Publication: Development and characterization of conveyor belt compound using reclaimed rubber based formulation
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Date
2025-08-04
Authors
Aliff Haqem
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Abstract
Because of the growing pressure on feeding sustainable utilization for rubber, reclaimed rubber (RR) has become a large part of economic industrial application rubber mixes and, particularly in conveyor belt compounds. In particular, the work concerns the preparation and strict evaluation of NR-based conveyor belt compounds with various proportions of natural rubber (NR), reclaimed rubber (RR), and nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR). Tensile tests showed that tensile strength and elongation at break decreased with the increased content of RR, which was mainly because of the shorter polymer chain length and poor dispersion of RR in the matrix. However, initial stiffness (M100 hardness increased with increasing RR loading. The increase of RR results in a decrease of abrasion resistance, and counter-intuitively, adding NBR also promotes better wear resistance to the NR/RR blends. Reduced swelling ratios were observed in solvent swelling tests with higher RR content, revealing enhanced crosslink density and, consequently, possibly reduced polymer chain mobility within the rubber matrix. Thermal analysis using TGA confirmed a higher cone of residue at elevated temperatures in RR-rich compounds, probably derived from residual fillers and impurities that are inherent to the reclaimed rubber. The DSC showed a consistent glass transition temperature of around −64 °C for all the formulations, suggesting that NR segments had a great influence on the blends. Additionally, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) also reported the appearance of typical cis-1,4-polyisoprene vibration and oxidation products of reclaimed rubber. Together, these results promote the use of recycling in conveyor belt formulation to produce a green compound with lower cost and minimum changes to key mechanical properties.