Mechanical properties of swelled vulcanizates of polar diene elastomers

Rubber elements, which usually form a major part of different isolators of vibrations, are generally easily swelled by oils, greases, or fuels. This leads to meaningful changes of their mechanical characteristics and shortening of durability of rubber components in service. The influence of the semisynthetic motor oil on mechanical and, particularly, dynamic properties of swelled vulcanizates of the polar diene rubber, chloroprene (CR) and acrylonitrile‐butadiene (NBR), is estimated in this article. These elastomers, as is widely known, are resistant to the mineral oils absorption. However, our investigations showed that even a small degree of swelling of the vulcanizates causes decrease of their mechanical properties and considerable changes of the dynamic characteristics of the samples. The obtained results have shown the need to take into account the environment in which isolators of vibrations and dampers have worked, while designing the suitable composition of rubber compounds. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2006