This document summarizes the key compounding ingredients used in natural rubber products. It discusses the need to masticate natural rubber to shorten chain lengths before adding compounding ingredients. Key ingredients include vulcanization systems based on sulfur, fillers like carbon black to increase hardness, and softeners like oils to reduce hardness. The document provides examples of common compounding recipes with variations in fillers and softeners. Overall, the document provides a high-level overview of the main compounding ingredients and processing used for natural rubber products.
This document summarizes the key compounding ingredients used in natural rubber products. It discusses the need to masticate natural rubber to shorten chain lengths before adding compounding ingredients. Key ingredients include vulcanization systems based on sulfur, fillers like carbon black to increase hardness, and softeners like oils to reduce hardness. The document provides examples of common compounding recipes with variations in fillers and softeners. Overall, the document provides a high-level overview of the main compounding ingredients and processing used for natural rubber products.
This document summarizes the key compounding ingredients used in natural rubber products. It discusses the need to masticate natural rubber to shorten chain lengths before adding compounding ingredients. Key ingredients include vulcanization systems based on sulfur, fillers like carbon black to increase hardness, and softeners like oils to reduce hardness. The document provides examples of common compounding recipes with variations in fillers and softeners. Overall, the document provides a high-level overview of the main compounding ingredients and processing used for natural rubber products.
products require rubber with very specific pro- perties. Compounding ingredients Natural rubber The molecular structure of NR exists of very long hydrocarbon chains of over 1.000.000 mo- lecules each. A mass of these long molecules do not readily accept compounding ingredients, therefore the raw material first of all has to be masticated to shorten the chain length (and afterwards vulcanized to maintain its origin properties). Mastication is carried out mechani- cally, mostly with the aid of chemical or phy- sical peptizers (chain modifiers). Compared with most synthetic rubbers, NR needs only a (very) small amount of such chain modifiers. After this, NR is ready to accept compounding ingredients. Under normal service conditions NR is an ex- cellent material for general purpose products. NR crystallizes under strain due to the regular molecular structure, therefore the mechanical properties (unfilled) are very high. The high strength properties combined with low hystere- sis make NR very suitable as an engineering material for dynamic applications. Vulcanization system Almost all vulcanization systems for natural rubber are based on sulphur and consist of a vulcanizing agent (sulphur), activators and acce- lerators (and/or sulphur donors). Due to the double bond in the unsaturated hydrocarbon chain, sulphur is the most interesting cross- linking (vulcanization) agent. To activate the sulphur, activators such as metal oxides (zinc oxide) and fatty acids (stearic acid) are com- monly used. The vulcanization time depends on and can be adjusted by the type and quantity of accelerators used and the vulcanization temperature. Accelerators are divided in groups ranking from slow to ultra fast. Examples are guanidines, sulphenamides, thiazoles, thiurams, carbamates and xantates. For NR sulphur vul- canization sulphenimides are commonly used, sometimes boosted by secondary accelerators such as thiurams or guanidines to speed up even more. Vulcanization systems can be divided in three classes: high sulphur (conventional), medium sulphur (semi-efficient) and low sulphur (effi- cient). Conventional sulphur vulcanizing sys- tems for soft rubber products consist of relati- vely high amounts of elemental sulphur (about 13 phr) combined with a low concentration of accelerator(s). If the amount of sulphur is in- creased to 25-45 phr, a hard rubber, or ebonite, is formed. Other vulcanization (crosslinking) systems are based on peroxides or urethanes. Fillers Fillers are used to increase the stiffness (hard- ness) of the rubber. In principle, in NR a re- inforcing filler is not needed to improve the tensile properties but it is used to adjust certain mechanical properties such as hardness, abrasion and fatigue. Depending on particle size the fillers can be divided in reinforcing (< 0,03 micron), semi-reinforcing (0,03 to 1 micron) and non- reinforcing fillers (>1 micron). Properties such as tensile and tear strength, fatigue life and abra- sion resistance are influenced by the type of filler used. By increasing the amount of fillers the rubber becomes harder. The nature of fillers can be either carbon black or white filler. Carbon blacks are prepared from crude oil. Most white mineral fillers are clays, whiting, silicates, etc. Reinforcing types of (white) fillers are silicas prepared by precipitation. Organic fillers are based on high styrene polymeric materials. These resins do not necessarily increase tensile strength, but they greatly harden, or stiffen and improve wearing properties of products. Softeners Softeners, diluents and extenders are applied to reduce hardness and often also costs of the end products. Small amounts of softeners, called plasticizers, are used as processing oils. Large amounts of softeners are used to soften the rub- ber and to reduce costs. For NR small amounts of aromatic oils are commonly used, such mineral oils are most compatible with NR. However the use of aromatic oil is suspected to cause health problems because of the polycyclic aromatic components it contains. Other with NR compa- tible mineral oils are naphtenic and paraffinic oils. For low temperature applications synthe- tic esther-type oils are used. From 1936 on the Rubber-Stichting promotes the use of natural rubber ISSN 1384-9352 Newsletter of the Rubber Foundation Information Center for Natural Rubber 38 2 n d
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2 0 0 5 Profile Rubber technology part 3, Compounding This part of our series on rubber technology is focussed on compounding and more spe- cifically, on basic compounding ingredients. Many people see compounding formulae as being more or less similar to cookery book recipes, and think that compounds are opti- mized by trial-and-error (which was indeed often the case in the early days). In well- designed rubber compounds every ingredient is chosen to get a certain desired effect on processing properties and/or product pro- perties. This implies that the intended way of processing also is an integral part of the total design of a compound, because many of those ingredients have effects on the processing behaviour of a compound. Compounding As already said in part 1, raw NR is hardly useable as such. It has to be mixed with other ingredients (compounded) to get the required specific properties. A typical compound contains specific ingredients that in combination with proper processing conditions lead to a product that meets the requirements set beforehand and that preferably against acceptable costs. Basically a rubber compound contains various groups of compounding-ingredients: 1) NR or a blend of NR with one or more poly- meric materials; 2) a vulcanizing system (including activators and accelerators); 3) fillers (inorganic and/or organic); 4) softeners (organic and/or synthetic); 5) a protective system (heat stabilizers and anti- degradants); 6) processing aids (peptizers, homogenizers and tackyfiers); 7) special purpose ingredients such as blowing agents, flame-retardants, abrasives, anti-sta- tics, colorants, odorants, fibres, etc. For each group, the (rubber)technologist has to choose from numerous possibilities. A total of at least 10.000 ingredients of different sources and trade names is available. Besides knowledge of compounding ingredients the technologist also has to have sufficient knowledge of processing. Examples of products based on NR are tyres, bridge bearings, conveyor belts, engineering See www. rubber- st i cht i ng. i nf o for regular updates of the Events list Protective systems Most rubber products, particularly those based on unsaturated rubber like natural rubber, are rather susceptible to oxidation during their ser- vice life. To improve the resistance against oxi- dation antioxidants are used in the case of static and dynamic applications. Especially rubbers that will be stretched in service and then expo- sed to outdoor conditions may be susceptible to attack by ozone in the air. To prevent cracking by ozone, antiozonants are used. For black rubbers, most commonly used are antioxidants of the phenylenic types, for non-black rubbers phenolic types. Whenever products are likely to be exposed to sunlight, a mixture of anti- oxidants and wax is employed. Processing aids Processing aids are specific ingredients inten- ded to ease or improve the processing of the rubber in the mastication, mixing and vulcani- zation phase. Peptizers shorten the chain length during mastication. Homogenizers are used in case of blending of two or more polymers. Tackyfiers make compounds tacky to aid in confectioning. Other processing aids act both as internal plasticizer and external release agent. Special ingredients Blowing agents are used to manufacture sponge or cell rubbers. Flame retardants protect pro- ducts up to a certain degree when exposed to fire; they may be powders or liquids. Many of those contain halogens producing toxic fumes when the rubber is exposed to fire. Nowadays halogen free ingredients are preferred to protect humans against inhaling those toxic gases. Pigments are used in white masterbatches to pro- duce coloured products and odorants to remove the characteristic odour of natural rubber. Compounding recipes As mentioned before, a compounding recipe contains almost always some ingredients from each group. The compounding ingredients are mentioned either by their chemical names or by trade names, each followed by their quantity, usually expressed in parts of the ingredient per hundred parts of rubber (phr). In case of natural rubber usually the type is given, such as RSS1 or CV60. Since the rubber manufacturer buys rubber and ingredients by weight and sells the finished products by volume; volume costs are most important. That means that especially the specific gravity of cheapening fillers is of inte- rest. As an example, in table 1 three simple re- cipes are shown, no. 1 without fillers at all, no. 2 with a carbon black filler and no. 3 with a white filler. In these recipes no explicit specifi- cation is given for each of the ingredients. Only the quantities of the filler and the mineral oil are varied. Optimum mechanical properties for car- bon black mostly are reached at a volume per- centage of about 25%. In case of white fillers, the mechanical properties are mostly below those of black fillers at the same level, especially the abrasion resistance. A typical vulcanizing system contains zinc oxide, stearic acid, sulphur or a sulphur donor and an accelerator. The accelerator increases the rate of vulcanization but influences also the effi- ciency of the vulcanization system. A low ratio accelerator to sulphur (A/S) of 0.2 is called a conventional system (CV), producing mostly polysulphidic crosslinks. Is that ratio about 1 (0.5 to 1.5) the system is called semi-efficient (SEV) and when the ratio is 5 to 15 the system is called efficient (EV). In that case the end product will contain most mono-sulphidic crosslinks. Com- pounds with more poly-sulphidic crosslinks have higher mechanical properties at the cost of the resistance against heat, compounds with more mono-sulphidic crosslinks show the opposite behaviour. Peroxide crosslinks also have worse mechanical properties but do have a good ther- mal behavior. The crosslinks of polyurethane (NOVOR) for natural rubber combine thermal stability with high mechanical properties, but those systems are not always safe to process. All parts of the vulcanizing system should be well dispersed in the rubber. Compounding for tyre applications In case of tyres each part - tread, sidewall, etc. - needs its own specific rubber compound that especially is formulated to obtain a specific set of properties. For instance, a formulae for a rubber tread with high wearing qualities has to be set up with the following properties in mind: good abrasion resistance; good cut resistance; good tear resistance; good flex cracking resistance; high resilience; sufficiently high tensile strength; adequate hardness. In table 2 some typical NR-based formulae are given. The fine-tuning on the desired perfor- mance of the end product is shown by the use of different types of carbon black. For truck treads N110 and a combination of N121/silica are chosen to obtain high mechanical properties and for the side wall N375 combined with BR garantuees a good abrasion resistance and first- rate dynamic properties. Some mechanical pro- perties that were determined after vulcaniza- tion are given in table 3. As can be seen the NR/silica compound has a lower hardness (softer compound) for a better grip on the road. The sidewall NR/BR has been compounded for a better dynamic behavior (low Natuurrubber 38 - 2nd quarter 2005 2 Compounding Name of No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 ingredient group (phr) (phr) (phr) Natural rubber Polymer 100 100 100 Zinc oxide Activator 3 3 3 Stearic acid Activator 1 1 1 Carbon black Filler - 45 - Whiting Filler - - 65 Mineral oil Plasticizer - 5 10 Antioxidant Antidegradant 1 1 1 Sulphenamide Accelerator 0.6 0.6 0.6 Sulphur Crosslinker 2.5 2.5 2.5 Total amount 108.1 158.1 183.1 Table 1 Natural rubber start recipes. Table 2 NR-based recipes. Truck Truck Side- tread tread wall NR/BR NR/ NR/BR Compounding (phr) silica (phr) ingredient (phr) NR (natural rubber) 75 100 50 BR (butadiene rubber) 25 - 50 Zinc oxide 3.5 4 4 Stearic acid 2 2 1 Peptizer 2 - - Resin 3 4 8 Carbon black (N110) 55 - - Carbon black (N121) - 40 - Carbon black (N375) - - 50 Silica (VN3) - 15 - Silane - 2 - Mineral oil (HA) 7 - 6 Antioxidant (6PPD) 1 2 2.5 Antioxidant (TMQ) 1 2 1.5 Wax - - 2 Accelerator (CBS) 1 0.75 1 Accelerator (DPG) 0.5 - - Sulphur 1.8 1.5 1.2 Total amount 177.5 173.25 177.2 Bridge Low Engine bearing creep mount Compounding (SEV) (SEV) (EV) ingredient (phr) (phr) (phr) SMR CV 60 100 - - SMR L - 100 - SMR 10 - - 100 Zinc oxide 5 5 10 Stearic acid 2 - 2 ZEH - 1 - Carbon black N 550 40 - 50 Carbon black N 762 - 70 - Oil (naphtenic) 4 - 10 Antioxidant TMQ - 2 2 Antiozonant DPPD 3 4 2 Sulphur 1.5 0.5 0.25 Accelerator CBS 1.5 1.7 - Accelerator TBBS - - 2.1 Accelerator TMTD - - 1.0 Accelerator TBzTD - 0.7 - Total amount 157 185.9 178.35 Truck Truck Side- tread tread wall NR/BR NR/ NR/BR Properties silica Hardness (Shore A) 68 61 52 Modulus 300% (MPa) 9.7 12.8 5.0 Tensile strength (MPa) 22.3 27.4 22.8 Elongation at break (%) 530 510 740 Tear (N/mm) - - 70 Rebound (%) 42 48 - Abrasion DIN (mm 3 ) 101 100 66 Density (g/cm 3 ) 1.13 1.14 1.10 Table 3 Mechanical properties. Table 4 Engineering recipes with a hardness of 60 Shore A. Natuurrubber 38 - 2nd quarter 2005 3 Fillers Russian take-over Russian Amtel Holdings Holland NV has bought Vredestein Banden NV. With this purchase Amtel gains an import brand with excellent selling prospects in Russia as well as a sales and distribution network outside Russia for its locally made products. The capacity of the ex- panded Amtel Group increases from 14.4 up to 22 million tyres a year. Accelerators QDI antidegradant for cost saving, productivity in various grades of NR F. Ignatz-Hoover, B. H. To, Rubber World, Vol. 230, No. 5, p. 22-28 Demonstrates that Quinonediimine antidegradant (QDI) can reduce mix times up to 25%. Laboratory simulated aging and the effect on the oxygen content in rubber D. L. Schwarz, D. W. Askea, B. D. Lambillotte, Rubber World, Vol. 230, No. 6, p. 26-31+47 It was found that the oxygen concentration in the aging gas directly impacted the oxygen content in the samples and lead to accelerated degradation of the samples. Processing effects on NR aging characteristics J. Shell, T. Wang, V. Vejins, Y. L. Wong, Rubber World, Vol. 231, No. 2, p. 21-28 Demonstrates that latex-phase mixing of NR- compounds results in improvement of ageing resis- tance and performance properties compared to con- ventional dry mixed compounds. Mold fouling during rubber vulcanization B. van Baarle, Rubber World, Vol. 231, No. 3, p. 25-29+38 To prevent mold fouling the role of ZnO in rubber compounds has to be diminished through reduc- tion of its level or its replacement by nano-ZnO. The approach through modification of the mold surface shows very promising first results for magnetite coatings. Factors that affect the fatigue life of rubber: a literature survey W.V. Mars, A. Fatemi, Rubber Chem. & Techn., Vol. 77, No. 3, p. 391-412 Describes primary factors of the effects of mecha- nical loading history, environmental effects, effects of rubber formulation and effects due to dissipa- tive aspects of the constitutive response of rubber, and presents and reviews literature. Elastomers for shoe applications K. A. Ames, Rubber Chem. & Techn., Vol. 77, No. 3, p. 413-475 Reviews the improvements made over the last 15 years in the production of outsoles and midsoles for footwear by using various materials. Effect analysis of mixing process variables on viscoelastic properties of NR tread compounds A. M. Marks, A. Adhikary, R. Mukhopadhyay, Rubber World, Vol. 231, No. 2, p. 29-32+63 Factorial designs allow for the simultaneous study of the effects that several factors may have on a process. This article shows that a two-level fractio- nal factorial design can be used as an effective tool in screening rubber compound mixing proces- sing variables having different degrees of effects on viscoelastic behaviour. heat-built-up) and flex cracking resistance (high amount of antidegradant system containing anti- oxidant, antiozonant and wax). Compounding for engineering applications Special attention could be made to compoun- ding for engineering applications. NR types are mostly based on field latex. Engineering appli- cations are focussed on long term behaviour or applications at high temperature. In this case semi-efficient (SEV) or efficient (EV) vulcani- zation systems are more common. For enginee- ring applications carbon blacks, mostly course blacks N500-N700, are used. Addition of small amount (5-10 phr) of oil improve processing of the rubber. Three recipes with a hardness of about 60 Shore A are selected (table 4). The first one is a recipe for a bridge bearing. A medium carbon black is used to avoid modulus drop during cyclic tem- perature behavior. The vulcanization system is a SEV-system and an antiozonant. The second recipe is a low creep recipe for high temperature applications. Also in this recipe a low modulus carbon black (N762) is chosen without oil. The stearic acid is replaced by ZEH (a special ingre- dient for low creep applications). For a (long) service life at high temperature a SEV-system is used, combined with an antioxidant and an antiozonant. The third recipe is developed for high temperature engine mounts. In this recipe the zinc oxide content is doubled and an EV- system is used. A high level of antidegradants (antioxidant and antiozonant) is chosen. (to be continued) Sources School of Carriers, British Institute of Enginee- ring Technology, Compounding & Compoun- ding Ingredients. The Fundamentals of Rubber Technology - The designing of Technical Rubber Compounds - Fundamentals of Tyre Technology. MRPRA EDS 3 Compounding for Engineering applications. The Natural Rubber Formulary and Property Index (recipes). Questions How important is flame retardancy for Natural Rubber products? At first sight, this seems to be a somewhat odd question. What has flame retardancy to do with (natural) rubber? Considering that raw rubber, and not only natural rubber, chemically looks much the same as raw oil might make this question more logical. In fact, without flame retardant chemicals added almost all rubbers will burn like a pretty good fuel, releasing a lot of energy and keeping on burning for a rather long period of time. For many products there is nothing wrong with the fact that most rubbers burn easily. Take for instance bridge bearings, such products are unlikely to catch fire and anyway, if they would, the exposed surface is rather small keeping the fire propagation limited. For such a product fire retardancy is not really a must. Also, for many other products like gloves and condoms flame retardancy is not really needed. For a range of other products like many conveyor belts and mining belts a good resistance to fire can be very important. Fortunately in these cases it is not very difficult to introduce flame retardancy. Depending on the type of product and the service conditions even considerable quantities of sufficient flame retardant additives like aluminium tri- hydroxide may be added to the compound without impairing the rubber-like properties too much. But there are other natural rubber products like carpet backings and mattresses, typically domestic applications, for which flame retardancy obviously is a must and where it is much more difficult to make those products sufficiently flame retardant. There we talk about large surfaces with excellent air entrance and therefore optimal burning conditions. The importance of flame retardancy for such products however is only discovered during the last years. Until very recently, for mattresses manu- facturers thought it to be sufficient to make the outer cover flame retardant. Under pressure of Euro- pean Regulations nowadays the cores themselves are obliged to be sufficiently flame retardant. Mostly flame retardancy is obtained by adding to the compounds halogen containing chemicals in combination with antimonytrioxyde. Because of the toxic nature of halogens these additives are likely to be banned pretty soon, at least within Europe. Therefore it is necessary to develop other flame retardant systems to get sufficient protection. The use of expandable graphite is only partly a solution because this will have a negative influence on the mechanical properties of mattresses. For carpet backing such a system might do but there aluminium trihydroxide also can be used. The development of other systems is still under way, but it will take time to develop a proper functioning system. It is a question whether Europe will wait that long before banning the halogens completely. Jaap Havinga Natuurrubber 38 - 2nd quarter 2005 4 Manager Ing. Jaap Havinga Editor Natuurrubber Ben van Baarle LPRI Consultants Ing. Jaap Havinga Ben van Baarle LPRI Advisor Jim van der Heijden Delegate from the Board Ing. Wil Aben Postal Address P.O.Box 6235 5600HE Eindhoven The Netherlands E-mail info@rubber-stichting.info Internet www.rubber-stichting.info The aim of the R-S Information Center for Natural Rubber is to give information to companies and institutions about properties and processing of natural rubber and about products manufactured on the basis of natural rubber. Information is provided by publishing the free newsletter Natuurrubber/Natural Rubber, by maintaining the Centers website and by answering questions asked by e-mail. For questions that need desk research the first three hours spent are free. All reasonable care is taken by the Rubber-Stichting to ensure the reliability of its communications. The Rubber- Stichting, however, cannot accept any liability with respect to the content of this publication. The R-S Information Center for Natural Rubber Outlook for NR Who or what to believe on the price of Natural Rubber in 2005? 2005 so far, has been a bullish reactionary market, where hype and speculation have been the ruling factors, with fundamental physical factors being almost ignored. 2004 ended on a modestly firm note, but with most participants agreeing that the levels had been increasing now for such a long time, that the levels needed to be redressed, and rubber needed to find a more stable and reliable background. Even the producers, who always like to talk a bullish book, were mostly in agreement that levels were high and that although a crash was not likely, slightly lower levels could be expected. Having said this, none had foreseen the rise in the price of crude oil, and the possible effect on synthetic rubber. Although figures vary de- pending on who you get them from, there is only an average of around 3 - 4% of natural to synthetic global usage that is inter-changeable, and this is mostly on the less technical products, where the recipes can be changed with little effect on the final product. Therefore to say that as synthetic rubber prices were rising, that NR had to do also, was a big exaggeration, but still it was swallowed hook line and sinker by the natural rubber market, and well promoted by the producers. The other main contributor to the current high prices, has been the way in which a shortage in any grade can be used in a way to influence the whole market, and this was first seen on the RSS 3 rubber market (Ribbed Smoked Sheet), where due to historically high prices being traded early in 2005, the Thai producers over sold, and then were faced with an early start to the wintering period, which then lasted longer than usual. This meant that many sales were either delayed, or defaulted on, and the confu- sion saw RSS 3 rubber prices rise much higher that the larger TSR 10/20 rubber tyre market qualities. Thailand had also over sold liquid latex for March and April, and this too rose, and took with it the latex grades such as TSR CV and TSR L, and the higher the levels went, the more times that some unreliable producers resold already sold parcels for a higher price and further added fuel to the NR rubber price. The TSR 10/20 rubber market was slow to react, but it was only a matter of time before the effect eventually trickled through, and now TSR 20 grade is also being pushed up, and the whole rubber market is in a bull rush, with no signs of a slowdown in the near future. There will always be dips, when dealers have to either change or rotate their positions and take profit, but these only usually last a day or so, and then the upward momentum starts up again. The main question is how long can this over- reaction last, and will the fundamentals like supply and demand return, as still the largest grade TSR 10/20 is in abundance, and any large spot orders can still easily be filled, but although there is no way to reliably predict a market which is being led by outside factors. Most believe that the bull run will continue at least for the coming weeks, if not months. Therefore the outlook for 2005 is for higher levels, and all consumers are recommended to pick and choose their most reliable suppliers, as if you have bought forward, and are now looking at a market some 30% higher, will your supplier still supply, or be tempted to sell else- where? Alec F.S. McDougall, Senior Consultant Wurfbain Nordmann bv. 40 60 80 100 140 120 160 US dollarcents per kilo I I I I II II II III III III IV IV IV I II III IV III II 2005 2002 2003 2004 2001 Ozone attack and tire sidewall protection A. Adhikary, R. Mukhopadhyay, Rubber World, Vol. 230, No. 6, p. 16-20 Reviews the protection of tires against ozone in relation to higher performance needs and rising ozone concentrations in the atmosphere. Activators in accelerated sulfur vulcanization G. Heideman, R. N. Datta, J.W.M. Noordermeer, B. van Baarle, Rubber Chem. & Techn., Vol. 77, No. 3, p. 512-541 In conventional rubber compounding ZnO is difficult to substitute. Reduction of ZnO levels would only be possible with different activator/accelerator systems. Biaxial tensile behavior of rubber vulcanizates; 1. Silica and gum stocks K. Kajiwara, Y. Kameda, Y. Ikeda, H. Urakawa, T. Kawamura, K. Urayama, S. Kohjiya, 611-623 Properties of NR samples filled with silica via both conventional and in-situ methods were compared. Indications were found for differences in the me- chanism of storage of elastic free energy due to the filling method. Carbon black dispersion measurement in rubber vulcanizates via interferometric microscopy A. P. Smith, T. L. Aybar, R. W. Magee, C. R. Herd, Rubber Chem. & Techn., Vol. 77, No. 4, p. 691-710 Surface roughness of razor cut samples of black- filled rubber compounds, determined by interfero- metric microscopy, correlates to the carbon black dispersion level in the measured compound. Effect of network-chain length on strain- induced crystallization of NR and IR vulcanizates M. Tosaka, S. Kohjiya, S. Murakami, S. Poompra- dub, Y. Ikeda, S. Toki, I. Sics, B. S. Hsiao, Rubber Chem. & Techn., Vol. 77, No. 4, p. 711-723 Due to the lower crystallinity in IR the oriented amorphous component will bear more stress in IR than in NR.