Rubber compounds made from synthetic rubbers or natural rubber, fillers, and curing systems, along with additional additives like plasticizers, adhesion promoters, and stabilizers, make it possible to create elastomeric materials with a variety of properties. Common applications include tires, seals, technical rubber goods, and tubes.
Fraunhofer IMWS supports the efforts of the rubber industry to improve the performance and sustainability of rubber compounds by evaluating, processing, and optimizing innovative components, formulations, and processes, as well as developing relevant measurement methods and materials.
The goal is always to adapt the properties of rubber compounds towards application-relevant requirements and to ensure their efficient processability in the internal mixer as well as through molding, extrusion, or injection molding. The sustainability of rubber compounds during their use and manufacturing phases is often particularly important. A precise understanding of the interplay between the manufacturing process, microstructure, and material properties is crucial for this. Fraunhofer IMWS, in particular, has long-standing expertise in thoroughly evaluating multiscale filler dispersion using innovative image analysis methods, in problem-specific optimization of frequency- and temperature-dependent damping, and in quantifying strain-induced crystallization and permeation behavior of rubbers and rubber compounds.
With these skills, technical equipment up to pilot plant scale, and the use of digital methods, tailor-made solutions for industrial applications are developed.
Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS