The Wear Performance And Rolling Resistance Of Rubber Composites Based On Conveyor Belt

With the development of industry,conveyor belts have become the second largest rubber product following tires in the industrial production.The types of material transported by conveyor belts are becoming more complex,and the environment of use is getting harsher.The requirements for conveyor belts are further improved,not only to save energy and reduce energy consumption,but also to improve their service life.However,there are few reports on improving the wear resistance of conveyor belts while taking into account its rolling resistance and hydrophobic properties.Based on this,natural rubber(NR)and styrene-butadiene rubber(SBR)were selected as the matrix materials in this paper,aiming to prepare the conveyor belt compounds with high wear resistance,low rolling resistance and good hydrophobicity through adding various fillers(nano-filler,lubricating filler,filler combination)and rubber blending,and provide scientific references for the related research.The basic properties were characterized by means of moving die rheometer(MDR),Mooney viscometer(MV),universal material tester(Z005),rubber processing analyzer(RPA).Besides,the wear performance,rolling resistance,and hydrophobicity were characterized by DIN wear,multi-directional friction operating platform,Akron wear,dynamic mechanical analyzer(DMA),and water contact angle measuring instrument.Firstly,Carbon Nano Onions(CNOs)were filled into NR/SBR matrix to prepare rubber nanocomposites by changing the amount of CNOs(0,2,4,6 phr).It was found that the cured samples with 2 phr CNOs showed the best mechanical properties,as well as the lowest wear volume and the lowest rolling resistance.The addition of CNOs prolonged the scorch time of the conveyor belt compounds and improved the safety of the compounds processing.The water contact angle of vulcanizates increased with the increase of CNOs content,and the hydrophobicity was improved to a certain extent.Secondly,in the previous work,the rubber formula with the best CNOs filling amount was selected,and polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE)was introduced as the lubricating material to explore the effect of PTFE content on rubber properties.The results showed that with the increasing PTFE content,the wear volume of vulcanizates without CNOs and with CNOs decreased significantly,and the wear volume of vulcanizates without CNOs changed more obviously.In PTFE/CNOs blends,CNOs played a major role in reducing the rolling resistance of vulcanizates.As the amount of PTFE increased,the contact angle of the vulcanizates without CNOs and with CNOs increased,and PTFE and CNOs showed a good synergistic effect on the hydrophobicity of the compound.Finally,the new rubber product(syndiotactic 1,2-polybutadiene,referred to as s-PB)synthesized in our laboratory was blended with conveyor belt compounds at the amount of 0,4,8,12 phr respectively,to explore its effect on the performance of the conveyor belt.The results showed that s-PB had little effect on the mechanical properties,wear properties and hydrophobicity of vulcanizates.The vulcanizates with12 phr s-PB had lower rolling resistance and better wet skid resistance.