How to choose suitable hollow glass beads for lightweight rubber products?

Are you concerned about potential fragility issues when using hollow glass microspheres in the manufacturing process of lighter rubber products (such as shoe soles, automotive components, etc...)? Here's how to select wisely!！

 

Kelly Chemical offers a variety of high-quality hollow glass microsphere products, proven to provide thermal conductivity, lightweight properties, resistance to bending, reduced coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), dielectric constant (Dk), and more.

 

(Further reading:Low Dk and lightweight adhesive development, you can try hollow glass beads!! )

 

The use of hollow glass microspheres in rubber products provides material lightweighting, thermal insulation, sound absorption, noise reduction, stability, and improved processability. This introduces new technological directions and application spaces for the rubber industry, which is increasingly expanding its usage.

 

(Further reading:The application description of hollow glass beads in rubber products can effectively achieve lightweight!! )

 

   

 

Hollow glass microspheres need to be selected based on application requirements and actual processing conditions. Three basic indicators of hollow glass microspheres include:

 

1.True Density- This refers to the actual density of the hollow glass microspheres, calculated by removing the interstitial spaces between microspheres. True density directly affects its lightweighting effect on rubber.

 

2.Particle Size-This indicates the diameter of the hollow glass microspheres, usually expressed as D50 and D90. Particle size influences the surface quality and tear tensile properties of rubber products.

 

3.Crush Strength- This denotes the limit value at which the hollow glass microspheres break under pressure. After breaking, the hollow glass microspheres turn into glass fragments, losing their low-density characteristics.

 

For example,

 

As shown in the diagram, when 8 parts of hollow glass spheres with a specific gravity of 0.35 are added to the rubber formula (Figure 1), theoretically, the specific gravity decreases by 13.7%. The rubber specific gravity decreases from 1.1 to 0.949. If there is a 30% breakage during the actual processing, the reduction in weight is only 8.98%, and the rubber specific gravity is only 1.001 (Figure 2); At this point, when the same amount of 8 parts of hollow glass spheres with a specific gravity of 0.38 are added, with only 5% breakage during actual processing, the rubber specific gravity decreases from 1.1 to 0.9724, achieving a weight reduction of 11.6% (Figure 3).

 

Figure 1.

 

density of hollow glass spheres	rate of breakage	specific gravity of shattered hollow glass microspheres	final specific gravity of hollow glass microspheres
0.35	0%	2.5	0.35
rubber content	hollow glass sphere quantity	rubber density	density after adding hollow glass microspheres
100	8	1.1	0.9493
			weight reduction effect
			13.7%

 

Figure 2.

 

density of hollow glass spheres	rate of breakage	specific gravity of shattered hollow glass microspheres	final specific gravity of hollow glass microspheres
0.35	30%	2.5	0.4717
rubber content	hollow glass sphere quantity	rubber density	density after adding hollow glass microspheres
100	8	1.1	1.0012
			weight reduction effect
			8.89%

 

Figure 3

 

density of hollow glass spheres	rate of breakage	specific gravity of shattered hollow glass microspheres	final specific gravity of hollow glass microspheres
0.35	5%	2.5	0.3968
rubber content	hollow glass sphere quantity	rubber density	density after adding hollow glass microspheres
100	8	1.1	0.9724
			weight reduction effect
			11.60%

 

Rubber processing typically involves mixing, kneading, and vulcanization. During the processing, hollow glass microspheres are subjected to strong mechanical forces. , and choosing suitable hollow glass microspheres has a significant impact on the application effect. Hollow glass microspheres with lower density, higher strength, and smaller particle size can improve the performance of rubber products. Kelly Chemical provides products with higher cost-effectiveness for the rubber industry, aiming to assist rubber manufacturers in developing products that better meet human needs.

 

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