Reclaimed Rubber

30 April 2015
Introduction
During world war 1, the
shortage of natural rubber
encountered and made the
industry aware of the
potential of being dependent
on the raw material sources.
The starting of the few events
that combined to virtually
destroy the rubber reclaiming
industry and along with the
rapid growth of industries
producing automobiles,
prompted research in finding
another natural and synthetic
rubbers and improved
reclaiming process.
In a simple words, Reclaimed
Rubber is a new life for an
old product. Reclaimed
rubber is rubber that has
been cured and has passed
through a Thermo-Chemical
process.
In 1844, Goodyears famous
invention was the kick start of
the rubber industry and also
rubber reclaiming industries.
Reclaimed Rubber

butyl scrap. The reclaimed

product of butyl retains its
original properties and can
produce new innertubes,
innerliners for tires and tape
when it is blended with virgin
rubber. The reclaim must
follow the stringent quality
specification to be accepted
as these applications are
very high tech products.

Types of reclaim

Tire
reclai
m
Silico
ne
reclai
m

Types
of
reclai
m

Natur
al
Rubbe
r

Butyl
reclai
m
Tire reclaim is the largest
volume reclaim produced as
there are abundance of
primary source of raw scrap
rubber available for
reclaiming such as scrap
tires, tire parts and tire
buffing.
Natural Rubber scrap have
been available for reclaiming
since years before. Natural
rubber scraps will produced
reclaimed rubber that is very
tacky and usually used in
adhesives, tapes and other
rubber compounds which
require high tackiness and
good green strength. The
transfer pads used in molding
process are an excellent
quality scrap.
Butyl pad scraps from
transfer molding operation is
the good quality source of

Silicone reclaim is very highly

cost polymer and it is
produced in a very significant
quantity that who generate it
will have their scrap custom
reclaimed to be reuse in their
compound.
Reclaiming process
The reclaiming industry have
been successfully adapting
and develop processes to
reclaim the various types of
scrap rubber available
nowadays.
There are various reclaiming
processes that have been
developed years before. The
process depends on scrap
characteristics and
economics.
Currently, the process used is
differ from those used earlier
only in the devulcanization
stage. The current process
for reclaiming are pan
process, digestor process
and mechanical or
reclaimator process.
1.Pan Process

Various reclaiming oil

is mixed with the

Reclaimed Rubber
30 April 2015

ground rubber before

being added to bins.
The bins are steam
pressured for a
period of time by
inserted the bin into
an autoclave.
Limited to specialty
types such as light
coloured natural
rubber reclaim.
Pan process is no
longer the best
choice of processing
since the advent of
the wet digestor.

2.Digestor

Steam vessel
equipped with a
paddle agitator is
used continually
strirring the crumb
rubber while steam is
applied.
Wet process use
caustic and water
mixed with the rubber
crumb.
Dry process use
steam only.
In the vessel,
reclaiming oils may
or may not be added
Less pollution and
less contaminate.

product depending
on the specification
of finished products.
Various reclaiming oil
is subjected to high
temperatures with
intense mechanical
working in a modified
extruder.

Advantage

Suitable materials
is collect and
select

Reduces size of
the rubber and
removed
contaminants

Reclaimed rubbers are lowercost polymer as it consume

little amount of power during
breakdown and mixing. The
mixing time is short and low
in mixing , calendaring and
extrusion temperatures.

Chemical required,
oil needed for the
reclaiming process
and rubbers are
mixed.

Besides, reclaimed rubbers

have improved in building
tack, green strength and
filming of uncured stocks.

Digestion to allow
the reaction to
occur by using
steam pressure to
give 160 C

Apart from that, it offer fast

uniform calendaring and
extrusion because reclaimed
rubber reduced swelling and
shrinkage during extrusion.
Lastly, reclaimed rubbers are
low thermoplasticity and low
heat buid up with high curing
rate due to the cross linked
structure of reclaimed rubber.
Production

Masticate the
mixture either in
the extruder or on
a 2 oll mill.

The masticated
mixture is filter to
remove any
undigested
materials.

3.Mechanical process

It is used for the

continuous
reclaiming of whole
tire scrap.
Fillers may be added
to the devulcanized

The filtered
material is
extruded into
blocks, coated in
anti-tack agent
and weight off.