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RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES:-
Sponsored
Projects
i) Development of
Rubber Booting (sponsored by M/s. BARC,
Mumbai) :-
The rubber booting was needed by BARC to
protect robotics from radiation environment.
The required properties of the product and
the big size with complicated contour of
the product was the main hurdle for BARC
to get it made in India for many years.
As per the end use the booting is supposed
to be good resistant to radiation, chemicals
and weather having very good strength and
abrasion & tear resistance. Moreover
the surface of the product was very thin
for its good flexibility and very long under
stretching and very small under contraction.
After careful analysis of the product IRMRA
developed the prototype sample and analysed
it for its suitability in radiation atmosphere,
its physical strength and chemical resistance.
This first stage of development had given
IRMRA moral boost to proceed for making
the item. Good support was received from
BARC also. IRMRA could overcome problems
one after another during fabrication stage
of the huge product. Ultimately IRMRA could
make the product defect free and had given
for trial at the end use.
ii)
Development of TPE (Thermoplastic Elastomer)
(sponsored by M/s. BARC) :-
TPE is the latest trend of Elastomer in
use for various applications. Major advantage
of these types of Elastomers in present
day is the capability of reprocessing or
recycling even after making the product.
Therefore problem for garbage and thereby
pollution after end use can be restricted.
This type of elastomers behave like vulcanised
rubbers but process like thermoplastics.
Market survey indicates that the growth
potential of TPE throughout the world is
@ 10% as compared to Rubber @ 2% and Plastics
@ 3%.
There are various type of TPE available
in the market but most of them are imported.
IRMRA has taken up such type of activities
for development of different type of TPE.
The process of development of TPE at IRMRA
is quite different from the existing one.
The TPE based on EPDM/PP or PE are generally
made by dynamic vulcanisation and with the
use compatibiliser. But the process taken
up by IRMRA for development of TPE based
on EPDM-PP, EPDM-PE and NBR-Nylon is utilisation
of radiation at BARC. The detail analysis
of the processing condition for every blend
system is being carried out and results
obtatined so far are very encouraging.
iii)
Development of Mounts (sponsored by Defence)
:-
Mount, a composite ?of metal and rubber,
is a very important component of vehicle,
could be of ship or automobile, because
of its application in controlling shock
or vibration of that vehicle. The important
properties of these mounts are a) Load deflection
behaviour, b) Natural frequency c) Dynamic
stiffness; other physical and chemical properties
both before and after ageing also plays
important role.
IRMRA with its end-product test facilities
and other state of the art equipments has
developed few different types of mounts
which are also tested at Ship Building Research
Institute, Russia and appreciated for the
quality developed. Major component of development
was (a) selection ?of rubber and compound
development, (b) Selection ?of metal and
treatment of the same, (c) Processing of
the compound, (d) Molding of the product
by Injection, (e) Quality checking of finished
product for static and dynamic properties
(f) consistancy in quality.
II. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT:-
i) Development of
Wiper Blade for Car:-
Wiper blade and
cashing of USA origin was supplied by a
manufacturer to develop the same. Main focus
of development is to make the compound having
low temperature resistant and good life
equivalent to imported one. Reverse Engineering
was performed on the original sample and
based on the observation development of
compound was made. The required properties
was checked for the compound developed and
further modification was made to match the
quality.
ii) Development
of Radiator Hose :-
Compound development
based on NBR/PVC was carried out for making
the radiator hose in Rubber injection molding
machine. The criticality of the compound
development was for achieving the Ozone
resistance properties with good hot tear
resistance and ageing properties to match
with the international specification.
iii) Development
of Cellular Rubber Seal :-
Enquiry received
from industry regarding development of container
seals, which contains highly corrosive chemicals.
Before development the information received
from industry was that seal should be soft,
leak proof and having long life, the party
further informed about the failure of existing
seal.
After proper analysis of the reason of failure
IRMRA developed the seal made of EPDM rubber.
Compound design was made in such a way that
the chemical used in the compound was not
affected by the corrosive chemical and further
improved compression set behaviour helped
to maintain the sealing effect.
iv) Development
of Rubber Pig :-
Party approached
IRMRA to develop the above rubber component
for use in municipality dust collection.
Main requirement was that the component
should be resistant to chemicals, weather,
should have reasonable abrasion resistant
and have good life. Development was made
looking at its end use and was delivered
to the party for end use trial.
v) Development of
Diaphragm (High temperature resistant) :-
Enquiry received
from reputed manufacturers of Rubber Diaphragm
to develop food grade diaphragm made of
EPDM having high temperature resistance.
Specification was supplied by the party
but main requirement was to get the diaphragm
passed through endurance test consisting
of cyclic operation.
Compound was developed to match the specification
and then the diaphragm was also made in-house
with the mould supplied by the party. Few
pieces were given to party for final trial.
Party was happy with the diaphragm given
for trial and asked for few kilograms of
compound for trial at their end. That was
given to the party.
vi) Development of Defence
Products :-
a) Development of
Bogy Wheel Tyre :-
Defence Sector brought
to the notice of IRMRA regarding major problems
they are observing with the behaviour of
Tyre made in India; premature failure within
very short time was taking place. The experts
of IRMRA visited actual site to see the
actual application and observed details
about failure. Looking at the application
it was decided that more focus should be
given on dynamic properties of the tyre
and its resistance to chuncking out.
IRMRA conducted reverse engineering on imported
tyre (though old and used one) and developed
suitable compound to match the specification
provided and also to match the dynamic properties
of imported one eliminating the factor of
ageing. Further IRMRA felt suitable change
in processing is also needed and accordingly
the design of die and preheating arrangement
was made. Product was made and found satisfactory
as compared to the specification.
b) Development of
Rubber Packing, gasket, seals :-
Various types of
packing, gasket and seals made of NBR, CR,
NBR/CR, Silicon, Viton was developed for
defence purpose. Few of them were critical
from the point of view of resistance to
very low temperature (eg. -45°C), resistance
to weather (ozone). Some of them were cellular
type also.
c) Development of
Separator Bag:-
This is very important
rubber item which controls fuel flow to
the ship engine. Major criteria of this
item was to design the perfect process of
fabrication apart from suitable compound
design. Failure of earlier samples was from
joint region. The shape of the samples did
not permit to mould it in one step, however
the minimisation of molding steps and thereby
reduction in number of joints was the main
task on the front of the die design. The
compound was developed and the sample has
been made to our satisfaction and matched
all the required properties. Further modification
may be needed after observation of end use
trial.
d) Development of
various rubber components for BARC, Mumbai
:-
Many rubber components
like Dust Cup, Sealing Ring (for Reactor),
Rubber stand were developed by IRMRA and
the performance of these samples at end
use were found satisfactory. The criticality
in designing most of the compounds was to
get the component resistant to high temperature,
radiation atmosphere and to have good compression
set behaviour.
III. REVERSE ENGINEERING:-
This is a part of
activities IRMRA conduct for development
of existing critical items. It is indeed
a very difficult task to achieve cent percent
identification and quantification of unknown
material particularly when it is vulcanised
rubber. Knowledge of Technology and experience
in particular field of application is very
important to achieve the goal. The whole
objective of Reverse Engineering is to produce
exactly similar items on analysing the past
history of sample both in respect to compounding
ingredients, various processes involved
and properties required for end use. IRMRA
with the help of its state of art equipment
and qualified and experienced manpower had
successfully performed the above task and
reached the required goal for many products.
IV. LIFE PREDICTION:-
It has been observed
that present trend of quality assessment
of rubber component is to know its life
both at storage and in service. From past
reference it has been observed that it is
easy to predict life of plastics the degradation
of which follow a definite trend with time
and temperature, but in case of rubber because
of its complicated behaviour it becomes
difficult to predict life by conventional
method. Life prediction for rubber products
is an important field ?of research and is
challenging considering ideal condition.
IRMRA has conducted series of experiments
on storage life and service life estimation
of rubber mounts used in Navy and is in
a position to offer guideline to this issue.
With the financial
support from Ministry of Commerce &
Industry, guidance from Chairman & other
Governing Council Members and commitment
of employees, IRMRA is forging ahead to
achieve new heights of excellence in its
operations.
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