Basics of Rubber technology 1

[shivkug]

Can someone guide me in learning basics about rubbers. i.e right from mechanical and chemical properties. This will be very usefull for me to work on rubber related product designs.

Thanks and Regards,
Shivkumar

 

[tomaspin]

Shivkug,

You don't say what type of products you want to design, but please try :

http://www.rapra.net/.

Rapra is a U.K. based organisation, ( formerly known as the Rubber and Plastics Research Association) and is a good place to start when looking for rubber information. A lot of the content is only available by subscription, but they do have a bookstore, and links to other organisations and some technical articles.
I hope this helps.

Tom

 

[shivkug]

Thanks Tom, I am in automotive into NVH product developments. I am going thru the site u have recommanded. any sites specific for NVH rubber. please send.

 

[tomaspin]

Shivkug,

Detailed design information for NVH parts is jealously guarded by rubber mounting manufacturers, and very little in the way of published calculation methods are available.
Having worked for three different a.v. mount manufacturers over the last 9 years, it has taken me some time to amass some reasonable design data.

Although published some time ago, there are some text books that remain the industry standard. One of which is "Rubber Springs Design" by E.F. Gobel (might also be listed under Goebel), the English version of which was published in 1974. The company I work for still uses it as the standard reference. Copies of this book do come up for sale fron time to time - I recently saw one on Amazon for about £35 - about $50. The price is irrelevant - if you see one buy it! A lot of the information it contains is still relevant, and you will find it very useseful.

Another is a small 40 page book " Engineering Design with Natural Rubber" by P.B Lindley. The updated version is still in print and is published by the MRPRA ( Malaysian Rubber Producers Association) in the UK. The web address is :

http://www.tarrc.co.uk/.

Click on publications for details. Again, I can thoroughly recommend this book, plus it contains some additional references.

These books predate the introduction of fluid filled mountings ( hydromounts, hydrobushes) so you will need to do some searches on more general technical databases such as Compendex.

For automotive applications, natural rubber is still the preferred choice, as it has low internal damping ( best for noise isolation) good cut resistance and fatigue life. High temperature engine applications ( above about 90C) require EPDM, and extreme cases silicone.

A word of warning - analytical methods will only take you so far when designing rubber mountings. Rubber mountings are only linear to compressive strains of about 10-20%, and have very non-linear properties at high loads. This is where non-linerar F.E. analysis is required, which is quite a specialist area. Rubber modulus is strain dependent, so accurate material data is required. Unless you work for a rubber manfacturer or pay a test lab, this can be quite hard to come by.

I hope this is of some help to you.

Tom

 

[shivkug]

Dear Tom,

I got permissions from my company to buy these books for our library.

Thanks for the help

Regards
Shivkumar