E
Series Essentials
The E Series of styrene-butadiene and butadiene
rubbers, in Asaprene™ E and Tufdene™ E versions,
facilitate extremely fine, uniform silica dispersion in
various rubber types and blends, enabling a major new
advance in the production and performance of silica-compound
rubber for automotive tires that set new standards in
low heat buildup, high resilience, and low compression
set, and for a growing range of other industrial and consumer
applications.
The silica-dispersal characteristics of the E Series polymers
are inherent to their polymer design, and in particular
to the functional groups of their molecular chains which
effectively promote rubber/silica affinity. Their development
and design are the result of decades of expertise and
leadership in rubber, polymer, and materials technology
at Asahi Kasei.
Salient E Series
effects
- Low compression set
- Higher abrasion resistance
- Lower heat buildup
- Higher resilience
- Enhanced low-temperature characteristics
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Targeted fields of
E Series application
- Tires
– Automotive
– Studless
– Colored tires for bicycles, wheelchairs,
other special vehicles
– Solid tires for forklifts, other small
vehicles
- Footwear
- Vibration damping and control
- Automotive parts and components
- Rubber rollers, belts, other
industrial product
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Background of
E Series development for tire applications
Three fundamental measures of tire
performance are rolling resistance, wet-skid resistance,
and abrasion resistance, as they are major determinants
of fuel efficiency, driving safety, reliability,
and service life. Tire-tread composition and design
are critical to all three. Among tire manufacturers,
a primary focus of the longstanding and continuing
efforts for new advances in tire performance is
the development of higher-performance tire-tread
compound.
In recent years, the growing environmental awareness
and demand for resources and energy conservation
have sharply increased the requirement for fuel
efficiency, and for tires that help to meet this
requirement. This has accelerated the efforts for
development and adoption of silica particles as
a reinforcing filler in tire-tread compounds, in
place of the traditional carbon-black filler, because
of its recognized potential for a far superior balance
of fuel efficiency and wet-road control.
As a hydrophilic material, silica does not readily
disperse in the inherently hydrophobic rubber polymers,
and process technologies have therefore been developed
to coat the silica with silane coupling agents,
and thus enable effective dispersion.
With the development and introduction of the Asaprene™
E and Tufdene™ E series, and the interaction
between their functional groups and silanol groups
on the silica particle surface, it has now been
found possible to achieve an extremely fine, uniform
silica dispersion in tire-tread rubber compounds,
thus facilitating a major new advance in fuel-efficient
tire design and production. |
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