Fast curing rubber blend

摘要

It is highly desirable to be able to cure rubbers quickly since the amount of energy required for the curing process is reduced and the number of articles that can be cured in a mold in a given time is increased. In other words, the cycle time needed to cure articles made from such a rubber is reduced and the throughput of a mold utilized in curing such a rubber is increased. Unfortunately, most attempts to accelerate the cure rate of rubber have resulted in the rubber having poor scorch safety. The present invention discloses a fast curing rubber blend having excellent scorch safety which comprises: (a) from 50 to 98 weight percent of at least one polydiene rubber, and (b) from 2 to 50 weight percent of at least one vinylpyridine copolymer comprised of repeat units which are derived from a diene monomer and vinylpyridine wherein from 1 to 75 weight percent of the repeat units in said copolymer are derived from vinylpyridine. The rubber blends of the present invention have unexpectedly been shown to have particular utility in improving tire tread traction.