At present, the production technology level of the carbon black industry in the world is constantly improving and improving, but the overall development direction is still closely following the development pace of the rubber seal industry. First of all, from the scale, carbon black production companies are striving to achieve a certain scale of production, the United States is generally between (7 ~ 19) tons / year. The annual production scale capacity of China’s carbon black production enterprises has basically reached the “10,000 tons” level. From the aspect of process equipment, the United States has taken the “new process carbon black” production line based on the oil furnace method as the main force.
In recent years, from the perspective of production and technology, the direction of production process improvement includes the following aspects:
(1) Improve the structure of the reactor and increase the furnace temperature to improve quality
Oxygen-enriched air is used to add a structure regulator and an activator to the feedstock oil to increase the yield. The air preheater is used to make full use of the exhaust heat of the exhaust gas to achieve the purpose of energy saving and consumption reduction. The high-efficiency bag filter is used to reduce the dust content in the exhaust gas to a level that meets environmental requirements.
(2) Using plasma production technology
Developed by France and Norway, the use of high temperatures generated by plasma arcs accelerates the cracking of oil or other carbonaceous materials. The method has many advantages, including no combustion process, high yield of raw material carbon, and the like. The hydrogen produced can be recovered as a by-product. No toxic or harmful gases are emitted during the production process. Due to the high temperature generated by the plasma, it is advantageous for the variety of carbon black varieties.
(3) Carbon black modification treatment
The carbon black is modified by physical or chemical methods. On this basis, a new carbon black variety was developed. For example, when the carbon black irradiated by X-rays is added to the rubber, the quality of the rubber seal produced is obviously improved.
(4) Surface oxidation of carbon black
The number of oxygen-containing groups on the surface of carbon black is greatly increased, so that the surface activity and polarity are superimposed. The oxygen-containing groups can significantly improve the fluidity and pulverization of carbon black, and have the function of suppressing scorch. In addition, a similar effect can be obtained by chlorination of the carbon black surface.
(5) Surface modification of carbon black
Studies have shown that the addition of a coupling agent such as maleic anhydride to the carbon black-containing compound can improve the interaction between the carbon black and the rubber, and has an obvious modification effect. The surface grafted carbon black is used for the tread rubber, and the 300% tensile stress and tensile strength are obviously improved, and the rolling resistance is decreased. The surface graft modification method differs from the above several methods in that the modification is not carried out in the carbon black manufacturing process, but in the rubber processing.