OVERVIEW

The aim of this book is to present an up to date account of procedures for testing rubber materials. It intends to be comprehensive in covering the complete range of physical properties and all of the tests in common, and sometimes not so common, use. Inevitably the bulk of methods are the standard ones, often somewhat arbitrary and primarily intended for quality assurance purposes, but in each case the requirements for testing to predict performance and for obtaining meaningful design data are considered.

Knowledge of the physical properties of materials is of critical importance for the design, production, quality control and performance of all products. Consequently, it is not surprising that a vast spectrum of test methods have been devised to measure these properties. Whilst many features of physical testing are common to all materials, the particular characteristics and uses of each group of materials, metals, ceramics, polymers etc, have provided good reason why each group has developed its own procedures. That is not to say that there are also bad reasons, such as insularity, and that there is not room for greater cooperation and, hence, unification of methods.

Rubbers can claim a particularly strong case for needing their own test methods, being complex materials exhibiting a unique combination of properties, whilst a virtually infinite number of rubber compounds, each with their own detailed characteristics, is possible. They differ very considerably from other engineering materials; being extremely highly deformable but exhibit almost complete recovery, and are virtually incompressible with...