Curing characteristics exploration of rubber compound by using capacitance sensor

Abstract

This article presents a new technique to investigate the curing level of natural rubber compounds during hot press molding evaluated from capacitance sensor. The rubber’s capacitance spectrum under hot press molding was compared with the modulus of elasticity of the rubbers obtained from the moving die rheometer (MDR). It was found that the capacitance changing patterns were similar to the changing of the modulus of the rubbers. The relationship between electrical and mechanical properties changing of the rubber compounds was also discussed. This comparison indicated that measuring the rubber’s capacitance changing could be used as an in-situ real-time process control of the curing level of rubber during hot pressed processing.