US chemical firm Cabot Corporation says it has expanded its Engineered Elastomer Composites (E2C) product line with the launch of two new products, FX9570 and EX9620 solutions. These solutions provide rubber manufacturers with additional options to design products for high durability in demanding operating environments. Furthermore, they deliver improvements in durability and heat minimisation that have benefits in off-the-road tyres like aircraft and port tyres, truck tyres used on rough surfaces, as well as in other industrial rubber products exposed to severe wear conditions or high operating temperatures.
The E2C solutions family includes three performance series – Durability, Efficiency and Foundation. The E2C EX9620 product is the first solution released in the Efficiency series and is designed to enable cool-running rubber compounds with strong resistance to abrasion and cutting. EX9620 is optimally deployed in applications where rubber products are subject to excessive heat loads caused by high operating speeds, heavy loads, long duty cycles and/or high temperatures.
The E2C FX9570 product is part of the Foundation series and enables high rubber durability in rough environments where cutting and chipping is prevalent, and duty cycles demand higher heat resistance. FX9570 lowers heat build-up by up to 20% versus conventional compounds.
“The rubber product design process has traditionally been heavily constrained by both the performance limitations of conventional rubber compounds and operational limits on the number of unique reinforcing agents that manufacturing plants can handle and process,” said David Reynolds, vice president and general manager, Cabot Engineered Elastomer Composites. “This expansion of our E2C portfolio helps to address both constraints in the design process, enabling designers to create products targeting the specific needs of unique applications. Our new E2C solutions expand the compound design space with improved resistance to heat build-up and wear in aggressive environments. With a broad portfolio of E2C solutions now available, customers have the flexibility to differentiate their products and deliver economic and sustainability benefits across a range of applications.”
Cabot says its E2C solutions enable rubber product manufacturers to simplify commercialisation of differentiated products through the availability of high performance, pre-mixed composites delivered in an easy-to-handle product form. Enabled by proprietary process technology that mixes reinforcing agents into elastomers, E2C solutions can be integrated into the current production methods of rubber compounders without additional investment, enabling faster product development and more flexible innovation.
By improving product performance, E2C solutions also deliver economic and sustainability benefits for rubber products manufacturers and their customers as products made with E2C solutions have been demonstrated to last 15-30% longer than products made with conventional compounds and enable a more fuel-efficient operation by reducing energy loss in rubber components, it adds.