The influence of natural rubber – butadiene rubber and carbon black type on the mechanical properties of tread compound

The objective of this study is to optimize the performance of the tread compound, by mixing of specified ingredients, such as Natural Rubber (NR) and Butadiene Rubber (BR) at various compositions, and also the type of carbon black as filler. The composition of NR and BR are used as follows 100:0; 95:5 and 85:15. Other materials used as rubber additives are peptizer, ZnO, stearic acid, additives, processing oil, and curatives. Two types of carbon black namely N220 and N234 are used in this research. The un-vulcanized rubber from each formula was characterized of curing characteristics and Mooney viscosity. The vulcanized rubber was then characterized its mechanical and thermal properties. It is clear from the research that, the addition of BR into the NR compound increases the abrasion resistance, rebound resilience and hardness, yet the glass transition temperature of the rubber compounds decreases. On the other hand, it seems that the rubber compound reinforced N220 or N234 gives comparable results on both mechanical and thermal properties.