Use of Recycled Tyre Material in NR/BR Blend Based Tyre Tread Compound: Part II (With Ground Crumb Rubber)

For both the environment and basic economic reasons, there is a continual interest in the recycling of scrap rubber and therefore in the development of recycling technologies. In the present work three different sizes of mechanically ground Indian crumb rubbers were characterised using different chemical and analytical methods and were used in a NR/BR blend based light commercial vehicle (LCV) tyre tread compound. Varying doses of crumb rubber were used as an additional ingredient. The minimum torque and Mooney viscosity values were marginally increased with increasing dose and mesh size of crumb rubber. A marginal deterioration in tensile strength, fatigue to failure and abrasion properties was observed. At all levels of usage, the 100 mesh size mechanically ground Indian crumb rubber retained the properties better than other lower mesh size crumb rubbers.