English Abstract

Automotive Hose Katsuhiko Tsunoda Chemical and Industrial Products, Materials Development Department, Bridgestone Corporation, Yokohama-City, Kanagawa, Japan Nippon Gomu Kyokaishi,(2007),80(10),375-379 General Review in Japanese Abstract Nowadays, wide variety of rubber hoses is adopted in car with different construction, inner diameter and length, etc. As manifold fluids flow inside those hoses, wide variety of rubber material is utilized. Due to recent trend towards environmental protection, drastic change is expected in hose performance, especially of fuel and air conditioning hose. As for air conditioning hose, how to hold both flexibility and gas barrier performance is utmost concern. In this paper will be reported a recently tackled new approach for providing flexible high gas-barrier rubber materials by applying adsorption phenomena of currently used refrigerant, R-134a, to tetramethylammonium-treated mica. Also trend of future refrigerants will be discussed finally. Keywords: Air-conditioning hose, Nano-composite, Gas barrier, New refrigerant

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