Application of Factorial Design in Determination of Physico-Mechanical Properties of NR/SBR Alloy — Influence of Sulfur Curing System

In this research physico-mechanical properties including tensile strength, elongation at break, hardness, resilience, abrasion resistance, and compression set of unsaturated natural rubber and styrene butadiene rubber (NR/SBR) alloy cured by sulfur curing system were investigated. Factorial design method was employed in order to formulate the sulfur curing system. Three different curing agents were used and their effects on physico-mechanical properties of the alloy were investigated. The results show that with increasing each curing agent, curing time and scorch time reduce and maximum torque increases. Tensile strength, % elongation at break, tear strength, and compression set decrease while hardness, resilience, and abrasion increase. The results show that application of factorial design significantly reduces research and development costs by decreasing the number of experimental configurations to be studied and the results are accurate. Results from factorial design procedure very well match the experimental results with accuracy in order of 2% variations.