USE OF RECLAIMED RUBBER IN THE FORMULATION OF ELASTOMERIC COMPOUNDS
The reduction in the raw materials consumption of non-renewable sources, is the focus of research and development in all economics sectors, with the goal to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and to develop sustainable process and products with the lower as possible environmental impacts. The tire production demands high consumption of synthetic materials, and the vulcanization step, necessary to reach the desired properties in the tires, become this very important product in one of the most difficult on recycle and reuse to produce new tires. Several tire recovery methods known as regeneration were developed, however the complete reversion or the rubber compound devulcanization is still in development. Meanwhile, a commercially low-cost product available, called reclaimed rubber, currently is used as a source of recycled rubber. The present work aims to evaluate the influence of reclaimed rubber in elastomeric compounds, applying the DCCR method of experiment planning and more two variables used in the vulcanization step (sulfur and accelerant). The reclaimed rubber was characterized by TGA and Mooney viscosity. The influence of reclaimed rubber on mechanics properties of elastomeric compound was studied by tear and tensile test and the viscosity through Mooney test.