Crompton Rubber Chemicals

Crompton's Uniroyal Chemical offers a complete line of rubber chemicals for tires and industrial rubber goods. Products include Delac® and Naugex® vulcanization accelerators, retarders, Celogen® chemical foaming agents (blowing agents) and antidegradants. Accelerators are used to speed up the crosslinking reaction of rubber with sulfur. Retarders are used to moderate the reaction and delay the onset of crosslinking. Chemical foaming agents are mixed with rubber compounds to produce sponge rubber products that include automotive weather seals. For rubber antidegradants (antioxidants, antiozonants and protective waxes), see our Antidegradant page or Antioxidant page.

Accelerators
Accelerators are used to speed up the sulfur vulcanization of rubber. The Delac sulfenamides are used extensively in the production of car and truck tires; their delayed action allows the necessary processing time to assemble together the various tire components before curing begins. The thiazoles Naugex MBT and Naugex MBTS are the primary accelerators in many industrial goods, including hose, belts and seals. The other Crompton accelerators are used in specialty applications or as secondary accelerators to fine tune the cure rate and more efficiently use sulfur in the crosslinking reaction.

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Chemical Foaming Agents (blowing agents)
Chemical foaming agents (blowing agents) release nitrogen gas upon decomposition to assist in the production of cellular rubber products. The products in Crompton's broad line of Celogen chemical foaming agents evolve gas at various temperatures, allowing the selection of the most appropriate foaming agent to match any cure speed. Celogen AZ is offered in a variety of particle sizes to optimize cell size in applications such a automotive weatherseals, which can be cured by a variety of methods - e.g. liquid cure media (LCM), hot air, fluid bed and microwave. Crompton foaming agents are effective in natural, butyl, EDPM, Neoprene, nitrile, silicone and SBR rubbers. Flotation devices and athletic mats also benefit from the closed cell structure provided by the Celogen foaming agents. For information on chemical foaming agents for other polymers, see our page on foaming agents for plastics.

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Retarders
Retarders are used to delay the onset of sulfur crosslinking (also known as curing or vulcanization). Retarder ESEN can be useful during compound development as well as an additive to existing formulations to add a few minutes of processing safety (increase Mooney scorch time) of sulfur and sulfur donor cure systems.

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