Are you challenged to make your rubber products last longer?  Rubber compounds are complex mixtures of polymers, reinforcing fillers, oils / plasticizers, curatives, stabilizers, and other additives that are combined in relatively quick mixing processes.  Durability is impacted by all these ingredients, their interactions, and the quality of the mixing.  This one-day course will teach compounding strategies to improve the strength and lifetime of rubber components.  This specialized training will benefit materials engineers, compounders, rubber chemists, product development engineers, R&D scientists, and rubber lab managers at manufacturers of tires and rubber parts and companies that supply raw materials.

Course Objectives

• Understand how rubber fatigue and failure characteristics are influenced by materials selection and compound structural features
• Learn compounding strategies to improve strength and fatigue lifetime
• Know the right testing methods to characterize rubber durability efficiently in the lab

Two-Day Course: 

Day 1: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm

• Introduction: What types of failure are manifested in your products, and what is durability worth to you?
• Brief overview of rubber formulations and mixing approaches
• Testing for durability in the rubber lab: Focus on efficient testing of crack nucleation and crack growth
• Framework for compounding for durability
• Polymer selection: Chemical stability, strain-induced crystallization, molecular mobility, polymer blends
• Crosslinking effects: Effects of type, density, and distribution of crosslinks

Filler type, dispersion, and reinforcement topics, including processing effects and crack precursors

Day 2: 8:30 am – 12:00 pm

• Stiffness and deformation control mode
• Influence of oils, plasticizers, and resins
• Stabilizing against aging
• Simulation for materials selection and durability prediction
• Wrap-up discussions, final Q&A

Format

The course includes lectures and classroom exercises focused on understanding fatigue behavior of rubber and developing compounding approaches to improve durability.  Lunch and snacks are included.

Cost: $1,280

Instructor: Christopher Robertson, Endurica

Hotel Information: ACE Products & Consulting LLC has a negotiated rate of $119 at the Kent State University Hotel & Conference Center. You can call the hotel directly at (330) 346-0100 or reserve online at www.kentstatehotel.com and use promotion code ACE for our rate.