Vipo (Slovakia)

Rubber compounds based on styrene–butadiene rubber (SBR) and acrylonitrile–butadiene rubber (NBR) were filled with constant amount of carbon black – 25 phr and calcium lignosulphonate – 30 phr. Glycerol as cheap and environmentally friendly softener was added into the rubber compounds in concentration scale from 0 to 20 phr to plasticise the rubber matrix and the biopolymer and to improve the adhesion between the components of rubber compounds. The results revealed that the addition of glycerol resulted in the decrease of rubber compounds viscosity. Based on dynamical-mechanical analysis it can be concluded that glycerol softened lignosulphonate and lowered its glass transition temperature. The softened lignosulphonate was better distributed and dispersed within the rubber matrices, which was clearly demonstrated by performing scanning electron microscopy. Glycerol contributed to better adhesion and compatibility between the rubber and the biopolymer, which was subsequently reflected in improvement of tensile behaviour of composites. Both elongation at break and tensile strength showed increasing trend with increasing amount of glycerol. Due to compatibility in polarity among rubber matrix, biopolymer and plasticiser, higher tensile strength, and higher enhancement of tensile strength in dependence on glycerol content exhibited composites based on NBR. When compared to the reference, the tensile strength increased in more than 5 MPa for composites plasticised with high amount of glycerol. The improvement in tensile strength of SBR-based composites was less evident, though still pointing to a positive effect of glycerol on increasing of adhesion and compatibility on the filler-rubber interface. The main point of the work was to show that improvement of the composites’ properties can be achieved by addition of suitable plasticiser into the rubber compounds with applied biopolymer without additional cost and time-consuming treatment procedures.

This The implementation of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) in enterprises creates new opportunities to improve economic performance of business and at same time to meet customer requirements. The current level of technologies used to design, develop, and implement the RMS together with its subsequent availability in the production facilities creates new possibilities for modifying the means of production according to current market demand and requirements. The frequency and the range of potential modification are considerable, especially when complexity of means of production is taken into account. The ramification of RMS management together with the industry requirements for ready to use system that simplifies work with data structures were main motivation to our research in this field. This paper summarizes our research and achievements in this field so far and it is focused mainly to the development of the computer-aided system for managing means of variability and modularity of reconfigurable production systems.

The surface of carbon-steel plates was modified by non-equilibrium plasma of diffuse coplanar surface barrier discharge (DCSBD) in order to improve the adhesive properties to the NR (natural rubber) green rubber compound. The effect of different treatment times as well as different input power and frequency of supplied high voltage was investigated. The samples were characterized using contact angle and surface free energy measurement, measurement of adhesive properties, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Surface chemical composition was studied by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Significant increase in wettability was observed even after 2 s of plasma exposure. The surface modification was confirmed also by peel test, where the best results were obtained for 6 s of plasma treatment. In addition the ageing effect was studied to investigate the durability of modification, which is crucial for the industrial applications.