With the rapidly growing rubber industry, rubber wastage is also increasing. However, the rubber industry has found the innovative way of making reclaim rubber and using them in a variety of applications. Reclaimed rubber is manufactured from waste rubber products like scrap tires and tubes. Reclaimed rubber is mostly used in making of tyres, rubber sheets, tiles, mats and tubeless tyres.
Uses of Reclaim Rubber
Reclaim rubber is used in different proportions for producing various rubber products. Application of reclaim rubber is seen in the making of following industrial products.
Reclaim Rubber Manufacturing Processes
There are a number of manufacturing processes for reclaim rubber. These include:
Thermal processes for reclaim rubber
Thermo-mechanical processes for reclaim rubber
Mechano-chemical methods for reclaim rubber
Microwave recycling for reclaim rubber
Ultrasound recycling for reclaim rubber
Selective scission of cross links by chemical probes for reclaim rubber
Biotechnological processes for reclaiming of rubber
Devulcanization in supercritical carbon dioxide for reclaim rubber
The most widely used rubber reclamation process includes shredding of tires and other rubber wastes to suitable size with the help of tyre shredder and other reclaim rubber machinery. The fibers are then mechanically removed from the cracked tires. Comparatively fiber-free scrap is ground to finer mesh size and further mixed with chemical agents in a reclaimator which is again a reclaim rubber machinery. The temperature in the reclaimator is kept in the range of 204-260 C for the desirable time for de-vulcanization. Reclaimed material is then mixed and blended with small proportions of reinforcing and processing agents.
