Microwave Curing of Synthetic Rubbers^*

Abstract

It is shown that the microwave absorption characteristics of compounds based on a given polymer can be controlled by incorporating suitable compounding ingredients, even if the polymer itself absorbs microwave energy only weakly. On the basis of ten different application-oriented compound formulations it is shown that the quality of microwave-cured rubber is comparable to that of conventionally vulcanized material. Correlations between dielectric measurements at microwave frequencies and curing tests show that the suitability of a given material for microwave curing can be determined from knowledge of the dielectric loss factor and its temperature variation. Finally, various advantages of the slow-wave structure apparatus used in this study are pointed out.