Performance evaluation of natural rubber filled cured ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM) waste reinforcement

Nowadays, a great attention in solving waste disposal material has been a major issue in the world. In this study, a green natural rubber flooring tile was successfully developed from waste cured ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM) waste as reinforcement, natural rubber (NR) as binder and was flourishingly prepared by using common internal mixer and conventional curing (CV) system. The waste content was varied from 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 phr and the good compatibility between waste and polymer matrices was depicted by the diversified testing result. The best result come from incorporation up to 60 phr cured EPDM wastes in NR where it effectively improved the hardness up to 53.5 Shore A, 5.208 MPa in tensile strength, 1.252 g/cm3 for density, 1.1745 g volume loss for abrasion resistance test, at 0.18094 g loss, and 1.777 Mpa fo tensile modulus (M300). This was credited to the reinforcement effect of cured EPDM waste rubber which possess high stiffness and modulus in addition to good dispersion of the constituent components. Whilst other tests illustrate a reasonable value where the reduction in cycle for flex cracking test from 14000 to 3500 cycle and elongation at break from 921.55% diminished to 907.5%. From the conclusive data and observation, cured EPDM waste has great potential to be used as reinforcement filler in rubber tile flooring along with commercializing the waste materials to the next level