The All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA) recently held the second lecture in its ongoing Online Seven Lecture Series on Rubber Technology. The featured speaker, Professor Kinsuk Naskar, Full Professor and Head of the Rubber Technology Centre at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, delivered a comprehensive lecture on the topic - Introduction to Rubber Technology and Structure-Property Relationship.
Professor Naskar's lecture provided a detailed examination of the components and processes involved in rubber production. He explained that from a materials perspective, rubber products are composed of rubber and a variety of additives such as fillers, vulcanizing agents, and processing aids, along with reinforcing materials like textiles. From a manufacturing standpoint, he outlined the key steps: compounding (mixing additives with rubber in its unvulcanized, plastic state), shaping the rubber compound and bonding it to a substrate, and vulcanizing or curing the assembly to form chemical crosslinks between rubber molecules, imparting the material with its elastic recovery behavior.
The lecture emphasized that the final properties of rubber products depend on the type of rubber used, the additives, and their concentrations. Rubbers, or elastomers, are long-chain polymers with unique chemical, physical, and mechanical properties, including chemical stability, high abrasion resistance, strength, and good dimensional stability.
Professor Naskar also highlighted the latest innovations and developments in synthetic rubbers, with a focus on synthesis, structure-property relations, and new applications in both the tyre and non-tyre sectors. He covered various material sub-groups, including diene elastomers (such as natural rubber, polybutadiene rubber, solution and emulsion SBR), saturated elastomers (like ethylene-propylene copolymers and ethylene propylene diene terpolymers), butyl and halobutyl rubbers, solvent/oil resistant rubbers (including nitrile rubber and hydrogenated nitrile rubber), polychloroprene rubber, and high-performance elastomers.
The session provided attendees with valuable insights into the complex world of rubber technology, fostering a deeper understanding of the material's properties and potential applications. In the end, he also took some questions from the participants and helped them understand better.