EVALUATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES ON CARBON FIBER LAMINATED VULCANIZED RUBBER

Abstract

Now a days, automobile industries require tyres with advanced properties. So the properties of rubber
should be enhanced. To enhance the properties, rubber reinforced with adaptive materials which increase its capability.
Generally some chemical additives are used to reinforce the vulcanized rubber. The effectiveness of the rubber depends
on its strength and stiffness which cannot be varied beyond a certain limit by using chemical additives alone. So in this
paper, carbon fiber laminates are used as reinforcing material which is extremely stronger, lighter and has properties
like high strength to weight ratio, high stiffness, better fatigue and creep resistance. The specimen of composite material
of rubber was fabricated using rubber as matrix, carbon fiber cluster as reinforcement, epoxy resin as adhesive and
PPA-7040 as hardener in cross-ply orientation by hand lay process. Mechanical properties such as compression
strength, impact strength and wear rate were obtained from the experimental investigations. The results obtained are
better than ordinary vulcanized rubber with usual additives