Abstract:
Latex foam rubber is found in a wide range of applications, used as a cushioning material and its major outlets are therefore in the toys, footwear, furniture, bedding and automotive industries (Adhikari, and Maiti, 2000). Foams are made by forming gas or air bubbles in a plastic mixture, with the use of a blowing agent (Abraham et al., 2011). Foam manufacture is either a continuous process for making laminate or slab stock or a batch process for making various shapes by cutting or molding. The aim of this research was to study an effective way to devulcanize scrap generated during cutting and molding process and reuse devulcanize scrap in manufacturing of technological products.
There are several devulcanizing methods available in the rubber industries. But Dry ambient grinding method was used in the current research to devulcanize the scraps due to the simplicity, relative easiness and inexpensiveness (Debapriya et al., 2005). Finally devulcanized foam scrap was added as filler in hot water bottle formulation.
