Author
Abstract
In this paper the mechanical properties of three types of composite materials using
natural rubber vulcanized, unvulcanized and reinforced rubber have been
investigated . The composite material using natural rubber and epoxy resin is
manufactured by three methods, first method is mixing the natural rubber with
epoxy resin by special mixer without any additional materials, the second method
is to make a layer of rubber then coating it with a layer of epoxy resin and bonding
using the rolling process. The third one is use in the natural rubber as a matrix
material and using additional materials like carbon black in specific ratio and mix
with them the epoxy resin in five ratios ( 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%) .
The first and second methods failed because composite material produced was
inhomogeneous while the third method succeeded and the composite material was
homogenous. Compression and hardness tests have been done on the resulting
composite material of the third method and from the result it is found that the
composite material has good properties and these properties improved by
increasing the ratio of epoxy resin to the natural rubber. Then the mechanical
properties of three types of composite material using natural rubber vulcanized,
unvulcanized and reinforced rubber have been investigated . Each type was coated
with six percentages of epoxy resin (0% , 20% , 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100 %) . The
values of Young’s modulus, yield stress, tensile strength and yield strain which
were calculated for each case and for all percentages of epoxy resin. It is concluded
that the properties of the new composite material using natural rubber is
muchbetter than the properties of the pure natural rubber and the increasing in the
percentage of epoxy resin in vulcanized rubber leads to a decrease in Young’s
modulus and increasing percentage of epoxy resin in unvulcanized rubber and
reinforced rubber leads to an increase in Young modulus
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