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STORAGE
OF RUBBER MIXES
As OFTEN MOTED in this journal, the longevity of
natural rubber vulcamzates is a question of some
importance to end users, particularly civil engineers who continually seek reassurance that
lifetimes in excess of 100 vears are feasible In
contrast, rubber manufacturers are concerned with
the useful storage life of rubber compounds between mixing and subsequent processing Storage
of mixed compounds for 24 hours is a normally
accepted factory procedure, and smooth factor}
running requires a 'buffer stock1 to allow time for
quality control tests, which may range from simple
curemeter tests through rheometry to evaluation of
physical properties on test vulcamzates There is
also a widely held belief that stocks should be
rested or 'matured before use Much longer
storage is usually avoided, as conventional wisdom
maintains that processabihty. especially extrusion
performance and processing safety (often referred
to as scorch safety), are progressively reduced
Some new light has been thrown on the effect of
storage on processing safety by a series of
papers ' 3 recently published by staff from the
Malaysian Rubber Producers Research Association at the Tun Abdul Razak Laboratory In this
work, mixed compounds containing a variety of
vulcanizing systems were stored for up to 16 weeks
at 20 and -WC, far longer than most selfrespecting technologists would contemplate in
practice Even a few weeks at 20C would be
expected by most to render the compounds unusable surprisingly, this was not the case
The first paper showed that nine compounds,
containing representative conventional, semiefficient (semi-EV) or efficient (EV) vulcanizing
systems underwent only relatively small changes
m Mooney viscosity, Mooney scorch and Rheometer cure behaviour during storage for up to 16
weeks at 20C Scorch time appeared generally to
increase, often after a small initial drop, rather
than decrease as anticipated, although the behaviour of EV systems appeared erratic
In the second paper, the possibility that the
effect observed was due to the relatively mild heat
histories of the mixes compared with those encoun34

rubber developments vol 42 no 2

1989

tered in factory practice was investigated with the

three conventional sulphenamide- or thiazoleaccelerated mixes The use of mill temperatures of
80 or IfXFC for the addition of curatives to the
mastcrbatch had little effect on scorch and cure
performance, and did not influence the changes
observed on prolonged storage of the mixes Even

the addition of the sulphenamide accelerator during masterbatch preparation in an internal mixer,
although reducing the initial (as mixed) values, did
not affect changes in processing safety during
storage, Both the use of high temperature mills
and. especially, the addition of sulphenamide at
the end of the mixer cycle gave less breakdown and
hence increased batch viscosity as expected4, but
processing safety was unaffected
The third paper extended the study to a total of
27 vulcanizing systems, using 12 accelerators with
sulphur levels ranging from 0 3-3 0 parts per
hundred parts of rubber The general conclusions
regarding the stability of processing safety and cure
behaviour remained the same For storage conditions of practical interest to factory technologists,
at the most two weeks at 20C, the results are
completely at variance with conventional wisdom
The largest decrease in Mooney scorch time
observed in this period was less than two minutes,
with over half the vulcamzates showing increases
The average change in Rheometer scorch was
+ 0 2mm, only two of the vulcamzates showing
decreases (of 0 1mm) in this property The inevitable conclusion seems to be that natural rubber
vulcamzates are much more stable to storage than
usually expected
It is, of course, possible that storage conditions the results were obtained on materials under
relatively stable laboratory conditions in the
absence of light - might have had some effect
However, a recent examination of two commercial
tyre tread stocks after storage on skips in a more
typical storage area for 15 months has provided
sinking confirmation of their storage stability The
NR/BR and SBR/BR stocks were purchased in
November 1987 for an extrusion trial which was
subsequently postponed Re-examination in Feb-

To store or no! to store - the deterioration of properties of

mixed rubber on storage has been shown to be ta'i of a
problem than was previously believed.

ruary 1989 showed little change in the properties of

either compound (sec Table), demonstrating incidentally that the allegedly greater storage stability of all-synthetic stocks may also be a myth.
Perhaps factory technologists will find that they
have greater flexibility in storage times than they
might expect: certainly there is a case for the reevaluation of conventional practices where this
could result in material savings.
M.E.C.

References
1. Bristow. G. M., Changes in the viscosity and cure
behaviour of natural rubber compounds during storage at 2()-40"C, NR Technology. 1987, 18, 35.
2. Bristow, G. M., Changes in the viscosity and cure
behaviour of natural rubber compounds during storage at 20-40C. Pan 2: Effects of mixing temperature
for thiazole- and sulphenamide-accelerated systems,
NR Technology, 1987. 88, 75.
3. Bristow, G. M., Changes in the viscosity and cure
behaviour of natural rubber compounds during storage at 20-40C. Part 3: Effect of vulcanizing system,
NR Technology 1989, 20, 33.
4. Pike M. and Watson. W. F., Mastication of rubber.
Pan 1. Mechanism of plasticizing b> cold mastication,

J. Pofym. Sci, 1952, 9, 229.

Effect of 15 months' storage on commercial tyre tread stocks

NR/BR

SBR/BR

Test date
Mooney viscosity, max.
ML (I + 4 ) 1000C.
Moonev scorch, 120C, min

Nov 1987

Feb 1989

Nov 1987

Feb 1989

93-101
60-61

107
61

81-90
52-62

99
55 !

26.4

26.7

27.4

29.4

22.6
5.9
17.9
22.1

21.5
5.6
18.0
21.5

24.1
6.6
13.9
15.2

26.8
6.2
14.3
15.6

Monsanto Rheometer. 150"C

MHRMI torque units
scorch, ts|. min
cure, t c . (90), min

cure. t c , (95), min

rubber developments vol 42 no 2

COPYRIGHT MALAYSIAN RUBBER BOARD

1989 35