Cost saving is a universal headache for all the manufacturers and, of course rubber ones are concerned, the more so as rubber goods are mass-produced and must vie with thermoplastics which are easier to process.
There are several routes such as filling with cheap or performing fillers, already examined in previous articles.
This paper is going to deal with organic extenders that can bring, in addition to cost saving, some other technical or environmental advantages. Among the main organic extenders let us quote for example:
* Factices
* Crumbs of end-of-life tyres representing roughly 20% of tyre wastes.
* Reclaimed or devulcanized rubber wastes.
The organic extenders include:
* Very low cost crumbs
* Moderate to relatively expensive factices and reclaimed rubbers.
The used levels vary from some percent up to high or even several hundreds percent.
The costs of the concerned elastomers vary from moderate for general-purpose rubbers to high for specialty elastomers.