technological revolution and industrial revolution.

The progress of new materials, new products, new equipment and new technology in rubber industry has benefited from the application of high and new technology. The use of high and new technology to pform traditional rubber industry and production technology to high and new technology is the only way to build China into a strong country in the world rubber industry.

The new materials include high performance structural materials, electronic information materials, medical biomaterials and nanomaterials. The new materials closely related to the rubber industry are mainly high-performance structures and nanomaterials.

In addition, it also includes composite materials, which are made up of matrix materials (resin, metal, ceramics, etc.) and reinforcing agents (including fibrous, whisker, granular, etc.), such as thermoplastic resin matrix composites, metal matrix composites, Tao Ciji composite materials and carbon and composite materials.

The research shows that when the material size is less than 100 nm, due to the surface effect, quantum size effect, volume effect and quantum tunneling effect, the materials show the special properties of traditional solid materials such as chemical properties, mechanical properties, electrical properties, magnetic properties and optical properties, which has attracted great attention both at home and abroad. It is said that nanotechnology will trigger a technological revolution in twenty-first Century.

The development of rubber industry basically depends on the development of these three materials. It is predicted that the main materials and framework materials will be developed to high performance structural materials in the future, and rubber auxiliaries will develop towards nanomaterials.

In recent decades, the biggest change of the main material is the development of thermoplastic elastomers.

Because of the above advantages, thermoplastic elastomers have been developing rapidly since they were put into the market in 1950s. The annual growth rate of thermoplastic elastomers reached 16% in 60s, and 7% in 90s. The output and sales volume reached 1 million 140 thousand tons in 1998, and 1 million 700 thousand tons in 2000.

It can be said that now thermoplastic elastomers have entered a period of stable development.

In contrast to the rapid development of thermoplastic elastomers, the development of rubber and plastics is stagnant. At present, the annual growth rate of rubber and plastics is only 1% and 2.4%, which fully demonstrates the development potential of thermoplastic elastomers.

At present, thermoplastic elastomers have developed to 10 varieties, and have replaced some natural rubber and synthetic rubber. They are widely used in all kinds of rubber products other than tire, such as auto parts (pipes, belts, pads, boards, etc.), construction industry, shoemaking, medical products, sealing products, packaging products, wire and cable, daily life products, adhesives and modification of polymer materials.

The automotive thermoplastic elastomer is a big head, accounting for 1/3, followed by construction, medical and daily life products.

However, the biggest drawback of thermoplastic elastomers is the poor heat resistance and dynamic fatigue. Therefore, the application scope of the thermoplastic elastomers is enlarged. Especially, it is a pity that it has not been successfully applied to tires so far.

In spite of this, the thermoplastic elastomer has achieved great success in the field of materials due to its properties of proximity to rubber, convenience of processing and advantages of recycling, and its market will develop steadily.

At the same time, the rubber experts who came here have launched a lot of development work aiming at their poor temperature resistance and dynamic fatigue resistance, and have made encouraging progress. For example, the application of dynamic vulcanization and metallocene catalysis technology has made the thermoplastic elastomer a great step toward the high performance direction.

I believe that in the near future, a high performance thermoplastic elastomer that can completely replace rubber will emerge. At that time, the main material and production technology of rubber industry will undergo fundamental changes. At the same time, it will completely solve the problem of recycling and utilization of waste rubber and protect the environment.

In liquid rubber, the polyurethane rubber has attracted much attention. Its output has reached about 1000000 tons. Originally it was mainly used in shoemaking and microporous elastic materials, and gradually used in products such as adhesive tape, rubber hose, cots and so on. In recent years, it has been widely used in producing slow tire such as bicycle tyres, solid tire, industrial tire and agricultural tire.

These products are durable and colorful, and are well received by users.

But for high speed tyres, they are still under development.

The development of high strength and high modulus is the direction of rubber framework materials in the future.

Aramid fiber, which has been applied to tires, is a promising skeleton material. It has strength of steel wire and flexibility of fiber.

In recent years, Western Europe has sold radial tire with full aramid wheel skeleton material, and the tire weight has reduced by about 30%. The driving performance, especially rolling resistance of the tyres has been greatly reduced. The use of the engineering tire can greatly increase the puncture resistance and cutting resistance of the tire, and the aramid fiber has also been applied in the toothed belt and the conveyor belt, which improves the strength and service life of the tire.

Aramid fiber will be a very promising skeleton material.

It is reported that POK fiber will probably become the most promising tire cord in twenty-first Century.

Most of the rubber additives are powdered, such as carbon black, white carbon black, reinforcing filler, accelerant, antioxidant, etc.

As a powder material, an important development trend is to develop nanomaterials.

The use of nanomaterials in the production of rubber products began with the use of carbon black reinforcement in the early twentieth Century. In 40s, nanomaterials were successfully developed to reinforce rubber and make tyres. At present, the world's famous tire factories gradually replace green carbon dioxide and green tyres with carbon black instead of carbon black, which is said to have replaced 5-10% carbon black.

Its particles are fine (1 - 100nm), high specific surface area and high whiteness. The surface is activated and easy to bond with rubber. It can be filled in rubber products, which can make the products smooth, high tensile strength, tear resistance, bending resistance and cracking resistance. Not only the product performance is greatly improved than ordinary calcium carbonate, but also it can increase the capacity and reduce the cost.

The strength of calcium carbonate smaller than 20nm is equivalent to that of silica.

As early as 20 in 50s, Japan used the nano calcium carbonate variety Bai Yanhua in the rubber industry. It can partly replace most of the rubber products with carbon black and silica.

As a series of specific properties of nanomaterials are of great use for a wide variety of rubber products, it is of great significance to vigorously promote the application of nanomaterials in the traditional rubber industry.