Dependence of Laboratory Tire Cord Adhesion on Rubber Properties
Abstract H- and strip adhesion results on nylon and glass tire cords were found to depend on various physical properties of the adhering rubber compounds. The strip adhesion test was most affected by changes in tensile strength and elongation, with higher values of adhesion being measured with high elongation-high strength compounds. Tensile strength was especially influential in the case of hot strip adhesion. H-adhcsion results were more affected by the characteristics of the rubber during curing than by the tensile properties of the cured rubbers. Compounds having higher Mooney viscosities developed higher pressures in the curing mold. Because of this tendency, the rubber was postulated to penetrate more thoroughly into the tire cord, giving better mechanical and physical bonding because of the better contact. Rubbers which were slower curing, as indicated by long optimum cure times, tended to increase H-adhesion, presumably because they allowed better interfacial bonding by their capability for increased curative or polymer diffusion before complete self-curing of the rubber. High Mooney viscosities and long optimum cure time were particularly effective in increasing H-adhesion of glass cord because of the normally low level of mechanical bonding of the rubber to glass cord (because of its low twist). Nylon cord, normally higher in mechanical bonding which results in overall higher levels of H-adhesion, was high in room temperature H-adhesion to high Mooney compounds. However, the tensile strength was controlling in the case of hot H-measurements of nylon cord because of the greater level of mechanical bonding already present. Room temperature and hot “tear ratings” representing the rubber coverages on delaminated strip adhesion samples varied with the optimum cure times of the rubber compounds rather than with tear strength. As in the H-adhesion samples, the lower-cure-rate rubbers are thought to increase the bonding between dip and rubber by increasing the diffusion of curatives or polymer segments at the rubber-to-dip interface. Hot “tear ratings” also showed an inverse correlation with tensile strengths, indicating that the hot strength of the rubber layer is low enough in some cases to make that intermediate layer the weakest point in the laminate, and strong enough in other cases to force the delamination to occur between the cord and rubber, giving low tear ratings. The delamination force measured in hot strip adhesion tests varied as the square of the tensile strength of the ply rubber, in agreement with Kaelble's theoretical expression. However, the peel force did not vary inversely with the 100 per cent rubber modulus, as predicted if that parameter is related to Young's modulus.