English Abstract
The Unit Processes of Mixing and Effects on the Material Properties
Asahiro Ahagon 
R & D Center, The Yokohama Rubber, Co., Ltd Tokyo,Japan.
Nippon Gomu Kyokaishi,(2003),76(
6), 204-209 General Review in Japanese.

Abstract
The quality of the rubber with a formulation should be determined as a consequence of the combined effect of the unit processes of mixing. The unit processes playing major roles in mixing filled compounds would be dispersion of the filler, chain scission of the polymer, and bound rubber formation. In order to understand the relation between the mixing condition and the quality of the mixed material, the extents of these unit processes have to be measured, and the results have to be combined together to examine any relation with the quality of the material. Such an examination became possible with a recently developed method to determine directly the extent of chain scission. An example is introduced here, analyzing mixing of compounds with a highly loaded SBR formulation. It is shown that the three unit processes proceed cooperatively, and that the variations of the crosslink density and the tensile properties of the cured rubbers are the direct consequence of the variations of those unit processes.

Keywords:
Dispersion, Chain scission, Bound rubber formation, Crosslink density, Tensile properties.
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