Measuring techniques of rheological properties of rubber blends from industry

Currently, process of extrusion and injection molding goes to the foreground also in the case of rubber blends. This is the reason to know complex rheological characteristic of processed system. Measuring the rheological properties using rheometers provides valuable information about the behavior of the system. The presented work is focused on the comparison of measuring techniques, which are mainly used to know complex rheological properties. We made our research on commercial rubber blends based on NR and EPDM with sulphur vulcanisation system. As a measuring device we used oscillatory rheometer RPA 2000 and measurements were realised by strain sweep at different temperatures. As second measuring device the capillary rheometer Göttfert RG 75 was used. In this case measurements were performed using capillaries with different ratio of length to diameter and also at various temperatures. As last measuring device was used rheological extrusion die, but only for NR tested blend. By this work it is confirmed that every used rheometer to determine rheological properties of tested blends has advantages and also disadvantages. And in generally is very important to take into consider specific features of elastomeric materials.