Increasing Sustainability in the Tire Manufacturing Industry: Using Jute Fibers as a Filler Material in Tire Tread.

Increasing Sustainability In The Tire Manufacturing Industry:

Using Jute Fibers As A Filler Material In Tire Tread.

ABSTRACT

The tire manufacturing industry continually innovates to find the right combination of design, materials, and advanced engineering required to meet market demands, and with that comes a constantly growing focus on sustainability. Currently the tire industry relies heavily on carbon black, which is produced from the incomplete combustion of heavy petroleum products.  As demands continue to rise, there are concerns of the depletion of these natural resources as  well as their environmental impact due to contamination caused by the deposition of carbon black particles onto land and water bodies. There is therefore a need to research and develop alternatives to carbon black in tire manufacturing. Recent research efforts have explored the incorporation of jute fibers in natural rubber. Outcomes of such efforts showed significant improvements in material properties such as elastic modulus, hardness, and storage modulus of the natural rubber. This presents huge potential for the incorporation of these fibers in tire tread manufacturing as a suitable substitute to carbon black.

The aim of this study is to investigate the optimum relative compositions of carbon black and jute fiber necessary for more favorable material properties in terms of material bonding, tensile strength of the composite, and tear strength. This was done by fabricating a composite with varying amounts of carbon black and jute fibers as filler materials. Raw jute fibers were treated using 6% wt. of NaOH made from the addition of 98 % purity NaOH pellets to distilled water. The fibers were soaked in a 1:50 part ratio of raw jute fibers to the NaOH solution. After treatment, the fibers were rinsed to a neutral pH, dried, and ground; the treated fibers were then used in fabricating the composite sample. The synthetic rubber materials, the fibers, processing oils and vulcanizing agents were combined in a banbury mixer, compression molded, cured, and then cut to the specifications of ASTM 412 to test for the tensile strength of the samples. Early observations from the data obtained shows that with increasing percentages of jute fibers, the failure strength of the material decreased. This is indicative of the sensitivity of the mechanical property to the composition of jute fiber in the material.  Research is still ongoing to better understand and quantify the early stage observations.

NSF FUNDED RESEARCH

Research Advisor: Dr. Karen Crosby

Program Director: Dr. Patrick Mensah