41
Narrow Aggregate Size Distribution Carbon Blacks for Truck Tread Reinforcement-LIN BRADLEY
Bernhard Schwaiger, Florian Diehl
Orion Engineered Carbons GmbH, Harry-Kloepfer-Str. 1, 50935 Cologne, Germany,
Lin Bradley* Orion Engineered Carbons, LLC
4501 Magnolia Cove Dr. Suite 106, Kingwood, TX 77345
Lin.bradley@orioncarbons.com
*Corresponding Author
Government regulation and end user preference are leading to conflicting performance requirements within the truck and bus tire market. Regulation of OE applications has dictated a significant reduction in rolling resistance to reduce fuel consumption while the replacement market, especially in the NAFTA region, demands long tread life. To manage conflicting performance requirements the tire industry relies on a wide range of carbon black grades which differ mainly in specific surface area and degree of aggregation. Additionally, carbon black morphology can be characterized by the aggregate size distribution (ASD). Therefore, the ASD is a fingerprint of a carbon black grade and has, especially for fine particle carbon black grades, a significant, quantifiable impact on truck tread compound performance.In the replacement market of truck tires, wear improvement is still the major requirement. In this presentation the performance enhancement of newly developed carbon black grades with narrow ASD will be highlighted. Experiments and tire tests demonstrate that wear performance improvements of more than 10% can be achieved. Past attempts to correlate tire performance with predictions based on lab testing have failed due to inadequate dispersion. Further, the impact of compound mixing on carbon black macro- and micro-dispersion in truck tread compounds will be shown. Good carbon black dispersion is a prerequisite to reach a high level of wear performance and achieve the full benefit of fine particle size carbon blacks. New theoretical considerations demonstrate the specific potential of narrow ASD blacks versus ASTM grades with respect to dispersion of fine particles.