CINCINNATI (Oct. 11, 2012)—Sid Richardson Carbon and Energy Co. has introduced a new class of fillers that was developed by chemically modifying carbon black.
The fillers—known as Energy Saver Blacks—were introduced in the paper “A New Way of Thinking about the Filler's Role in Natural Rubber: Improving Hysteresis through Filler Modifications and Smart Compounding.” The paper was presented by Michael Jacobsson, a research scientist for Sid Richardson, on Oct. 10 at the ACS Rubber Division's fall technical meeting in Cincinnati.
Sid Richardson said the ES200 materials show improved properties through:
—lower hysteresis by reduced filler-filler networking;
—better wear resistance by increased polymer-filler interaction; and
—better balance of hysteresis/wear through interacting with the crosslinking reactions during vulcanization.
The company said the materials are being commercially produced and samples are available.
Jacobsson said the main end use will be in the tire industry, particularly in natural rubber compounds for tires used the transportation sector. “It does lower the hysteresis, which will give you better rolling resistance and gas mileage,” he said.
Despite all the progress made over the years in reducing rolling resistance, he said there are still improvements to be made. “I don't know where the limit is but we're trying to improve it,” Jacobsson said.
He added that beside tires, additional applications could be in any product where there is a dynamic deformation of rubber where heat is building up from that deformation.