What are flow additives?

1. Introduction: What are flow additives and what are their benefits?

Flow additives are widely used for rubber foam base and material flow; improves the surface viscosity of rubber material to facilitate the adhesion of vulcanizate in the molding process. You can use flow additives as a lubricant in your machinery:

• It increases the cleaning and lubrication efficiency of your machine;
• it reduces friction, wear and damage due to oil leakage;
• it helps prevent contamination of your machine after maintenance;
• it reduces noise and vibration;
• it increases productivity by increasing work rotations per hour.

2. What are flow additives?

Flow additives are widely used in the synthetic rubber industry. They are typically organic compounds that are added to a liquid which is subsequently poured into a mold or molding vessel. The additives can alter the flow behavior of a material and hence improve its cutting performance during the molding process.
They can also be used as surface conditioners, adding to the viscosity of a particular rubber surface, improving the adhesion of vulcanizate in molds, and so on.
The main applications of flow additives in rubber manufacturing include:

• to increase the flexibility of vulcanizates;
• to improve the adhesion between vulcanizates;
• to increase the amount of vulcanizate that is allowed to bond with an unmodified base;
• to stabilize mixed-viscosity rubber mixtures;
• to improve cutting performance in molded objects (e.g., castings).

3. What are the benefits of flow additives?

The major benefit of vulcanizates is that they have no negative effects on the performance of your molding machine (and therefore don’t need to be replaced as frequently as more brittle materials do) but there are some other benefits, too. First, most vulcanizates offer improved adhesion between carbon fiber and resin during curing:
Second, we can use vulcanizates in our manufacturing processes because they don’t require any specific processing before being added to our products:
Third, these additives are biodegradable and non-toxic so they are also an important component for sustainable manufacturing practices:
Finally, we can also incorporate these additives into our production process by mixing them with our raw materials while they’re still fresh so we don’t have any waste:
By minimizing waste, minimizing processing costs and improving product performance over traditional polyurethane systems we are able to keep up or even improve our margins and create a sustainable profit model for ourselves in addition to offering new goods at lower cost and better quality than what would have otherwise been possible without these materials.

4. How does flow additive improve cutting rate?

The question of cutting rate is one of the most important in the rubber foam molding process. This is true for the production of rubber toys, for example, but also for clothing and agricultural machinery. A rubber molding machine is an efficient tool for producing high-quality parts, but too high a cutting rate can compromise the efficiency and quality of a part. The goal with flow additives is to stabilize the temperature in the rubber foam at constant temperature during casting.
The most common flow additives are:
• Tensilene: This compound forms a network between two adjacent layers of rubber foam and greatly improves their thermal stability and chemical resistance.
• Cellulose nitrate: This compound forms cellulose nitrate networks within the rubber foam in order to strengthen them against chemical attack by water, acid and other chemical agents. These networks considerably improve the mechanical properties of rubber foams as well as their resistance to deformation in environmental conditions such as water immersion or hot air drying. Many flow additives are made from cellulose nitrate (not cellulose acetate), which means that they have different melting points and chemical resistance than typical cellulose nitrate formulations. They also have different effects on latex release during casting; some form stronger networks than others, which can lead to better or varying levels of release — depending on the type (and chemical strength) of your latex formulation!