Rubber Cement in Tire manufacturing industry

1. What is rubber cement?

Tire manufacturing is complex and requires different rubber parts to be manufactured separately before to be put together for curing. The building tackiness of the rubber is essential for a good cohesion of the tire. Rubber cement is an adhesive used in the tire industry to reinforce the building tack of tread splice in order to ensure that the tire is securely bonded after vulcanization.

The adhesive’s composition may vary but would be mainly made of resins, elastomers with either a solvent or a water base. It is applied on the tread strips to act as a bonding agent in case the rubber does not have a sufficient tackiness on its own.

2. VOC and health hazards

Due to the important strain applied to the tread, adhesive for this application will mostly be solvent based cements. However, because solvent based adhesives will have a high level of VOC emissions (volatile Organic Compounds), the usage of cement glue on a regular basis is usually not recommended. Overexposure to VOC emissions can impact the well-being of the workers if not properly equipped with PPE. It can cause respiratory problems, lung damage, headaches, and eventually more serious health issues such as central nervous system damage.

3. Trends in the tire industry

For those reasons, more and more tire makers are banning the usage of rubber cement from their process, opting for safer alternatives instead :

• To readjust the rubber compound by adding certain type of resins (tackifier agents) or chemicals (cobalt…) in order to increase the rubber natural tackiness for example.
• Another way is to preserve the rubber freshness during the process by using technical liners. Special film liners or coated liners designed specifically for tire manufacturing process can help preserve the tackiness of the rubber by up to 40% compared to regular textile*. Those liners will decrease the exposure of the rubber to air, thus preventing more efficiently phenomenon such as sulfur blooming that can lead to tack loss.

Who are we?
OTEGO is specialized into the design and manufacturing of technical liners for tire industry. By using special and durable treatment on our liners, we help preserve an optimal level of tack on rubber compound.
Please feel free to visit our release liner page for more information

*tests results done by OTEGO’s customer using their own rubber compound.