Study on the flame retardation and thermal resistance for CPE rubber material added etching by-product of aluminum

Aluminum Hydroxide was employed as a thermal retardant and flame retardent for Chloropolyethylene (CPE) rubbery materials which is the construction material of automotive oil cooler hose. and then cure characteristics, physical properties, thermal resistance and flame retardation of compounded rubber were investigated, and optimum mixing conditions of rubber and flame retarding agent were deduced from the experimental results. CPE rubber material which has excellent properties of chemical corrosion resistance and cold resistance and inexpensive in price was used to prepare rubber specimen. The by-product of etching, produced from the process of surface treatment of aluminum was processed to aluminum hydroxide via crushing and purification, which is characterized by XRD, PSA, SEM and ICP-AES techniques in terms of phase, size, distribution, morphology and components of particles and then mixed to CPE rubber materials in the range of 0 ∼ 80 phr. Hardness, tensile strength, elongation and thermal properties of compounded rubber specimens were tested. The optimum mixing ratio of rubber to additive to give maximum effect on thermal resistance and flame retardation, within the range of tolerable specification for rubber materials, was determined to be 40 phr. The flame retardation of CPE rubber materials was found to be increased by 5 times at this mixing ratio