UWM presents rubber courses.

Educational courses on rubber compounding and mixing, extrusion, and dynamic properties of rubber and product performance are being offered by the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee.

"Rubber compounding and mixing for performance," will be held November 7-9 at the UWM School of Continuing Education in Milwaukee, WI.

The course instructors are John S. Dick and Peter C. Surette, and the course fee is $1,290. This fee includes two textbooks. Participants completing the course will be awarded 2.0 continuing education units (CEUs).

This three-day course will provide an intensive overview of rubber compounding and mixing, as well as a review of methodologies for solving factory problems. Two separate text books by John Dick, including "Rubber Technology: Compounding and Testing for Performance," and "How to Improve Rubber Compounds," will be used during this class.

Both entry level, as well as experienced rubber technologists, rubber chemists, process engineers, laboratory managers, supervisors, technicians, shop foremen, quality assurance managers and engineers, technical sales personnel, and rubber producers and users should benefit from taking this course.

Unit 1 will provide an introduction, including history, basics of formulating, key processability characteristics, and common factory problems and possible causes.

Unit 2 on rubber testing will present the five categories of processability tests, and will examine miniature internal mixers and extruders, rotatonal viscometers, Mooney viscosity, capillary rheometers, oscillating rheometers, oscillating disc rheometers, rotorless curemeters, assignable causes of variation, rubber process analyzers, ASTM standard test conditions, rheological profiles of raw rubber, rheology and state of mix, and stress relaxation tests.

Unit 3 on general purpose elastomers will discuss different polymer backbones, molecular weight distribution differences, crystallinity and morphology, crystallinity on stretching, natural rubber, SBR, polybutadiene, EPDM, and EPDM and sponge formulations.

Unit 4 on specialty elastomers will cover nitrile rubber, HNBR, NBR/PVC, butyl rubber and halobutyl rubber, polychloroprene, epichlorohydrin, fluoroelastomers, silicone rubber and curing silicone rubber with peroxide, advantages of platinum cures and polyurethane rubber.

Unit 5 on mixing will examine tangential vs. intermeshing mixing, rotor design, including two-, four- and sixwing rotors and rotor speed, friction ratios, dispersive mixing vs. distributive mixing, importance of order of addition of ingredients, examples of different orders of addition, one pass vs. two pass vs. three pass mixing, dump mill, cooling batches and phase mixing, and carbon black distribution in a rubber blend.

Unit 6 on filler and oil systems will describe plasticizer performance, carbon black, including oil balance and effects on rubber properties, and silica, clay, calcium carbonate and titanium dioxide.

Unit 7 on rubber chemicals will review rubber cure systems, activators, including zinc oxide and stearic acid, sulfur vulcanization, blowing agents and activator selection.

Unit 8 on compounding for dynamic performance properties will present an overview of product performance, rubber compound economics, the importance of elastomer selection to meet performance needs, the selection of an optimal filler/oil system, selection of an optimal cure package, and laboratory DOEs and field trials.

Unit 9 will present an introduction to factory problems.

Unit 10 will highlight statistics and methodologies for solving factory problems, including basic statistical methods to identify special causes of variation, corrective actions in the short term, developing a strategy for establishing long term solutions to chronic problems, and Six Sigma techniques for solving chronic rubber factory problems.

Unit 11 on the nature and technologies for solving problems in rubber compounding and processing will discuss changing the one-variable-at-a-time technique for improvement of a rubber compound, applying a design of experiment, and interactions.

Unit 12 will conclude the course and will include case studies of rubber compounding and processing problems. Different case studies will include processing and compound problems that will be discussed and reviewed by interactive groups. Then, overall discussions will take place to present possible solutions and methodologies.

"Dynamic properties of rubber and product performance," will be held November 14-16 at the UWM School of Continuing Education in Milwaukee, WI. Course instructors will include R.J. Del Vecchio, John S. Dick, James R. Halladay and Karl A. Winkler.

The fee for this course is $1,290. Participants completing the course will be awarded 2.0 CEUs.

Attendees will gain a basic background in the viscoelastic nature of both cured and uncured rubber. Participants will learn how and why viscoelasticity is a relaxation phenomenon affected by time and temperature. All the dynamic properties will be defined and their interrelationships will be discussed. The authors will also discuss the effects of different elastomers, plasticizers, fillers and vulcanization systems on the final compound dynamic properties.

This course is presented using a format which requires a minimal technical background for grasping the basic concepts. Emphasis is placed on reviewing the interaction between the rubber formulation and the design, processing and test engineering functions. Individuals involved in any of these areas are said to benefit from an improved understanding of the interrelationships between the disciplines. The course is designed to enhance cross-functional communication and to facilitate problem solving.

In the area of rheology and dynamic properties of rubber, the instructors will discuss elastic quality, viscous quality, viscoelastic quality, sinusoidal deformation and responses, test configuration and measure units, shear modulus, dynamic viscosity, compliance, extension/compression modulus, spring rate and damping coefficient, and hysteresis.

During a presentation on rubber compounding for dynamic properties, the instructors will focus on elastomers, plasticizers, vulcanization, antidegradants, carbon black reinforcement, other fillers, compound mixing and typical rubber compounds.

In the area of testing and evaluating dynamic properties of rubber, the course instructors will discuss free vibration, forced vibration and mechanical fatigue testing of rubber.

The course will conclude with a presentation on product performance that will include discussions on shock and vibration control, and elastomers in dynamic applications.

"Rubber extrusion technology" will be held February 13-15 at the UWM School of Continuing Education in Milwaukee, WI. Course instructors will be John S. Dick and James E Stevenson. The course fee is $1,290. Participants completing the course will receive 2.0 CEUs.

Now being presented for the twenty-second time, this course is said to provide useful, basic information on all aspects of the rubber extrusion process. It encompasses products ranging from intricate profile extrusions to multicomponent tire extrusions. Product compositions range from thermoplastic elastomers to natural rubber to multiple dense and cellular compounds coextruded with carriers and reinforcements.

The immense variety of products, equipment and processing conditions within the rubber extrusion industry are given a common basis by grouping topics into the following categories: Compound ingredients, characterization and processing; equipment for pumping, shaping (including die design) and curing; instruments for characterizing extrusions on and offline; operating characteristics for equipment; procedures to insure high production rates and quality; and process variation and control.

The course includes a troubleshooting guide covering problems, causes and corrective actions. This program is said to benefit teams involved in Six Sigma programs by providing cause and effects relations essential for DOEs, FMEAs, QFDs and other quality procedures.

This course is said to benefit materials and process engineers, die designers, quality control personnel, supervisors and managers responsible for these functions.

Further information on all three of these courses is available from Murali Vedula, program director, Engineering, at UWM [phone]; or at www. sce-eng.uwm.edu.