Abstract

Wood flour composites can be optimized to obtain new materials for a part of the railroad infrastructure. Curing, mechanical and morphological characteristics of carbon blackand silica-filled natural ntbber (NR)/chlorosulphonated (CSM)/wood flour rubber blends were studied. Results indicate that the minimum torque and max:imum torque increase with increasing filler loading in the compounds, whereas scorch time shows a decreasing trend. The cure time of carbon black--filled NRICSM/wood .flour rubber blends decreases with increasing filler loading whereas silica-filled NR/CSMI woodjlour rubber blends show an opposite trend. Incorporation of filler loading has improved the tensile strength and hardness. However. elongation at break exhibit a different trend. For tensile strength and hardness optimum values were obtained at 30 phr for carbon black and 40 phr for silica, respectively. Overall results show that carbon black (N330) is more suitable to be used as a filler in natural /chlorosu!phonated rubber/ wood flour compared to silica (Vulcasil S). Possible application of wood flour rubber blend composites in the manufacture of rubber metal parts for railway vehicles can be expected.