Monitoring the vulcanization of rubber with ultrasound: Influence of material thickness and temperature

In consideration of the influence of the curing reaction on the material properties of elastomers, it is very important to control the vulcanization process properly.As shown previously 1], the effects of the vulcanization reaction of an elastomer can be monitored by use of ultrasonic sound waves. This technique has to a certain degree a high similarity to the standard curemeter test according to ISO 6502 but can be applied also inside a production tool.So far, the method was only applied to the vulcanization of one compound at a given temperature and sample thickness. This is now complemented with measurements on another compound system at different temperatures and sample thicknesses.The expected effects of temperature and thickness on the curing behaviour were found by use of the ultrasound online control.