With its expertise in rheology and extrusion, Brabender is a long-standing partner to the rubber and rubber industry and research. The product portfolio of the Duisburg-based company includes measuring and internal mixers of various geometries as well as laboratory-scale extruders and equipment for special measuring tasks, e.g. for density or stress relaxation testing.

In focus: Rubber characterization according to ASTM D 2230

At booth 502 in hall 9, Brabender will exhibit its MetaStation 4E torque rheometer with the matching 19/10 DW extruder attachment. This can be used to test the processability of elastomers according to ASTM D 2230. This system can be used to produce round and garvey profiles on a laboratory scale for quality control, material and formulation development, thus enabling a practical simulation of production processes. The optimum process parameters for each production plant can be set on the basis of the recorded measured variables.

Production-oriented simulation of kneading processes

The 350 SX internal mixer was also developed specifically for the rubber industry. This mixer is driven by a torque rheometer, e.g. the MetaStation 4E, and is used to analyze the melting behavior of rubber compounds as part of research and development in the tire industry. In addition to the analysis of pure rubber, the influence of additives such as carbon black or silica can also be investigated. The measurement results provide information on the processability of the material in production. The device can be equipped with either tangential or intermeshing blades, depending on the configuration of the respective production plant.