RUBBER EXPORT PERFORMANCE IN INDIA

Sensitization of natural rubber latex by addition of a small quantity of an anionic surfactant prior to the addition of a coacervant results in quick coagulation. The natural rubber prepared by the novel coagulation method shows improved raw rubber characteristics, better cure characteristics in gum and carbon black filled compounds and improved mechanical properties as compared to the conventionally coagulated natural rubber. Compounds based on dried master batches prepared by the incorporation of fluffy carbon black in different forms of soap sensitized natural rubber lattices such as  fresh latex, preserved field latex, centrifuged latex and a blend of preserved field latex and skim latex show improved cure characteristics and vucanizate properties as compared to an equivalent conventional dry rubber-fluffy carbon black based compound. The fresh natural rubber latex based carbon black-silica master batch/ polybutadiene blend vulcanizates show superior mechanical and dynamic properties as compared to the equivalent compound vulcanizates prepared from the dry natural rubber-filler (conventional dry mix) / polybutadiene blends